The Great Gatsby Character List and Chapter Summaries

The narrator of the novel and the protagonist of the frame narrative. He is a conservative young man from the Midwest, who comes to New York to seek freedom and escape his small-town background. During the course of the novel, he turns thirty and decides to leave the East, judging it to be shallow and meaningless. At the end of the book, he has decided to return home to the Midwest and marry the girl who has been waiting for him.

The protagonist of the main plot of the novel and the character who is referenced in the book's title. A poor young man in the army, he falls in love with Daisy Fay, a wealthy and shallow "golden girl." He spends the rest of his short life trying to win Daisy's love. In order attract her attention, he amasses a fortune, earned from bootlegging and other illegal means, and builds a huge, gaudy mansion across the bay from the home of Daisy and her husband. He convinces Nick, Daisy's distant cousin, to bring the two of them together, and for awhile Gatsby and Daisy have an affair. She, however, only uses Gatsby for entertainment, to break the boredom of her life. In the end, he is shot by Wilson, who believes that Gatsby was having an affair with his wife and was responsible for her accidental death.

Daisy is an attractive, wealthy, and shallow young lady. She had a fling with Gatsby when he was stationed in the army in Louisville, her hometown, and fancied that she loved him. When Gatsby was sent to Europe to fight in the war, she waited for him to return for a short while. Soon bored and impatient, she began to date other men of her same social class. She met and fell in love with the wealthy Tom Buchanan, whom she married. The young couple moved to East Egg, where they led a meaningless and shallow existence. When Daisy meets Gatsby again at Nick's house, she has an affair with him; but she will never leave Tom for Gatsby. Throughout the novel, Daisy is the object of Gatsby's dream; even in the end, he does not realize that she is not worthy of his adoration.

Daisy's wealthy husband. He is a symbol of the shallowness and carelessness of the very rich. He plays with cars and race horses, has sordid affairs, and treats Daisy shabbily. She, however, will always remain with Tom, for he offers her security and the life style to which she is accustomed.

The gaudy mistress of Tom Buchanan and the wife of George Wilson. Tom keeps an apartment for her in the city, which is the scene of a rather wild party during the book. When George realizes she is having an affair, he locks her in her room and plans to move her out West. She, however, is killed in a car accident by a hit-and-run driver, who is Daisy Buchanan.

Daisy's good friend. She is an attractive and wealthy young golfer whom Nick dates while he is in New York. A compulsive liar and a cheat, she is almost as shallow and careless as Daisy.

Myrtle's husband and the owner of a garage in the Valley of Ashes. He idolizes his wife and goes crazy when she is killed. Thinking that Gatsby is responsible for her death, he shoots him and then kills himself.

The shady Jewish business associate of Gatsby. He wears human molars as cufflinks, fixed the world series, and makes his money through gambling and racketeering.

The wealthy man who employed Gatsby as a youth and taught him about business. Although he is never actually seen in the novel, Gatsby explains all about him to Nick, and he is instrumental in shaping Gatsby's life.

The main purpose of this first chapter is to introduce the characters and setting of the book. Nick Carraway, the narrator of the entire story, is clearly depicted. He is a young man in his late twenties who grew up in the Midwest in a prominent, respected middle class family with Scottish ancestry. He says he is a decent human being who was taught at an early age to reserve judgment, a trait which has made him a confidante to many people in his life. He graduated from New Haven (Yale) in 1915, and then served in the military in World War I. When he returned to the Midwest after the war, he quickly grew restless and found his small hometown to be too confining. As a result, he has come to New York City to learn the bond business, like many of his friends. He has rented a home on West Egg, one of two identical (in appearance) egg-shaped islands located on Long Island Sound, twenty miles from the city. His house is a small bungalow, renting for $80 per month; it is really an eyesore located between two large mansions. The one on his right is a "colossal affair," fashioned after a City Hall in Normandy, France, complete with marble swimming pool and forty acres of lawn and gardens. Nick has learned that a Mr. Jay Gatsby owns and inhabits the mansion. East Egg is located across a small bay from West Egg, but they are separated by more than a body of water. West Egg is the less fashionable island, peopled with flashy mansions built by new money; in contrast, East Egg is filled with the fashionable, substantial, and sturdy palaces representing the old guard and inherited wealth. It is on East Egg that Nick Carraway's distant cousin Daisy lives with her husband Tom Buchanan. Tom, who was at Yale with Nick, was a football hero in college and comes from an enormously wealthy Chicago family. After marrying Daisy, the two of them "drifted" for several years from place to place, including a year's stay in France. Now Tom has brought his polo ponies east and established himself and his family in an elaborate Georgian Colonial mansion on East Egg, of which he is very proud. Nick has been invited to dinner at the Buchanans. When he arrives at their home, he is amazed at its size and the expansive grounds that run from the house for a quarter of a mile down to the beach. Tom Buchanan, his thirty year old host, is standing on the wide front porch, dressed in his riding clothes. Nick immediately notices that Tom has changed since his college days. Although still blond, handsome, and muscular, he appears more sturdy and arrogant; in fact, Nick comments that Tom has a "cruel body, capable of enormous leverage," an analysis which foreshadows Tom's future actions. In total contrast to Tom's appearance, Daisy, Tom's wife and Nick's cousin, appears to be light as a feather. It is an appropriate image, for there is not much depth to her. She sits inside the living room on a sofa and is dressed in a lightweight, white garment that is rippling in the breeze, giving the young woman the image of floating. Her voice, light and thrilling to Nick, intensifies the cool, airy picture of her appearance, but as she speaks, Daisy reveals that her purpose in life, like her looks, is also "flitting." She tells Nick that they will all have to plan to do something, but it is beyond Daisy to make any plans. She even says of herself that each year she looks forward to June 21, the longest day of the year, and then manages to miss it each time. Throughout the evening, she continues with such inconsequential chatter. When Nick looks in her eyes, he sees the true Daisy, for they hold a sadness and absence of desire. During the course of the dinner, part of the reason for Daisy's unhappiness is revealed. When Tom receives a phone call and leaves the table, followed by his wife, a second guest, Jordan Baker, tells Nick that Tom has a mistress in the city. In a conversation after dinner, Daisy also reveals other "turbulent emotions" to Nick. She tells him that when she had her daughter two years ago, Tom was no where around. She is glad that the child is a daughter, for she feels she can raise her to be "a fool--that's the best thing a girl can be in the world, a beautiful little fool." She then admits her misery to Nick and says, "I've had a very bad time, and I'm pretty cynical about everything." The noble Nick, hesitant to make judgements, feels very uneasy about Daisy's confessions and the smirk that spoils her lovely face. He also feels like an outsider, excluded from the distinguished secret society to which the Buchanan's belong. After their private conversation on the porch, Nick and Daisy go inside to join Tom and Jordan. Tom warns Nick about Daisy's complaints and says, "Don't believe everything you hear." Nick then learns that Jordan is a well-known golf star, and Daisy teases them both about arranging their marriage. They then quiz Nick about his being "engaged to a girl out West," but he explains that she is only a friend and part of the reason he has escaped to the East coast. Since Jordan must depart to rest before her morning golf tournament, Nick also takes his leave. As he drives away, he has feelings of confusion and disgust about the Buchanan's. He really feels that Daisy and her daughter should rush out of Tom's house forever, but he also knows that will never happen. When Nick arrives home, he stands outside to take in the view of the bay. He notices that his neighbor is also outside, staring at the stars with hands in his pocket. Just as Nick prepares to greet him, the neighbor stretches out his arms to the dark water and appears to tremble. Nick looks out to the bay to see what attracts the neighbor's attention, but he sees only a single green light, probably at the end of a dock in East Egg. When Nick looks back toward his neighbor, the man has vanished. What an appropriate first glimpse of the mysterious Gatsby!

This chapter opens with a description of the Valley of Ashes, a desolate area of land between West Egg and New York City. In this industrial wasteland, through which the commuter train must pass, everything is covered with dust, smoke, and ashes. But above this gray, ashen land, there is a sign of hope - a huge advertisement painted on the side of a building. The ad shows the large, blue eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckelberg, oculist, looking out from an enormous pair of yellow glasses. The eyes, which are just beginning to fade in color, appear to be brooding over the gray wasteland below them. This bleak setting is the appropriate home of Tom Buchanan's mistress, Myrtle Wilson. One Sunday afternoon in July, when Nick and Tom are riding into the city, the train stops at a drawbridge in the Valley of Ashes. While the train is at a standstill, Tom grabs Nick's elbow, forces him from the car, and says, "I want you to meet my girl." They walk through several blocks of nothingness until they enter Wilson's Garage and Repair Shop. George Wilson, like the building and its surroundings, is covered in ash and spiritless in nature. In contrast to him, his wife Myrtle, in her mid thirties, is very sensuous, with an air of vitality about her even though she is faintly stout and unattractive. Tom taunts George with a promise to sell him his automobile and tells Myrtle to get on the next train. She is always ready to escape from the Valley of Ashes, and gladly obliges Tom. She discreetly sits in the next car, away from her lover. In New York, however, the three of them get in a cab together and head towards the apartment that Tom rents for her. On the way to the apartment, Myrtle, possessed with purchasing things, insists upon stopping to buy a puppy being offered by a gray old man on the street corner. Tom pays the man for the dog and comments that "it's a bitch," words that Myrtle ironically could not say even though she is a mistress herself. Nick tries to leave the cab to take a pastoral stroll through the park in the soft warmth of the bright afternoon, but Tom insists that Nick come up to the bleak apartment, which is a small, crowded one bedroom flat on the top floor. (Symbolically, Nick is torn between the order of his pastoral Midwest and the chaos and flash of New York.) The crowded apartment is soon packed with additional guests -- Myrtle's sister Catherine (described in ashen terms) and the McKees, who are neighbors from downstairs. A party of sorts ensues with much drinking and inane conversation. Myrtle, who has changed her clothes for the third time in a matter of hours, also changes her personality from the earlier vitality found in the garage to one of false pretension, with exaggerated laughter and phony gestures. She loudly complains to everyone present about her husband George and says, "I married him because I thought he was a gentleman...I thought he knew something about breeding." She next goes on to tell how she was horrified to discover that he had borrowed the suit he had worn to their wedding. She then tells Nick about meeting Tom on the train for the first time, being attracted by his clothing, and convincing herself to go off with him since "you can't live forever." By nine o'clock, Mr. McKee has fallen asleep, and Nick quickly goes over and wipes from his face a spot of dried lather that has bothered him all afternoon. Myrtle, by this time, is orally making a list of all the things she has planned to buy: a massage, a permanent wave, a collar for the puppy, a special kind of ash tray, and a wreath with a black silk bow that will last all summer for her mother's grave. She then states, "I got to write down a list so I won't forget all the things I got to do." In the midst of it all, people seem to disappear and reappear, to make plans to go somewhere and then lose each other. Nick admits that he has had too much to drink and that everything appears vague and shadowy, as if Myrtle has brought the Valley of Ashes with her. Nick describes himself at the party as being "within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life." The spell of the party, however, is broken around midnight when Tom and Myrtle argue loudly over her talking about Daisy. Tom insists that she not even mention his wife's name. When Myrtle taunts him by shouting, "Daisy! Daisy!...I'll say it whenever I want to," Tom answers by striking her face and breaking her nose. Nick's sense of moral order is repulsed by the violence, and he leaves in an alcoholic stupor, finally catching the 4:00 a.m. train back to West Egg.

This chapter opens with a general description of another party scene, this one set at Gatsby's mansion. Nick describes how "there was music from my neighbor's house through the summer nights" with sunning on the beach, diving into the pool, drinking champagne, and dancing to the orchestra from early evening until the wee hours of the morning. Gatsby's Rolls-Royce becomes a shuttle bus for the party-goers, and cars were still parked five deep in the drive. A "corps of caterers" arrives once a week to set up buffet tables filled with gourmet treats, and the main hall is transformed into a bar complete with brass rail and every type of liquor. Nick then describes more specifically the first party that he attends at his neighbor's house. Gatsby has sent his chauffeur next door with a formal invitation to Nick to attend a "little party" on Saturday night. Nick accepts the offer, dresses in white flannels, arrives at Gatsby's around 7:00, and wanders, rather ill at ease, among the swirls of unknown partyers. He is delighted to find Jordan Baker among the guests, greets her warmly, and remains by her side for much of the evening. During the course of the party, Nick looks several times unsuccessfully for Gatsby in order to formally introduce himself; he overhears much talk about the host, including rumors that he is an Oxford graduate, that he has killed a man, and that he served as a German spy during the war; he also learns that Gatsby has sent an expensive dress to a young lady as a replacement for one torn at a previous Gatsby gathering. He visits the library and meets a middle-age man, who has been drinking for a week and who wears "enormous owl-eyed spectacles" (recalling the image of T.J. Eckelberg). The man is absolutely amazed that the titles in Gatsby's library are actually real books with real pages. He then exclaims, "It's a triumph. What thoroughness! What realism! --- didn't cut the pages." It is as if this drunken gentleman knew the real Gatsby and believes he is hiding behind a facade that includes his mansion, his parties, and his library. At midnight, the party is still going strong with dancing, music, and "stunts" in the garden. Nick notes that "the hilarity had increased. . .while happy vacuous bursts of laughter rose toward the summer sky." Nick is sitting at a table with Jordan and an unknown man of his approximate age. The man tells Nick that his face looks familiar, and the two of them discover that they had both been in the Third Division during the war. The gentleman then warms towards Nick, calls him "old sport" repeatedly, and asks him to take a ride in his newly purchased hydroplane on the next morning. After accepting the invitation, Nick is surprised to learn that this gentleman is Jay Gatsby himself. Nick then notes the warmth and reassurance of his neighbor's smile that seems to be an appearance that vanishes too quickly. When Gatsby leaves to take a phone call, Nick admits to Jordan, "I had expected that Mr. Gatsby would be a florid and corpulent person in his middle years." He then asks Jordan to tell him more about this mysterious man. Jordan simply replies, "He's just a man named Gatsby," a classical example of understatement. Later at the party, Nick has a chance to study his host from a distance and without detection: Gatsby was standing alone on the marble steps and looking from one group to another with approving eyes. His tanned skin was drawn attractively tight on his face and his short hair looked as though it were trimmed everyday. I could see nothing sinister about him. I wondered if the fact that he was not drinking helped to set him off from his guests, for it seemed to me that he grew more correct as the fraternal hilarity increased. As Nick makes these observations, he and Jordan are interrupted by a butler sent by the host. Mr. Gatsby has requested to see Jordan, so she takes her leave. Alone again, Nick surveys the degenerating party scene. The orchestra has left, but the room is still crowded. A drunken red-headed woman is singing loudly and weeping at the same time. Most of the women are fighting with their husbands or dates about leaving the party, and two women are physically carried out. As Nick prepares to leave the party himself, Jordan emerges from the library with her host and tells Nick, "I've just heard the most amazing thing," building even more suspense about the mysterious Gatsby. Nick promises to call Jordan and then bids Gatsby goodnight with new apologies for not having known him earlier in the garden. Gatsby says, "Don't mention it," and reminds Nick of their morning hydroplane plans. As Nick turns towards his home next door, he finds an accident has just occurred outside. A car has left Gatsby's drive, run into a wall, and lost its wheel. The first person to emerge from the wreck is Owl-Eyes, the drunken man with the spectacles found earlier in the library. When questioned about the accident, he "washes his hands of the whole matter," just as he washes his hands of his careless, drunken behavior and lack of moral responsibility. He is followed out of the car by the driver, "a pale, dangling individual," an apparition of a man (with flashback to the valley of ashes). He is also quite drunk and cannot quite understand that the wheel is gone from the car, rendering it undrivable. Nick, disgusted with this drunken scene of destruction and the attendant cacophony of impatient horns, goes home. As he glances back to Gatsby's mansion, he is struck by the sudden emptiness he sees and by the isolated figure of the host waving upon the porch. Nick closes the chapter with explanations about himself, to fill in his life between the parties. Most of his time is spent working at Probity Trust and studying about investments. He says he is learning to like the "racy feel" of New York, but dreams of finding a romantic attachment. He also admits that he sometimes, in the hustle and bustle, feels a "haunting loneliness" in himself and others, and personally longs for "gayety and...intimate excitement." He also reveals that he has dated Jordan Baker during the latter part of the summer and developed a tenderness for her. He was shocked, however, to learn that she was "incurably dishonest" and terribly careless. At least Jordan admits that she "hates careless people. That's why I like you." Despite their mutual interest in one another, the noble Nick puts the brakes on their relationship because he has still not settled his feelings for the girl at home. Nick believes that relationship had to be "tactfully broken off before I was free." Nick ends the chapter by proudly stating he is the only honest person he knows.

This chapter also opens with another small glimpse into a party at Gatsby's house with the guests still gossiping about their host. Nick interrupts his description of the party to list some of the guests that came to Gatsby's house during the summer. He had jotted down the names on a railroad time table. Many came from East Egg, including the Leeches, the Voltaire's, the Blackbuck's, the Dancies, Mr. Whitebait, the Fishguard's, Maurice Flink, and the Hammerhead's. Guests from West Egg included the Poles, the Catlip's, and James B. ("Rotgut") Ferret. Other guests included Francis Bull and George Duckweed (theatrical people), Klipspringer (who came so often he was called the boarder), the Chromes, the Backhysson's, S.W. Belcher, Miss Haag, P. Jewett, and Claudia Hip. Nick turns from the long list to tell about the first time Gatsby comes to his home. He has arrived in his elegant automobile to take Nick into the city for lunch. During the drive, Gatsby asks Nick, "What's your opinion of me anyhow?" and then launches into an explanation of his background. He first says he is the son of a wealthy family from the "middle-west". He then adds he was educated at Oxford, inherited a great deal of money, and then "lived like a young rajah in all the capitals of Europe...collected jewels, hunting big game, painting a little...and trying to forget something very sad that had happened." He then tells about joining the war in hopes of getting killed, but instead he receives decorations for his bravery from every Allied government. Nick's first reaction to these tales is to laugh incredulously, but he is also fascinated with Gatsby's story. Then his neighbor pulls out a war medal from Montenegro, and to Nick's astonishment, it almost looks real. So does the picture of Gatsby supposedly taken in front of Oxford when he in school there. After showing these souvenirs to Nick, Gatsby tells his neighbor, "I'm going to make a big request of you today." That is why he has told Nick about his background, for Gatsby does not want him to think he is "just some nobody." Nick then learns that Gatsby will not make his request personally. Instead, he has asked Jordan Baker to discuss the matter with Nick at tea. Nick's reaction to this is to be annoyed, for he feels the request will be something fantastic, and he does not want to waste his date with Jordan discussing Gatsby. During the rest of the drive into New York, Gatsby sits silent and correct, except when he is stopped by a policeman for speeding. Gatsby pulls out a card from his wallet and shows it to the officer, who then replies, "Know you next time, Mr. Gatsby. Excuse me!" Nick's sense of wonder expands, but he says little to Gatsby. Instead, he sits and observes the passing surroundings. He spies Mrs. Wilson at her husband's gas pump in the Valley of Ashes. He sees a dead man in a hearse, followed by two carriages filled with mourners that have "tragic eyes." He notices a limousine driven by a white chauffeur and carrying "three modish Negroes." He stares at the city skyline rising ahead "in white heaps and sugar lumps all built with a wish out of non-olfactory money." Then Nick reflects that anything can happen in New York, a city filled with mystery and beauty. When Nick joins Gatsby for lunch, he finds him seated with Meyer Wolfsheim, a man in his fifties who wears human molars as cuff links. During their meal, Wolfsheim broods about Rosy Rosenthal's murder at the Metropole years before; after lunch, Gatsby tells Nick that Wolfsheim is the man who fixed the World Series in 1919. Nick, with his proper Midwestern upbringing, is shocked about everything relating to this gentleman and curious about Gatsby's relationship to him. When Gatsby goes to make a phone call, Nick quizzes Wolfsheim, who says he has known their host for several years. He then brags on Gatsby as "a fine man of breeding," and a handsome and perfect gentleman who is "very careful about women." When Gatsby returns, Wolfsheim takes his leave in order to let the two younger men discuss their sports and young ladies. Gatsby then apologizes for making Nick angry earlier in the car, and Nick explains that he does not like mysteries, and he does not like requests going through Jordan Baker. Gatsby responds by saying, " Oh, it's nothing underhand. Miss Baker's a great sportswoman, you know, and she'd never do anything that wasn't right," humorous words spoken to a man who knows that Jordan is "incurably dishonest." As the two of them leave the restaurant, Nick spies Tom Buchanan and goes up to him and introduces Gatsby, who suddenly has "a strained, unfamiliar look of embarrassment." Gatsby then suddenly disappears without saying good-bye, and Nick goes to meet Jordan for tea. As they have tea in the Plaza Hotel, Jordan begins telling Nick a story about Daisy when they were both young girls back in Louisville in 1917. Daisy, at age 18, was the richest and most popular girl in town. One spring day Jordan spied her sitting in her white roadster with a handsome lieutenant, whom Daisy introduced as Jay Gatsby. Jordan thought little about the meeting except to feel pangs of jealousy over the romantic way the soldier looked at Daisy. Soon, however, rumors circulated about Daisy trying to run away to say good-bye to a soldier who was going overseas, but her family stopped her. Daisy seemed to brood for a few months, but by autumn she appeared as happy as ever. In winter, she became engaged to Tom Buchanan, a very wealthy young man from Chicago. But the night before her June wedding, Daisy got drunk and told Jordan she had changed her mind about the marriage. As Daisy cried, Jordan noticed a crumpled letter in her hand, and Daisy refused to let go of it. By the next day, the episode had passed, and Daisy married Tom Buchanan and soon began their lengthy travels. Almost immediately, Tom started to see other women, and Daisy' misery began. As Jordan and Nick leave the Plaza Hotel, they hear children in the park singing "The Sheik of Araby," an appropriate song that seems to foreshadow Gatsby's sneaking into Daisy's life, just as the Sheik of Araby was sneaking into a tent. With this song in the background, Jordan tells Nick the most astonishing news of all. "Gatsby bought the house so Daisy would be just across the bay." Then Jordan reveals Gatsby's request, which Nick had expected to be something fantastic. "He wants to know if you'll invite Daisy to your house some afternoon and then let him come over." He wants to see Daisy, and he wants Daisy to see his house; but Daisy is not to know ahead of time that Gatsby will be there, for he is afraid she might choose not to come. Nick is totally amazed at the modesty of Gatsby's small request. After five years and the purchase of a grand mansion, all he wants is to "come over some afternoon to a stranger's garden." The mystery fades, and the real Gatsby comes alive to Nick; his neighbor is a man with a noble dream, and he is "delivered suddenly from the womb of his purposeless splendor."

When Nick returns home from his date in the city with Jordan Baker, Gatsby's house is ablaze with lights from tower to cellar, but there is no party and no sound. Instead, Gatsby walks over and invites Nick to go to Coney Island or for a swim. Nick declines the invitations but tells Gatsby what he really wants to hear. He will invite Daisy over the day after tomorrow. Gatsby again emphasizes that he does not want to put his neighbor to any trouble, says he will have Nick's lawn mowed for him before her arrival, and offers Nick the opportunity to make a nice bit of money on the side (without any involvement with Wolfsheim). Nick, appalled that Gatsby is tactlessly offering payment for a service to be rendered, says he cannot take on any more work. In spite of Gatsby's "faux pas," Nick calls Daisy the next day, invites her to tea, and tells her not to bring Tom. On the morning of Daisy's visit, scheduled for 4:00 p.m., it is pouring rain, but a gardener, sent by Gatsby, still comes and cuts Nick's grass. At 2:00 p.m., a virtual greenhouse of flowers, complete with containers, arrives from Gatsby. At 3:00 p.m., Gatsby, looking nervous and tired, arrives, dressed in a white flannel suite, silver shirt, and gold tie. He tries unsuccessfully to calm his nerves by reading. Finally, at a little before four o'clock, he announces that obviously no one is coming to tea, and he is going home. Before he can depart, Daisy's open car comes up the drive, and Nick goes out to greet her with her "bright ecstatic smile." She asks Nick in her rippling voice, "Is this absolutely where you live, my dearest one?" She is obviously amazed at the size and appearance of the small bungalow. When Daisy and Nick enter the house, Gatsby has disappeared. He soon, however, knocks at the front door, and Nick finds him outside "pale as death with his hands plunged like weights in his coat pockets and standing in a puddle of water glaring tragically into my eyes." Gatsby comes inside to the living room, and Daisy, in a clear, artificial voice, tells him how glad she is to see him again. Nick can barely hear her voice above the pounding of his own heart. He wants this meeting at his house to be a success, so he leaves the two of them alone for awhile. When Nick re-enters the living room, Gatsby is reclining against the mantel in a "strained counterfeit of perfect ease or boredom...and his distraught eyes stared down at Daisy, who was sitting frightened but gracefully on the edge of a stiff chair." Daisy explains to Nick that she has not seen Gatsby for many years, and Gatsby immediately adds that it has been five years next November, betraying his devotion to Daisy. Fortunately, the awkward moment is broken with the Finnish housekeeper bringing in the tea. In the confusion of cups and cakes, Gatsby gets up, stands away in a shadow, and surveys the scene with tense, unhappy eyes. When Nick goes out to the kitchen, Gatsby follows and moans, "Oh, God! This is a terrible mistake." Nick tries to comfort his neighbor by telling him that Daisy is as embarrassed as he is. Nick then scolds Gatsby, saying he is acting like a little boy and being rude by leaving Daisy all alone. When Gatsby returns to the living room, Nick goes outside to the back yard, observes his neighbor's house for thirty minutes, and gives the history of the mansion. When Nick rejoins the pair in the living room, Daisy is wiping her eyes, which are filled with tears. Gatsby, on the other hand, is glowing with a new well-being. He insists that both Nick and Daisy come over to his house. While the men wait for Daisy to freshen up, Gatsby admires his house and tells Nick that it took him three years to earn the money to buy it. When Nick questions his neighbor about having inherited money to purchase the house, Gatsby covers up once again and says that he lost his inheritance in the big panic of the war. When Nick questions him further about what kind of business he is in, Gatsby, without thinking, says, " That's my affair," and then, realizing his rudeness, adds he has dabbled in the oil business and the drug business. Daisy emerges from Nick's house to join them on the lawn and exclaims that she loves Gatsby's huge house, but does not see how he could possibly live there all alone. He responds by telling her that he keeps it filled with interesting and celebrated people both night and day. The three of them then enter the mansion through the front door with the gold kiss-me-nots at the gate. Inside, the trio wanders through the music rooms, the salons, and the library (where Nick recalls the owl-eyed visitor). Upstairs they visit the bedroom, poolrooms, and dressing rooms, finding Mr. Klipspringer, the "boarder," in one of them. Finally they come to Gatsby's own apartment, which is the simplest room in the whole house except for the solid gold toilet set. Nick, Gatsby, and Daisy sit down and have a drink. During the entire tour, Gatsby has not once stopped looking at Daisy, and he seems to revalue everything in his house according to Daisy's response to it. In Daisy's presence, he has passed through three states of mind --from embarrassment, to joy, to a sense of wonder at her being in his house. He has dreamed about her for so long, and with such intensity, that he is almost dazed in her presence. He nearly falls down a flight of stairs, and he wildly shows off his rows of suits and piles of shirts, which he tosses before his guests in a heap. In reaction, Daisy bends her head into the shirts, cries stormily, and moans that she has never seen such beautiful shirts before. Like Gatsby, she is overcome with her own emotion. The tour of the gardens, the pool, and the hydroplane is postponed due to the rain. Gatsby tells Daisy if it were not for the weather, she could see her own house across the bay with the green light burning at the end of her dock, the same green light that Gatsby stretched his hands toward at the end of Chapter I. Now the green light has changed forever. "Compared to the great distance that had separated him from Daisy, it (the green light) had seemed very near to her, almost touching her...Now it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one." Talk then turns to the photographs in Gatsby's room. He explains that the elderly gentleman is Mr. Dan Cody, who, before his death, used to be Gatsby's best friend. Daisy proclaims that she adores the picture of an eighteen-year-old Gatsby in a yachting outfit. He then shows her newspaper clippings that he has cut out about her; he is interrupted, however, by the ringing of the phone. Gatsby takes the call, explains he cannot talk, and quickly hangs up on the business connection. Daisy then calls him over to the window to look at the pink and golden clouds formed above the sea and tells him that she would like to put him in one of the clouds and push him around. With nothing left to explore, Gatsby calls Klipspringer to entertain them on the piano. The "boarder" protests that he is out of practice, but Gatsby commands him to play, so he taps out "The Love Nest" and "Ain't We Got Fun." At dusk, Nick takes his leave from Daisy and Gatsby. Gatsby's performance is over, and it is "the hour of profound human change," when the world rushes home from work. As he bids farewell, Nick notices that Gatsby's face shows bewilderment, "as though a faint doubt had occurred to him as to the quality of his present happiness (after) almost five years." How could Daisy possibly live up to the illusion that he created about her? She was a dream into which he had thrown himself "with a creative passion, adding to it all the time, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way." But Daisy's voice would always be enchanting "with its fluctuating, feverish warmth, because it couln't be over-dreamed -- that voice was a deathless song."

The wild rumors about Gatsby still abound, and because of them a young reporter from New York shows up at Gatsby's door to interview him. After reporting this incident at the beginning of the chapter, Nick begins to set the record straight about his neighbor. He again interrupts the real chronology of the story to explain Gatsby's past. He was born as James Gatz, and his parents were "shiftless and unsuccessful" North Dakota farmers. The son never accepted them as his parents, but dreamed, even as a boy, of a better life for himself. At age sixteen, he set off to make his own way as a clam digger and salmon fisherman on the shore of Lake Superior. He knew women early and quickly grew contemptuous of them for their ignorant and hysterical behaviors. He went to St. Olaf Lutheran College, hoping to pay for an education by being a janitor, but he scorned the manual work and left after two weeks. Still dreaming of material greatness for himself, he drifted back to Lake Superior, searching for something to do with his life. One day as he loafed on the beach, he spied a large yacht drop anchor nearby. James Gatz rowed a borrowed boat out to the "Tuolomee," which represented all of the beauty and glamour in the world to a young, idealistic boy. The seventeen year old pulled up beside the yacht and introduced himself to Dan Cody, the boat's owner. He gave his name as Jay Gatsby, giving birth to a new person. Along with the new name came a new image of himself, and it was an image to which he would remain faithful. Dan Cody, at the time, was fifty years old and worth millions due to his Montana copper mining venture. With vast wealth and no purpose, he became a drifter, drinker, and womanizer, sometimes prone to violence. But this older gentleman took an immediate liking to the young Gatsby and believed him to be quick and ambitious. As a result, Cody invited the youth to sail with him to the West Indies while serving in a vague capacity as steward, mate, skipper, and secretary. In essence, Gatsby became Cody's assistant and protector, watching over him during his drunken outings and wild parties; in return, Cody trusted the young man more and more. The arrangement lasted five years and through three trips around the continent. It ended only because of Cody's premature death, likely caused by his recent lover, Ella Kaye. She inherited millions from Cody, and Gatsby came away with $25,000, a strong belief in alcoholic temperance, and an amazing new history for himself. Nick has not seen his neighbor in several weeks because Gatsby is devoting his time to Daisy, and Nick has been involved with Jordan. As a result, Nick decides to go over and check on Gatsby one Sunday afternoon. He has not been in Gatsby's mansion for two minutes when a party of three horseback riders stops for a drink. One of the men is Tom Buchanan, and Gatsby is "profoundly" affected by his presence. After introductions are made, Gatsby tells Tom that he knows Daisy. This confession seems to calm his nerves, and he even asks the trio to stay for dinner. The offer is declined, but the female rider casually suggests, out of politeness rather than interest, that Gatsby come to supper with them. The socially unaware Gatsby does not realize that there is no sincerity in her offer, and he goes off to prepare himself for the dinner party. Tom remarks, "My God, I believe the man's coming. Doesn't he know she doesn't want him?" The socially superior Tom immediately recognizes Gatsby's lack of class and wonders how in the world Daisy knows him. When Gatsby returns downstairs, he discovers he has been left behind by the threesome. Tom, who is perturbed over Daisy knowing Gatsby and running around alone too often, brings his wife to Gatsby's next Saturday night gathering. It is the same kind of party with the same kind of people as always, but Nick notices that there is a "peculiar quality of oppressiveness" about his one. He tries to blame the air of unpleasantness on the repetitive nature of the parties, but he instinctively knows that is Daisy's presence that is really causing the change. She tries to be excited about the party-goers and involved in the festivities, but everything about the party offends her. The women are inebriated and acting poorly, and Tom is chasing a girl that is "common but pretty." Daisy is obviously "appalled by West Egg, this unprecedented place that Broadway had begotten on Long Island....appalled by its raw vigor....that herded its inhabitants along a short cut from nothing to nothing." The only pleasures in the evening for Daisy are the time spent with Gatsby and observing a movie star, "a gorgeous, scarcely human orchid of a woman," who sat under a white plum tree all evening being wooed by her director. Daisy's fascination with this couple hints at her own "play-acting" in life. As they are waiting for their car, Daisy and Tom argue about Gatsby. Tom accuses him of being a bootlegger and openly scoffs at the "menagerie" of people at the party. Daisy comes to Gatsby's defense and falsely says that she finds most of the party-goers more interesting than their own friends. She also claims that the poorly behaved guests had not been invited and that the host is just too polite to object to their presence. She also tells Tom that Gatsby's wealth comes from a chain of drug stores that he owns. Before she gets in the car with Tom, Daisy gives one more romantic glance back to Gatsby's mansion and worries that some young girl may steal Gatsby's heart and blot out five years of unwavering devotion to her. Gatsby asks Nick to stay after the other guests have left. Nick immediately notices that his neighbor's eyes look tired and that his face is drawn tight. He is the picture of misery. Gatsby tells Nick that Daisy did not enjoy the party, that she does not understand him, and that he feels far away from her. (Ironically, he felt very close to her when she was still only a dream represented by the green light.) What he wants is for Daisy to tell Tom that she never loved him and to free herself to marry Gatsby. He wants to erase the last five years and recreate everything with Daisy as before. Gatsby, however, is beginning to sense this may never happen. In his misery over that knowledge, he paces up and down "a desolate path of fruit rinds and discarded favors and crushed flowers." Nick tries to warn his neighbor that it is difficult to repeat the past, but Gatsby fools himself into believing that through his wealth he can make everything right with Daisy.