Great Gatsby: Love vs Time Flashcards
Overwound clock
He [Gatsby] was consumed with wonder at her presence. He had been full of the idea so long, dreamed it right through to the end, waited with his teeth set, so to speak, at an inconceivable pitch of intensity. Now, in the reaction, he was running down like an overwound clock
C5, P59
Can’t repeat the past
“Can’t repeat the past?” he cried incredulously. “Why of course you can!” He looked around him wildly, as if the past were lurking here in the shadow of his house, just out of reach of his hand. “I’m going to fix everything just the way it was before” he said, nodding determinedly. “She’ll see.”
C6, P70
Formidable stroke of 30
As we passed over the dark bridge her wan face fell lazily against my coat’s shoulder and the formidable stroke of thirty died away with the reassuring pressure of her hand
C7, P87
Ending
Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter - tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther …And one fine morning -
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past
C9, P115
Wisp of air
He [Gatsby] stretched out his hand desperately as if to snatch only a wisp of air, to save a fragment of the spot that she had made lovely for him. But it was all going too fast now for his blurred eyes and he knew that he had lost part of it, the freshest and the best, forever
C8, P97