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The Great Gatsby Quote Bank
16 pages of quotes with A*, detailed analysis for all characters, in addition to quotes on symbolism and setting
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SettingChapter Quote Analysis
Gatsby’s Ch 1 - ‘a factual imitation of some Hotel de Ville in Normandy’ Divisions among upper class, G can only imitate wealth of aristocracy
house
‘thin beard of raw ivy’ Image of youth, ivy suggests poisonous undertone
Ch 3 - ‘if one brick was removed the whole library was liable to Metaphor for instability of G’s image & life, foreshadows downfall in Ch 7,
collapse’ nouveau riche
Ch 5 - ‘his house blazed gaudily on’ Excess wealth, house acting as a beacon for D & guests who ‘went like moths
among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars’ (Ch 3). Verb
‘blazed’ suggests burning passion but also danger
‘Marie Antoinette music-rooms and Restoration salons’ G imitating European aristocracy & old rich but in vain as he can never be
like them
Ch 9 - ‘Gatsby’s house was still empty when I left - the grass on his Time has moved on, appearances no longer matter, party is over in literal &
lawn had grown as long as mine’ metaphorical sense
‘huge incoherent failure of a house’ Sign of material wealth but failed to serve its purpose for G. ‘huge
incoherent failure’ can also be applied to him, but failures don’t undermine
positive qualities like capacity to hope
East Egg ‘Across the courtesy bay the white palaces of fashionable East Egg ‘white’ ironically implies purity, ‘palaces’ show aristocratic wealth &
glittered along the water’ ‘glittered’ suggests magic: perhaps how G views them & what he aspires to
be
‘white Georgian colonial mansion’ T & D’s house, suggests ancestral background & history, reinforcing old rich
status. ‘white’ links to D’s dress & ironically implies purity
‘sundials and brick walks and burning gardens’ Syndetic list shows excess of T & D’s house
Valley of ‘a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat’ Ironically subverts images of fertility & growth to show decay caused by
Ashes society, nihilistic view
‘ash-grey men who move dimly and already crumbling through Men become part of surroundings, shows human consequences of society’s
the powdery air’ corruption, lower class feel burden of upper class excess
New York ‘first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world. ‘wild’ suggests out of control, links to hope expressed at end of novel for
A dead man passed us in a hearse’ ‘fresh, green breast of the new world. Juxtaposition w/ hearse foreshadows
G’s fate & shows consequences when world is corrupted
, Symbolism
Quote Analysis
Eckleburg’s Ch 2 - ‘dimmed a little by many paintless days, under sun and Moral decay of the rich, people’s spirituality dimmed by neglect
eyes rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground’ Deus absconditus (hidden God) - in his remoteness seems to ignore human
suffering. Advert demonstrates consumerism has replaced religion
Ch 8 - ‘God sees everything’ Advert becomes God in Wilson’s grief-stricken mind, materialism is new religion
‘That’s an advertisement’
Cars ‘You don’t understand...I wasn’t driving. There’s another man Owl Eyes, carelessness, foreshadowing G’s involvement in crash in Ch 7
in the car’
‘rich cream colour’ ‘monstrous length’ ‘cream’ shows corruption & fake wealth, ‘monstrous’ foreshadows destruction of
‘death car’
‘the ‘death car’...wavered tragically for a moment, and then Cars as force of destruction, tragedy of M’s death, D’s selfishness in not stopping
disappeared around the next bend’
Sheik of Araby ‘Your love belongs to me’ G’s obsession & feelings of possession regarding D, G pretending her marriage to
T didn’t happen
‘Into your tent I’ll creep’ Proximity of Eggs, G hoping to ‘creep’ across but can’t transgress social barriers
Sinister verbs, D presented as an unwilling victim
Clock (Ch5) ‘tilt dangerously at the pressure of his head, whereupon he [G] Clumsiness of G’s attempt to control time, Cronus complex in that he believes he
turned and caught it with trembling fingers’ can, fact clock is ‘defunct’ anyway shows futility of his dream
‘I think we all believed for a moment that it had smashed in Hopelessness, G’s meeting w/ D after 5 years seems to fail as it is starting
pieces on the floor’
Ain’t We Got ‘The rich get richer and the poor get - children’ Reminds readers of D’s family commitments & passage of time - undermines G’s
Fun hope of romantic success
Weather Ch 7 - ‘The next day was broiling, almost the last, certainly the Tensions coming to forefront, ‘last’ foreshadows G’s summer affair coming to
warmest, of the summer’ tragic end
‘oppressive’ ‘relentless beating heat’ Heat causes tensions to explode & fake gold to melt away ie new money
Ch 8 - ‘The night had made a sharp difference in the weather Heat has cooled, like D’s passion for G, autumn signals loss of life that is coming
and there was an autumn flavour in the air’
Ch 9 - ‘thick drizzle’ ‘horribly black and wet’ Rain at funeral matches mood. Could refer to cleansing properties of water &
realisation after G’s death of the emptiness of his dream
Light Ch 8 - ‘I waited, and about four o’clock, she...turned out the G rekindled love w/ D at 4 o’clock, now she ends it - cyclical pattern of the day is
light’ in tune w/ G’s points of crisis, dream completely over
, Ch 9 - ‘the inessential houses began to melt away until ‘Inessential’ shows waste of modern world, world corrupted by consumerism
gradually I became aware of the old island here that flowered but America was once place for dreaming & hope
once for Dutch sailors’ eyes - a fresh, green breast of the new
world’
‘Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that G battles against current of time, searching out hopeless dream, risking
year by year recedes before us’ everything for promise of fulfilment - we feel empathy for him
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