Chapter Eight

1. Chapter Eight Characterisation Gatsby, Nick Theme American Dream Symbolism

2. Characterization - Gatsby Why is Gatsby attracted to Daisy? He was attracted to Daisy because of her wealth and privilege and he idolized both wealth and Daisy – the two are intertwined in his mind When he enters her house as a poor soldier, he knows he has no real right to be there

3. Characterization - Gatsby Has Gatsby lost or attained Daisy? “I don’t think she ever loved him,’ Gatsby turned around from a window and looked at me challengingly. ‘You must remember…she was very excited this afternoon.” Gatsby is not prepared to admit that he has lost Daisy as it is to him like losing his entire world. He continually refuses to accept that his dream is dead.

4. Characterization - Gatsby Discussion: How do you feel about Gatsby’s inability to accept the truth? Is this denial a negative or positive aspect of his character? What does this denial ultimately bring about?

5. Wilson • Wilson seems to be Gatsby's grim double in Chapter VIII, and represents the more menacing aspects of a capacity for visionary dreaming • Like Gatsby, he fundamentally alters the course of his life by attaching symbolic significance to something that is, in and of itself, meaningless; for Gatsby, it is Daisy and her green light, for Wilson, it is the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg • Both men are destroyed by their love for women who love the brutal Tom Buchanan; both are consumed with longing for something greater than themselves • While Gatsby is a "successful" American dreamer (at least insofar as he has realized his dreams of wealth), Wilson exemplifies the fate of the failed dreamer, whose poverty has deprived him of even his ability to hope

6. Characterization - Nick “They’re a rotten crowd…You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together.’ I’ve always been glad I said that … because I disapproved of him from beginning to end.” Discussion: Is this true? Why does Nick say this? Is Gatsby ‘worth the whole damn bunch put together’? What quality is it that makes him different?

7. Nick’s Perception • Nick gives the novel's final appraisal of Gatsby when he asserts that Gatsby is "worth the whole damn bunch of them." • Despite the ambivalence he feels toward Gatsby's criminal past and nouveau riche affectations, Nick cannot help but admire him for his essential nobility. • Though he disapproved of Gatsby "from beginning to end," Nick is still able to recognize him as a visionary, a man capable of grand passion and great dreams. He represents an ideal that has grown exceedingly rare in the 1920s, which Nick (along with Fitzgerald) regards as an age of cynicism, decadence, and cruelty.

8. THEME – The American Dream • Gatsby is a symbol for America in the 1920’s. The American Dream has, in the pursuit of happiness, degenerated into a quest for mere wealth • Gatsby’s powerful dream of happiness with Daisy has become the motivation for lavish excess and criminal activities

9. THEME – The American Dream • Task: Consider all of the characters in the novel. For each one note down how they symbolize different elements of the American Dream.

10. Gatsby’s Dream • Nick, in his reflections on Gatsby's life, suggests that Gatsby's great mistake was in loving Daisy: he thus chose an inferior object upon which to focus his almost mystical capacity for dreaming • Just as the American Dream itself has degenerated into the crass pursuit of material wealth, Gatsby, too, strives only for wealth once he has fallen in love with Daisy, whose trivial, limited imagination can conceive of nothing greater • It is significant that Gatsby is not murdered for his criminal connections, but rather for his unswerving devotion to Daisy; it blinds him to all else,­ even to his own safety • As Nick writes, Gatsby thus "[pays] a high price for living too long with a single dream."

11. SYMBOLISM – ‘Grail’ • “…but now he found that he had committed himself to the following of a grail.” • A Grail is a sacred object of a quest undertaken by a loyal and devoted knight. • Gatsby has been transformed into a chivalric hero – a knight. His shinning armour is his ‘beautiful shirts’, his horse is an expensive car. • Discussion: Do you think that Gatsby could rescue Daisy and take her to a better life?

12. SYMBOLISM - Weather • “The night had made a sharp difference in the weather and there was an autumn flavour in the air.” • The ‘fire’ has gone out of Gatsby’s life with Daisy’s decision to remain with Tom. This is symbolized by the cooling weather and autumn slowly creeping in.

13. SYMBOLISM – The swimming pool • ‘I’ve never used that pool all summer?’ • In some ways Gatsby is clinging on to the hope that Daisy will love him the way she used to symbolized by his insistence on swimming in the pool as though it were still summer. • Important – both his downfall in Chapter 7 and his death in this chapter result from his stark refusal to accept what he cannot control – the passage of time

14. The Swimming Pool • Gatsby's death takes place on the first day of autumn, when a chill has begun to creep into the air • His decision to use his pool is in defiance of the change of seasons, and represents yet another instance of Gatsby's unwillingness to accept the passage of time • The summer is, for him, equivalent to his reunion with Daisy; the end of the summer heralds the end of their romance

15. Gatsby’s Death • Up to the moment of his death, Gatsby cannot accept that this dream is over: he continues to insist that Daisy may still come to him, though it is clear to everyone ­ including the reader ­ that she is bound inseparably to Tom • Gatsby's death thus seems almost inevitable, given that a dreamer cannot exist without his dreams; through Daisy's betrayal, he effectively loses his reason for living

16. SYMBOLISM – Eyes of Dr T J Eckleburg • “but you can’t fool God!... Doctor T.J.Eckleburg …God sees everything,’ repeated Wilson.” • George takes this to be the all seeing eyes of God • He mistakenly believes that Myrtle’s lover must have been her killer and must be punished by “God”

17. SYMBOLISM – Eyes of Dr T J Eckleburg • BUT remember that these eyes are blind – they are the advert for an occulist • The connection between these eyes and ‘God’ exists only in Wilson’s grief stricken mind • Discussion – How important has been the idea of eyes/seeing within the novel?

18. SYMBOLISM – The rose • “He must have looked up at an unfamiliar sky through frightening leaves and shivered as he found what a grotesque thing a rose is …” • The rose has been a symbol of beauty for centuries, but Nick says that they are not inherently beautiful and people only view them as beautiful because they choose to

19. SYMBOLISM – The rose • Daisy is grotesque in the same way • Gatsby has made her beautiful and the object of his dream but in reality she is an idle, bored and rich young woman with no moral strength or loyalties • Discussion: How does the reader now feel about Daisy? Consider that she has abandoned Gatsby in his hour of need

20. SYMBOLISM - Holocaust • “…gardener saw Wilson’s body a little way off in the grass, and the holocaust was complete” • Indicates the whole sale destruction of his Gatsby’s life, of his dream and his love for Daisy • Also indicates the destruction of Wilson’s life, his dream and of his world