1. Thomas Vanderstichele’s Great Gatsby Revision Notes
The Great Gatsby
Nick Carraway
Narrative Stance- ‘life is more successful looked at from a single window, after all’, I was within and
without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled’, ‘they had forgotten me’, ‘Looked back at me,
remotely’
Narrative stance throughout the novel is mixture of involvement and withdrawal
Self-effacing
Presenting eye witness accounts and he’s not saying much about himself
Do we trust him? Is he a reliable narrator?
Nick seems to move on the edge of other people’s lives at their whim or command
Moral Consciousness-
Sensitively observes what’s going on
Judges people where appropriate, and learns from his experiences
Ends the novel a sadder but wiser man
He’s a reliable narrator that undergoes a process of moral growth and therefore in a sense
he is the hero of the novel
Ambiguous presence in the novel
Obtuse and Priggish- ‘I’m one of the few honest people I know’, ‘I’m slow thinking and full of interior
rules that act as brakes on my desires’
Obtuse, priggish and self-satisfied
Unperceptive character who shows no real insight into his own motives and who at the end
of the novel is as clueless as he was at the beginning
Hasn’t learnt anything
Ambivalence- ‘I’m inclined to reserve all judgement’, ‘unaffected scorn’, ‘something gorgeous about
him’
He is quite perceptive, he does learn a bit, but in other ways he is rather obtuse and there
are things he doesn’t understand
Intriguing, ambivalent and complex character
Jay Gatsby
Isolation-‘figure emerged from the shadows’, ‘a dim background started to form’, ‘threw dust in your
eyes’, Mr Nobody from Nowhere’, ‘skimming hastily through a dozen magazines’
Makes him a memorable character
Patchy, hazy by selective deletion
Shadowy, elusive figure
5% of novel is Gatsby’s own words

2. Unknown
Reduced direct speech
Patched himself together from popular culture and ideas on self-improvement
Isolation evident at his parties
Daisy, Tom and Gatsby- ‘following of a grail’, ‘artificial world was redolent with orchids’, ‘colossal
vitality of his illusion’, ‘high in the white palace’, ‘golden girl’
Idealistic romantic vision which Daisy cannot live up to
Daisy is of an artificial world, prefers materialistic security over the romantic Gatsby
Gatsby has frozen time over the five years since he saw Daisy
Pushed away by the ‘domineering’ and ‘oppressive’ Tom Buchanan
To Gatsby’s eyes daisy is something majestic while it is clear to Nick she is of an artificial
world
Gatsby tried to reach the green light but metaphorically drowned in the sound
Gatsby is killed in the process of trying to climb over the class divide which is represented by
the physical Tom Buchanan.
Why ‘Great’? - ‘Gatsby turned out alright in the end’, ‘there was something gorgeous about him’,
‘you’re worth the whole damn bunch put together’, ‘rotten crowd’, ‘delivered from his purposeless
splendour’
Talent of reinvention makes Gatsby Great
Gatsby is coloured by Nick as an unreliable narrator-corruption is avoided by Nick
‘Great’-magician, mysterious figure
Quality of dream that sets him apart from other characters
Martyr of a materialistic society
Selective Detail-‘old sport’, ‘quality of eternal reassurance’, ‘pink suit’ , ‘ an oxford man’, ‘elaborate
formality of speech’
Never given details about his physical appearance
Conspicuous consumption-corruption of Gatsby
Individual features that one remembers like smile
Every time we read the novel Gatsby is seen in a different light
Changes his name to reinvent past
Gatsby isn’t who he claims he is
Daisy Buchanan
Selective Detail-‘cool’, ‘silver idols’, ‘full of money’, ‘singing compulsion’, ‘a whispered ‘listen’’, ‘the
kind of voice you follow’, ‘indiscreet voice’, ‘white’, ‘exhilarating ripple’
Fey old English for fairy
Innocent and pure
Siren-attracts people towards her with her voice
Unattainable object to Gatsby

3. Valuable and precious
Represents perfection that Gatsby aspires to attain
Charming behaviour is an attempt to get attention
Needy
Gatsby, Nick and Tom enchanted by her
Daisy’s World-‘artificial world was redolent with orchids’, ‘high in the white palace, the king’s
daughter, and the golden girl ’, ‘above the hot struggles of the poor’, ‘you ought to see the baby’
The name Daisy suggests an uncultivated and natural flower. Daisy is in fact the complete
opposite.
Orchid- artificial and cultivated
Flattered by Gatsby’s love
Ignorant of world below her class
Materialistic, self-absorbed and disloyal
Use of hyperbole and pointless stories- lack of depth
Fear of change from privileged life
Daisy fails to reach Gatsby’s expectations
Daisy and Tom- ‘careless people’, ‘retreated into their money’, ‘foul dust’, ‘beautiful fool is the best
thing a girl can be in this world’,
Convenience and prestige
Has an affair to get back at Tom
Shallow and not innocent
Guided by other characters
Dominated by Tom
She has little control over her life
Weak victim? Deliberately manipulative?
Alternative Views
Juddith Fetterly- “it is not the dead Gatsby, but the living Daisy that is the scapegoat in this novel’
Subject to the consequences of careless people
Tom is physical, ‘hulking’ ‘cruel body’ someone who can smash up things
Daisy is more delicate and therefore is seen differently
Nick’s portrayal of Tom is accurate but his portrayal of Daisy isn’t
Nick is misogynist- ‘dishonesty in a woman is a fault that I never blame deeply’
Hard to trust Nick’s view here
Tom Buchanan
Physical Appearance- ‘cruel body’, ‘moving a checker to another square’, ‘the athlete’, ‘hulking’,
‘brute’
Powerful character-breaks myrtles nose and bruises daisy’s finger

4. ‘Straw haired’- straw is dry flammable material suggests Tom Buchanan’s volatility as a
character
Personality- ‘Nice place I’ve got here’, ‘savours of anti-climax’, ‘depressed by a book’
Egoist
Best days are behind him
Stupid- fluency and articulation of dialogue often breaks down with Tom (‘fractiousness’)
Manner of speech is in contrast to Gatsby’s which ‘bordered on being absurd’
Unsympathetic-‘little spree’, ‘intermarriage between black and white’, ‘some woman in New York’,
‘women run around too much these days to suit me’
Racist
Sexist
Adulterer’ has had many affairs before
Corrupt
Determined to preserve Nordic purity and race
Dominance-‘aggressively’, ‘oppressiveness’, ‘it’s up to us the dominant race’
dominates the book
type of person that survives everything
force that shatters Gatsby’s dream
aggressive mannerisms
impenetrable wall of old money from which Gatsby is barred
Alternative View
We accept Nick’s account of Tom as the antagonist in the plot
Nick’s novel champions Gatsby and not Tom
Jordan Baker
Modern Woman–‘young cadet’, ‘absolutely in training’, ‘balancing girl’, ‘it takes two to make an
accident’, ‘bad driver’, ‘wore her dress like sport clothes’
Modern, emancipated woman
Lost femininity – androgynous
‘New woman’ who claims advantages of and emancipated lifestyle but retains the traditional
advantages accorded to a lady
Jordan and Baker are two makes of car- new woman increased freedom
Practicality- cheated in her first golf tournament
‘Balancing girl’ treading a fine line between the new and the old
Physical Appearance- ‘slender, small breasted girl’, ‘brown tint’
Apparently a beautiful young woman

5. Tan emphasised throughout novel- working woman
Relationship with Nick ‘clean hard limited person who dealt in universal scepticism’, ‘wasn’t able to
endure being at a disadvantage’, ‘incurably dishonest’
Manipulative towards Nick
Level of mystery- meeting suggested but never described
Jordan brings out emotional depth in Nick which he doesn’t allude to in his self-
characterisation
Counterpoint to Gatsby’s relationship with Nick
Role in Novel- ‘balancing girl’, ‘it takes two to make an accident’,
Role in novel problematic
Foil to Daisy
Women’s status and sexual image is at a point of crisis in the post-war world
Myrtle Wilson
Vitality-‘immediate perceptible vitality’, ‘sensuously’, ‘as she expanded the room grew smaller
around her’, ‘panting vitality’
Lives in fantasy world when with Tom
Vitality juxtaposed to Wilson’s ghostlike appearance
Vitality is in contrast with her environment
Coarse voice
Myrtle dreams are in their own way at vital as Gatsby’s
Overt, unconcealed sexuality
Social climber- ‘shrill insistence’, ‘regal homecoming glance’, ‘haughtily’, ‘I told that boy about the
ice’, ‘implying that a dozen chefs awaited her orders’
Myrtle- fleshy shrub associated to goddess Venus, plant had a tendency to move upwards
Telephone call interrupts dinner, wants to be heard by all, intrusive, brings tension between
Daisy and Tom
Destructive character
Tries to carve out a larger role in Tom’s life that she is aloud
Use of imperative on all characters except Tom
Grabs at what life has to offer
Foil to Daisy- ‘smouldering’, ‘blocked out the light’
Daisy is described as ‘cool’
While Daisy radiates light Myrtle blocks it out
Represents the ‘hot struggles of the poor’ which Daisy is above
Victim- ‘tragic achievement’, ‘left breast swinging loose like a flap’

6. Only sympathetic once she is dead
Punished for social ambition
Parallel to Gatsby- victim of crossing social divide
Foolish to think that Tom loves her
Dies in Valley of Ashes- her escape plan has failed
Not allowed to realise dream
Victim of the callous rich who hold the social and economic power
Breast mutilated, Fitzgerald wants to show America desecrated, mutilated, violated
Unsympathetic- ‘get some chairs’, ‘he wasn’t even fit to lick my shoe’, ‘flounced’
Treatment of Wilson
Adulterer
Drama queen
George Wilson
Physically weak- ‘pale green colour’, ‘walked right through him’, ‘so dumb he doesn’t know he’s
alive’, ‘blond spiritless man’
Drifting, aimless life
Inferior to other characters
Pervasive sense of drift and exhaustion that exists beside the raw vitality of the new age
Ghostlike- ‘mingling with the cement colour of the walls’, ‘piece of waste’
Wilson has become part of his environment- reflection of his environment
Dirty- never clean of worry or anxiety
Not regarded as being human
Physically fades and dissolved
Moral conscious- ‘God sees everything’
Society with no values with nothing to support ones morality
Most virtuous and honourable character in novel
America is God forsaken
Represents Christian values and faith
Bears the brunt of societies guilt, he is the scapegoat
Victim-‘unprosperous and bare’, ‘damp gleam of hope sprang into his eyes’
Victim of new wave of money and rich society
Murderer but virtuous
Cuckolded but not invited to laugh at him
Living on the dump that people like Daisy and Tom create
Link with Gatsby both victim and scapegoats
Tom exploits Wilson