The Great Gatsby - Chapter 3 - AO2

Opening
1. Reader introduced to lavish, extravagant world of Gatsby – conveyed by description of his party Chapter Three helps to illustrate main themes of lavish excess of the 1920s, the corruption of the American Dream, the isolation of Gatsby and the shallowness of the American Upper Classes.
Structure
1. Delayed introduction of Gatsby
  1. Chapter Three is devoted to an introduction of Gatsby and the lavish showy world he inhabits Yet, Gatsby’s introduction is further delayed “Sometimes they came and went without having met Gatsby at all”
2. Repetition of Conjecture about Gatsby
  1. "Somebody told me…” “Somebody told me they thought he killed a man once” “It’s more that he was a German spy during the war” The repetition of the conjecture about Gatsby further adds to his mystery
Style
1. When we do eventually meet him:- “I’m Gatsby”, he said suddenly. “What!” I exclaimed. “Oh, I beg your pardon.” Yet our first proper meeting with him further adds to the mystery. The low profile he maintains is out of place with his lavish expenditure
  1. Repetition of “Old sport” further adds to the mystery of Gatsby as it makes him sound more English Jordan’s words create further mystery – “I’ve just heard the most amazing thing,” she whispered….”it was simply amazing”, she repeated abstractedly''
2. the fact that throughout this chapter description is used to create a dreamlike atmosphere:- “In his garden men and girls came and went like moths” “A tray of cocktails floated at us through the twilight” Again an air of illusion is successfully created
  1. Does this perhaps suggest that there is something illusionary about Gatsby himself?
Gatsby
1. Not only is an air of mystery created around Gatsby – “believe” / “impression”/ “convey” He is also portrayed as being almost like royalty – “signed Jay Gatsby in a majestic hand” He is portrayed as doing everything to excess
2. Not only is an air of mystery created around Gatsby – “believe” / “impression”/ “convey” He is also portrayed as being almost like royalty – “signed Jay Gatsby in a majestic hand” He is portrayed as doing everything to excess
  1. “the cars from New York are parked five deep in the drive” “At least once a fortnight a corp of caterers” “Enough coloured lights to make a Christmas tree of Gatsby’s enormous garden”
3. Yet, Fitzgerald clearly creates an air of isolation around Gatsby – “standing alone on the marble steps and looking from one group to another” “Sometimes they came and went without having met Gatsby at all”
  1. Gatsby stands ‘alone’ at the edge of his party. The wilder the party gets, the more Gatsby seems like an outsider – he doesn’t drink, he doesn’t flirt and he grows ‘more correct as the fraternal hilarity increased
  2. At the end of the party, when the ‘laughter and sound’ has died away, Gatsby is shown in ‘complete isolation’ with his “hand up in a formal gesture of farewell. This echoes the end of Chapter One where Gatsby “stretched out his arms towards the dark water”, reaching out for Daisy.
4. The repetition of the business calls early in the morning perhaps suggests underworld business connections
5. Nick comments on Gatsby’s affected “formality of speech” – this gives an early hint that Gatsby’s smile and speech are part of a DELIBERATELY CRAFTED PERSONA. Gatsby’s library is “panelled with carved English Oak” to make his house appear more like the older mansions of established aristocratic families. This is an early hint that there is something unreal about both Gatsby’s house and his life.
Nick
1. “I had taken two finger bowls of champagne, and the scene had changed before my eyes into something significant, elemental and profound” “It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life”
  1. Nick's reliability as a narrator is questioned especially as he spends most of the time drunk when he see's Gatsby
2. Nick comments on Gatsby’s affected “formality of speech” – this gives an early hint that Gatsby’s smile and speech are part of a DELIBERATELY CRAFTED PERSONA. Gatsby’s library is “panelled with carved English Oak” to make his house appear more like the older mansions of established aristocratic families. This is an early hint that there is something unreal about both Gatsby’s house and his life.
3. “ Reading over what I have written so far, I see I have given the impression that the events of three nights several weeks apart were all that absorbed me” Here he reminds us that he is the writer as well as the narrator. Events have therefore been filtered and recollected by him.

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The Great Gatsby - Chapter 3 - AO2

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	Created by misselliecanning about 10 years ago