The Great Gatsby: Chapter V / pages 81-96

Summary:

               After his date with Jordan, Nick arrives back home where he notices Gatsby’s house is lit from tower to cellar but unoccupied and silent. He then notices Gatsby walking across his lawn to talk to Nick. Gatsby invites Nick to go to Coney Island with him or to swim in his swimming pool, but Nick declines both offers. Nick tells Gatsby that he’ll invite Daisy over for tea and Gatsby offers to have someone cut his lawn before she comes. Gatsby then proceeds to ask Nick if he would be interested in doing business, without the involvement of Wolfsheim, to attain more money. Nick declines and Gatsby goes back home. Nick then calls Daisy and invites her to come over, but tells her to not invite Tom. When the day planned for their gathering came it was raining. Gatsby sent a man to cut Nick’s lawn as well as some flowers. When Gatsby came over, he was extremely nervous; he even tried going home saying that he couldn’t wait all day. When Daisy came, Nick brought her in to his house but was surprised when Gatsby wasn’t there. Then the doorbell rang and Nick opened the door to Gatsby, who had walked around the house once. When Daisy and Gatsby meet, a tense awkward atmosphere emerges. Gatsby even almost breaks a clock because of his nervousness. Nick then leaves them alone for 2 hours, staring at Gatsby’s house and talking about its past. When he goes back to the room, he finds Daisy shedding tears of Joy and Gatsby glowing with happiness. Gatsby then invites them both over to his house and gives them a tour. They stumble upon Mr. Klipspringer doing liver exercises in a room and then go see Gatsby’s room. Gatsby shows them his array of colorful shirts and Daisy cries because she has never seen such beautiful shirts before. Gatsby then talks about how he could see Daisy’s house from here and the green light that burns all night at the end of her dock. Gatsby then gets Mr. Klipspringer to play a song on the piano, even though Mr. Klipspringer keeps saying how he’s rusty and out of practice. Nick then comments on how the present Daisy may not meet the high expectations of Gatsby, who has idealized her to a high extent in his dreams. After realizing that Daisy and Gatsby had forgotten his presence in the room with them, Nick leaves.

Mr. Klipspringer:

• “…an embarrassed, slightly worn young man, with shell-rimmed glasses and scanty blond hair” (94).

• Mr. Klipspringer is an odd fellow, he was seen doing liver exercises in one of Gatsby’s room so I’m assuming he lives there as a boarder. He plays the piano, but insists that he doesn’t play well. However, Gatsby still makes him play and interrupts him when he tries to talk. He’s poor and is looked down upon by Gatsby. He lets Gatsby treat him in a disrespectful way and does nothing to stop him.

• Mr. Klipspringer was introduced in this chapter in an odd way. He was a disheveled man in pajamas doing liver exercises. In addition, Fitzgerald calls him the “boarder”; I think boarder was put in quotes because Mr. Klipspringer is freeloading off of Gatsby. Because of this, Gatsby treats Mr. Klipspringer with such lack of respect. For example, while Mr. Klipspringer is trying to say how he’s out of practice and can’t play the piano, Gatsby just tells him to not talk so much and play. I’m not sure why Fitzgerald even brings up a character like Mr. Klipspringer, but I’m sure we’ll find out sooner or later.

Quote:

“There must have been movements even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams – not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion. It had gone beyond her, beyond everything” (95).

               This quote goes along with the theme of illusion vs. reality. Gatsby has idealized Daisy for most of his life; his goal in life is to have Daisy. Therefore, when he meets the real Daisy and realizes how different she is from his expectations I’m not surprised that he had doubt. Sometimes in life, we idolize people or things from afar not knowing how they are in real life. Because we hold high expectations, we usually end up disappointing ourselves when we meet the real thing. That is the problem with dreams; sometimes we set our standards too high and thus end with disappointment. In addition, because we are blinded by our own illusion of a person or thing we fail to see how they truly are. In the same way, I believe that Gatsby is blinded by his ideal image of Daisy from the past and fails to see how Daisy truly is now.