Free Sample Essays > North American
What Impressions are Created of Gatsby in Chapters III, IV and V?
The long-running theme of illusion versus reality is centralised through the character of Jay Gatsby. Throughout chapters III, IV and V in ‘The Great Gatsby’ the reader first learns of the rumours that surround his character which as a consequence means that when he appears one must constantly compare him to the preconceptions of him. Gatsby is portrayed as false and pretentious, but at the same time charming and intriguing. This is achieved partly through the narrator, Nick, who is ‘simultaneously enchanted and repelled’ and therefore has a changeable view of Gatsby, however it as also achieved through the complexity of Gatsby as a character and his overwhelming devotion to the realisation of his dream. When analysing Gatsby and our first impressions of him it is also important to take into consideration the biased and changeable view of the narrator, Nick.
Chapter III introduces the reader to one of the numerous parties that Gatsby throws over the course of the summer. At the beginning of the chapter Nick still refers to Gatsby as his ‘neighbour’ and this indicates a degree of unfamiliarity. This anonymity is retained throughout the duration of the party and his guests’ speculation. ‘Somebody told me he killed a man once’ displays the contrast between the mystery that surrounds him and the type of people that frequented his parties. ‘It was testimony to the fact that the romantic speculation he inspired that there were whispers about him from those who had found little that it was necessarry to whisper about in this world.’ A vulgar society of people concerned with gossip and self elevation is portrayed as visitors of Gatsby’s parties and this contributes to the pejorative description of Gatsby. Nick and Jordan’s encounter with the drunken man in the library illustrates the conviction of many that the owner of the house is merely feigning the grandeur and education that he desires his house to convey. ‘This fella’s a regular Belasco’ shows that even though his visitors are surprised to see that the books in the library have pages in them, they are merely impressed that the effort he has put in to creating a real library, rather than believing that he may have read something. At this stage in the book Gatsby is more of a myth rather than a character.
One is able to see the conflicting views the narrator has of Gatsby in the very first direct description of him. Gatsby is described as at times, possessing qualities that have the ability to make one feel very special. ‘It understood you just so far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you just as you like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey’ is a sentence that allocates a huge amount of power and capabilities to Gatsby’s character. Fitzgerald’s use of the words, ‘understood’, ‘believed’, ‘assured’ and ‘hoped’ suggest a warm, endearing and perceptive displays this sort of smile. Repetition [next page]