The Great Gatsby quotes
Separation
“distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away”- chapter one
Nick:”At the enchanted metropolitan twilight I felt a haunting loneliness”- chapter three party
“the valley of ashes” vs “green light”
"It wasn't a coincidence at all... Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay"
chapter 4
“a bright rosy coloured space, fragilely bound into the house by french windows at either end” Buchanan's house
Pain and loss
“[Gatsby] must have felt that he had lost the old warm world, and paid a high price for living too long with a single dream.”
“it was what preyed on Gatsby,what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams.”
“He found what a grotesque thing a rose is and how raw the sunlight was upon the scarcely created grass.”
“After Gatsby’s death the East was haunted for me like that, distorted beyond my eyes’ power of correction”-Chapter 9
“a line of gray cars crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak, and comes to rest”
Enduring love
“He talked a lot about the past, and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy.” links to the theme memory”
“green light”
“boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past”-chapter 9
"Gatsby, pale as death, with his hands plunged like weights in his coat pockets, was standing in a puddle of water glaring tragically into my eyes."Chapter 5
"He wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and say: 'I never loved you'... just as if it were five years ago. "
idealised love
“He found what a grotesque thing a rose is and how raw the sunlight was upon the scarcely created grass.”-chapter 8 last moments of Gatsby before he died.
"He wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and say: 'I never loved you'... just as if it were five years ago. "
“it excited him, too that many men had already loved Daisy-it increased her value in his eyes”
"in her heart she never loved anyone except me!" Gatsby
"I'm going to fix everything just the way it was before"
Lust and desire
“Had gone beyond her, beyond everything”
Time/the past/memory
"Can't repeat the past?" he cried incredulously. "Why of course you can!"
“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
chapter 9
“if that was true he must have felt that he had lost the old warm world, paid a high price for living too long of a dream”
“i'm going to fix everything just the way it was before”
"He wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and say: 'I never loved you'... just as if it were five years ago. "
“what Gatsby” “she said in the strangest voice that it must be the man she used to know”
“he kept looking at the child with surprise. I don’t think he had ever believed in its existence before”
Unrequited love
“She only married you because i was poor”
chapter 7
“His dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it.”chapter 9
“Of course she might have loved him just for a minute, when they were first married- and loved me more even then, do you see?”
chapter 8
“he kept looking at the child with surprise. I don’t think he had ever believed in its existence before” chapter 7
“green light”
"tense and unhappy eyes" Gatsby page 56
"transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air" the valley of ashes
Angry, and half in love with her, and tremendously sorry, I turned away. The Great Gatsby. Chapter 9, Confused after his Gatsby experience, Nick turns his back on Jordan and all the things the East represents.
"I'm sick" - Wilson is love sick, his romantic reaction to Myrtle betraying him, page 78
"griefs of wild and unknown men" chapter 1. Gatsby's lifestyle where he hosts parties just to gain the attention from Daisy this sense of continuous grief just to reach her.
"I thought he knew something about breeding, but he wasn't fit to lick my shoe" chapter 2
"most of these fellas will cheat you every time. All they think of is money" Myrtle- hypocrite
"carried her flesh sensuously" Myrtle fufills tom's pursuit of her
"Once in a while I go off on a spree and make a fool of myself, but I always come back, " (Tom about his infidelity) tom is a symbol for lust
"every young girl wants to be looked at sometime" suggests Gatsby stared at Daisy lustfully
"beautiful little fool"
"He stayed there a week, walking the streets where their footsteps had clicked together" chapter 8
"I began to have a feeling of defiance, of scornful solidarity between Gatsby and me against them all" chapter 9
"It excited him, too that many men had already loved Daisy it increased her value in his eyes"
"can't repeat the past? Why, of cause you can!
"No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man can store up in his ghostly heart."
"Myrtle Wilson, her life violently extinguished"
"They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money"
"he must have felt he had lost the old warm world, paid a high price for living too long with a single dream."