The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby The Use of Imagery
The Use of Imagery
Light and Darkness
Gatsby is associated with light:
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• Moonlight, the green light, starlight, the electric lights of his
house lit up “like the World’s fair”.
• The light seems to symbolise his dream.
• Natural light seems to suggest idealism.
• Electric light could be said to represent his materialistic streak,
his determination to achieve his dreams despite all costs.
Daisy is associated with twilight or darkness:
• She snaps out the candles in Chapter 1.
• She is turning out the lights in her house as Gatsby watches in
Chapter 8.
• ‘Throughout this twilight universe, Daisy began to move again
with the season.’
• This could represent the absence of the imaginative fire that we
see as such a vital part of Gatsby’s personality.
• After his reunion with Daisy, there are fewer references to
lights and Gatsby, as though anticipating the death of his dream
at her hands.
Religion
• Gatsby is described as a ‘Son of God’, about his father’s
business of Empire-making, in an almost blasphemous
metaphor, which sees the transference of the idea of God-like
creation to the idea of the creation of wealth.
• Gatsby is often seen in a series of poses or stances, which
sometimes appear remarkably studied and martyr-like, such as
his nonchalant stance at the chimney breast when Daisy visits
Nick’s house. ‘If personality is a series of unbroken gestures,
then there was something gorgeous about him…’