Gatsby - Key Incident Flashcards
Quotes establishing Gatsby’s dream prior to the key incident
“’Can’t repeat the past?’ he cried incredulously. ‘Why of course you can!’”
“He wanted nothing less of Daisy than she should go to Tom and say, ‘I never loved you.’ After she had obliterated four years with that sentence they could decide on more practical measures to be taken.”
Analysis of “’Can’t repeat the past?’ he cried incredulously. ‘Why of course you can!’”
Gatsby reveals his undying belief in his dream. ‘Incredulously’ suggests he cannot believe that Nick would tell him he cannot recapture the past. His dream of recapturing the life he believes he should have had with Daisy and erasing all the wrong that have happened since is all-consuming.
Analysis of “He wanted nothing less of Daisy than she should go to Tom and say, ‘I never loved you.’ After she had obliterated four years with that sentence they could decide on more practical measures to be taken.”
Gatsby reveals the extent of his dream. It is not enough for Daisy to love Gatsby now. What he desires is for her to undo the damage of previous year. ‘Obliterated’ exaggerates his wishes – Gatsby wants all trace of her marriage to Tom completely destroyed and he believes Daisy has the power to do that.
Quote showing Fitzgerald’s use of pathetic fallacy in the key incident
“The room was large and stifling, and though it was already found o’clock, opening the windows admitted only a gust of hot shrubbery from the park.”
Analysis of “The room was large and stifling, and though it was already found o’clock, opening the windows admitted only a gust of hot shrubbery from the park.”
Fitzgerald deliberately sets the key incident on the hottest day of the year. The conflicts in the novel – both internal and external – are reaching their climax; Tom and Gatsby are on the brink of confronting each other and Gatsby is about to realise that his dreams cannot become a reality. The heat is therefore an example of pathetic fallacy, where nature reflects the emotion of a scene. The characters’ emotions are reaching a boiling point and the heat intensifies this.
Quotations showing that, at the height of conflict, Gatsby still has an undying belief in his dream.
“ Just tell him the truth – that you never loved him and it’s all wiped out forever.”
“’She never loved you, do you hear?’ he cried. ‘She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me. It was a terrible mistake, but in her heart she never loved anyone except me!’”
Analysis of quotations showing Gatsby’s undying believe in his dream at the height of conflict:
“ Just tell him the truth – that you never loved him and it’s all wiped out forever.”
“’She never loved you, do you hear?’ he cried. ‘She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me. It was a terrible mistake, but in her heart she never loved anyone except me!’”
As conflict builds to a climax between Tom and Gatsby, Gatsby in unmoving in his belief that this is the moment when his dream will become a reality. He is certain that his words are true and that Daisy will confirm them. However, there are clues in what he says that show his total misunderstanding of Daisy’s fickleness. Her judgement of his wealth and the fact ‘she was tired of waiting for me’ indicate that Daisy might not have been so all-consumingly in love with Gatsby as he was with her.
Quotation showing Tom exposing the truth about Gatsby
“He and this Wolfsheim bought up a lot of side-street drug stores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter.”
Analysis of “He and this Wolfsheim bought up a lot of side-street drug stores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter.”
Tom reveals the extent of the bad decisions Gatsby has made in the pursuit of his dreams. His criminal connections are hinted at throughout the novel - Wolfsheim’s stories about fixing 1919 World Series, the rumours of bootlegging, phone calls from Chicago – however it is at this point during the key incident that the truth about Gatsby’s character is uncovered. In his pursuit of Daisy he has involved himself in serious criminal activity in order to quickly become exceedingly wealthy. The mystery of Gatsby fades away revealing the ugly truth – and making it that much more impossible for Gatsby to ever become part of Daisy’s ‘old money’ world.
Quotations showing the death of Gatsby’s dream
“She hesitated. Her eyes fell on Jordan and me, as though she realised at last what she was doing and as though she had never , all along, intended on doing anything at all.”
“Please Tom! I can’t stand this anymore!”
“I love you now, isn’t that enough?…I loved him once – but I love you too!”
Analysis of quotations showing the death of Gatsby’s dream:
“She hesitated. Her eyes fell on Jordan and me, as though she realised at last what she was doing and as though she had never , all along, intended on doing anything at all.”
“Please Tom! I can’t stand this anymore!”
“I love you now, isn’t that enough?…I loved him once – but I love you too!”
Daisy is unable to give Gatsby what he wants. Although she claims to be in love with him now, she cannot erase the past for him and she cannot deny the bond she has with Tom. Her hesitation and Nick’s comments about they way she looked at him and Jordan suggests that Daisy too realises that the dream can never become a reality – and that she doesn’t want the dream to become a reality. When it comes down to it she does not want to give up her position in old money society, and Gatsby can never be a part of that world. Her appeal to Tom shows a subtle shift in her allegiance. She wants out.
Quotation showing the consequences of the key incident
“It was after we started with Gatsby toward the house that the gardener saw Wilson’s body a little way off in the grass, and the holocaust was complete.”
Analysis of “It was after we started with Gatsby toward the house that the gardener saw Wilson’s body a little way off in the grass, and the holocaust was complete.”
The key incident indirectly causes the death of several characters – notably, none of the ‘Buchanan set’. Daisy drives erratically after the upset in the plaza and kills Myrtle in a hit and run. Gatsby covers for her and says he was driving, and so Tom points her husband in Gatsby’s direction. Wilson then shoots Gatsby dead and commits suicide. The word choice of ‘holocaust’ emphasises this destruction. The root of this word from Old French means whole burnt – everything destroyed, destruction on a mass scale. The key incident and, in particular, Gatsby’s relentless pursuit of his dream leads to his own downfall and death but also the death of other characters who aspire to achieve the American Dream but can never become part of the ‘old money’ society depicted in the novel.
