The Great Gatsby Chapter 5

Considering The Great Gatsby is nine capacity long, getting to Chapter 5 means that we've arrived in the verbal center of the story. Thus, information technology makes sense that this chapter takes a unmarried issue - Daisy and Gatsby's perfectly romantic reunion - and uses information technology to both tie together everything that has been gear up then far, and likewise to create such a delicate rest of safety and happiness that it's clear that everything will before long crumble.

Merely before the bubble of love pops, savor the world's most magical, most carefully planned "accidental" appointment.

Quick Note on Our Citations

Our citation format in this guide is (chapter.paragraph). We're using this system since there are many editions of Gatsby, so using folio numbers would only piece of work for students with our copy of the volume. To detect a quotation we cite via chapter and paragraph in your book, you can either eyeball information technology (Paragraph 1-fifty: showtime of affiliate; 50-100: middle of chapter; 100-on: finish of affiliate), or utilize the search function if you're using an online or eReader version of the text.

The Dandy Gatsby: Chapter 5 Summary

Nick comes home to detect all the lights on in Gatsby'south mansion. Gatsby wants to hang out, just conspicuously just because he wants to know what Nick has decided about asking Daisy for tea. Nick is happy to do it, and they plan for a day after Gatsby has had a risk to get Nick'due south lawn cut.

Gatsby and so makes a totally out of place proposal to do some bond business with Nick (whose chore is selling bonds, and who doesn't seem particularly good at it or invested in information technology). Nick is uncomfortable about the quid pro quo (that'due south Latin for "something for something" - in other words, a transaction) feeling of the deal and declines.

The next day, Nick invites Daisy to tea, and cautions her not to bring Tom.

Gatsby sends someone to mow the lawn, orders a huge number of flowers, isn't thrilled with Nick's lamentable tea and cakes selection, and worries that the twenty-four hours will exist ruined because it's raining. He then freaks out at the terminal second that Daisy isn't coming, simply simply then she pulls up in her car.

Gatsby and Daisy meet in Nick'southward living room in the most awkward, strained, and tense scene imaginable. It's unclear whether either one is happy to see the other. They are unable to speak two words.

When Nick tries to leave them lonely, Gatsby panics and tries to leave also. Nick calms him downwardly, then stands outside in the pelting for an 60 minutes to give Gatsby and Daisy some privacy. When he returns, the two are totally dissimilar – no longer embarrassed, much calmer, and Gatsby is actually glowing.

Gatsby all of a sudden brags that it only took him iii years to earn the money to buy his mansion. Nick calls him out on this since before Gatsby had said he had inherited his wealth. Gatsby chop-chop says that the inheritance was lost in the financial panic of 1914 and that he's been in several businesses since so.

Daisy then exclaims that she loves Gatsby's giant mansion (she tin can see it out of Nick'south window). They get over to Gatsby's, and he shows them effectually the at present empty business firm, never taking his eyes off Daisy and her reaction to his things.

Gatsby is completely overwhelmed by Daisy'due south presence. He is overcome with feelings that he tin can't even put into words.

Gatsby opens a cabinet and starts pulling out piles of shirts and throwing them onto a table. Every kind of shirt color and design imaginable stack higher and higher on this table until Daisy puts her head into the shirts and starts to cry about their beauty.

Information technology starts raining over again, and Gatsby shows Daisy that her business firm is direct beyond the bay from his.

Nick sees a photograph of Dan Cody, who Gatsby says used to be his best friend until he died.

Gatsby shows Daisy a agglomeration of paper clippings about her that he'southward been collecting (she would have been featured in the gossip pages that described fancy parties and rich people's society). He gets a phone telephone call virtually Detroit but hangs up chop-chop. This is the first time that he hasn't excused himself to take a telephone call in the novel.

Nick tries to leave again, simply is again roped into staying. Gatsby asks Ewing Klipspringer, a guest who apparently is just e'er at the business firm, to play the piano for them. He plays a comical beloved vocal.

Nick finally says goodbye and leaves. As he does, he sees Daisy whisper in Gatsby's ear, and imagines that her siren-like voice holds him in thrall.

Daisy'due south abiding shirt-inspired weeping has now gotten her banned from Brooks Brothers.

Cardinal Affiliate v Quotes

"Y'all're selling bonds, aren't you, old sport?"..."Well, this would interest yous. It wouldn't take upwardly much of your fourth dimension and you might pick upwardly a nice bit of coin. It happens to be a rather confidential sort of thing."

I realize now that under different circumstances that chat might have been one of the crises of my life. Simply, because the offer was obviously and tactlessly for a service to be rendered, I had no option except to cut him off there. (five.22-25)

Nick recognizes that what he chop-chop dismissed in the moment could easily take been the moral quandary that altered his whole time to come. It seems that Nick thinks this was his chance to enter the world of offense – if we assume that what Gatsby was proposing is some kind of insider trading or similarly illegal speculative action – and be thus trapped on the E Coast rather than retreating to the Midwest.

It's striking that Nick recognizes that his ultimate weakness – the thing that can actually tempt him – is money. In this mode, he is dissimilar from Gatsby, whose temptation is love, and Tom, whose temptation is sex – and of course, he is as well unlike because he resists the temptation rather than going all-in. Although Nick's refusal could be spun as a sign of his honesty, information technology instead underscores how much he adheres to rules of politeness. After all, he only rejects the idea because he feels he "had no selection" about the proposal considering it was "tactless." Who knows what shenanigans Nick would have been on board with if merely Gatsby were a niggling smoother in his approach?

He had passed visibly through two states and was entering upon a third. After his embarrassment and his unreasoning joy he was consumed with wonder at her presence. He had been full of the idea and then long, dreamed it right through to the finish, 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. (five.114)

On the one hand, the depth of Gatsby's feelings for Daisy is romantic. He'due south living the hyperbole of every love sonnet and torch vocal ever written. Subsequently all, this is the starting time time nosotros see Gatsby lose control of himself and his extremely careful self-presentation. Simply on the other hand, does he actually know anything well-nigh Daisy as a human being? Notice that it's "the idea" that he'due south consumed with, not so much the reality. The give-and-take "wonder" makes it sound like he'southward having a religious experience in Daisy'due south presence. The pedestal that he has put her on is so incredibly loftier there's nothing for her to do merely prove disappointing.

Daisy put her arm through his abruptly but he seemed absorbed in what he had but said. Possibly information technology had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that low-cal had at present vanished forever. Compared to the great distance that had separated him from Daisy it had seemed very well-nigh to her, almost touching her. It had seemed as close as a star to the moon. Now information technology was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by i. (5.121)

Well-nigh immediately when he'southward finally got her, Daisy starts to fade from an platonic object of desire into a real life human beingness. It doesn't even matter how potentially wonderful a person she may exist – she could never live upward to the idea of an "enchanted object" since she is neither magical nor a thing. There is also a question here of "what'southward next?" for Gatsby. If you lot accept only one goal in life, and you terminate up reaching that goal, what is your life's purpose now?

Is Gatsby more in love with the thought of love than with the actual human beingness he obsesses over?

The Bang-up GatsbyChapter v Analysis

At present permit'southward consider how this affiliate plays into the book as a whole.

Overarching Themes

Dearest, Desire, and Relationships. Afterwards an earlier chapter of Tom and Myrtle together, nosotros become a chapter of Daisy and Gatsby together. At first glance, the pairs are diametric opposites. Tom and Myrtle are crass and vulgar, constantly chattering about nothing, driven past materialism and physical desire, without a drop of honey or romance between them. On the other hand, Gatsby and Daisy are modest and embarrassed, near speechless, overwhelmed by feelings, and have a physical comfort with each other that Tom doesn't inspire either in Daisy or in Myrtle (both of whom he physically hurts in varying degrees). Gatsby'due south love for Daisy has an otherworldly quality that is several times described in either mythic or religious terms. But already the chapter anticipates that elevating the relationship to such heights makes a autumn near inevitable.

Morality and Ethics. Nick is tempted by what he later comes to realize is the moral quandary of his life. Twice, Gatsby offers to do some kind of business organization with him. There are two upstanding challenges in this offer.

Start, Gatsby is suggesting that Nick needs to exist paid for services rendered – that asking Daisy to tea and letting Gatsby run into her at Nick's house is a transaction that needs to be reimbursed somehow. This casts an oddly pimp-and-prostitute vibe on what Nick is existence asked to practice, which would dispel some of the fairytale romance that Gatsby is ostensibly going for.

Second, since it comes on the heels of their encounter with Mr. Wolfshiem, Gatsby'south concern proposition is most probable illegal (Insider trading? Speculation? Press fake bonds? There are several possibilities.). Information technology connects Nick to the lawless criminality that in this novel is associated with the new "Wild East."

Symbolism: Gatsby's Shirts. Gatsby showers Daisy with his array of exquisite shirts in a display that is at the same fourth dimension cocky-congratulation and besides a submissive plea. On the one paw, this odd moment is like a male bird's complicated mating dance – the shirts are the peacock'south plumage. These shirts are a visual representation of how far Gatsby has come – he can literally comprehend Daisy with his riches. Just on the hand, the desperate way he shows them off ties into Nick's observation that "think he revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved optics" (5.111). He wants her approval and is putting all of himself out there for her to pronounce judgment on.

Motifs: Weather. For the get-go time, the novel dwells at length on an extreme weather event. The intermittent downpour sometimes limits and sometimes facilitates Daisy and Gatsby's afternoon together. The rain allows for moments of concrete one-act. For example, Gatsby's plan to "accidentally" drop by Nick'south house during tea with Daisy falls apart when he makes his appearance soaking moisture (pregnant that he obviously wasn't simply trying to visit Nick – who would practise that in that kind of atmospheric condition?).

The rain likewise creates concrete and emotional boundaries, allowing Daisy and Gatsby to stay in their private earth. Literally, this happens when they can't tour the mansion'due south grounds and have to stay in his house. Only more than importantly, this happens when the pelting creates a mist that hides Daisy'south house beyond the bay from view. She doesn't take to recall about her union or her daughter – she can exist with Gatsby surrounded past magical-sounding "pinkish and gold breaker of foamy clouds" (five.134).

Every bit shortly every bit i magical low-cal experience (the green dock light) goes stale, Gatsby replaces it with some other (sunlit rain clouds). Maybe he but needs a lamp.

Crucial Character Beats

Nick agrees to invite Daisy over for tea and an "accidental" meeting with Gatsby. He is able to resist the offer to exercise business organisation with Gatsby.

Daisy and Gatsby finally run across! It's awkward and horrible at first, just after an hr alone together both of them seem very happy. Then, the trio goes to bout Gatsby's mansion. Gatsby is overwhelmed by Daisy's presence and is virtually manic. He throws piles and piles of his shirts in front end of her until she cries at how cute they are.

Nick keeps trying to leave Gatsby and Daisy solitary, but keeps being roped back into their company. Compare this to the fashion he was trying to get away from Tom and Myrtle in Chapter two and also forced to stick effectually.

Daisy and Gatsby are left alone together, clearly total of feelings for each other, and in their ain little earth.

What's Next?

Express joy at a drenched, umbrella-less Gatsby in the nearly contempo movie adaptation - information technology's one of the few physical comedy $.25 in the novel, and that flick gets information technology just right.

Explore the chapter's other fundamental symbol: the greenish light on Daisy's dock.

Review the chapter's main motifs: the rainy weather, and the conspicuous lack of booze.

Motion on to the summary of Chapter six, or revisit the summary of Chapter 4.

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About the Author

Anna scored in the 99th percentile on her SATs in high schoolhouse, and went on to major in English at Princeton and to get her doctorate in English language Literature at Columbia. She is passionate about improving educatee access to higher education.