Chapter Three of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great
Gatsby contains language of such impressionistic musicality that it thrills
the reader. With resplendent imagery and enchanting metaphors and
parallelism, Fitzgerald's narrative delights the
imagination:
The lights grow brighter as the earth luches
away from the sun and now the orchestra is playing yello cocktail music and the opera of
voices pitches a key higher. Laughter is easier, minute by minute, spilled with
prodigality, tipped out at a cheerful word. The groups change more swiftly, swell with
new arrivals, dissolve and form in the same breath--already there are wanderers,
confident girls who weave here and there among the stouter and more stable, become for a
sharp, joyous moment the center of a group and then excited with triumph glide on
through the sea-change of faces and voices and color under the constantly changing
light.
Yet, amidst the swells
of light and impressions, there is the underlying tone of decadence. Repeatedly, the
color yellow is mentioned, the guests conduct themselves "according to the rules of
behavior associated with amusement parks," and artificiality abounds. For instance, one
guest, Lucille, remarks, "I never care what I do, so I always have a good
time."
Chapter Three is a panoplay of the falseness of
Gatsby's world and its illusions. A tenor sings in Italian and a "notorious contralto"
also sings jazz while happy "vacuous bursts of laughter" rise toward the summer sky.
Jordan Baker tells Nick that she likes the large parties that Gatsby gives because
"They're so intimate. At small parties there isn't any privacy." Above all the guests,
even the elements are illusionary and
impressionistic:
The moon had risen higher, and floating in the
Sound was a triangle of silver scales, trembling a little to the stiff tinny drip of the
banjoes on the lawn.
Rumors
circulate about Gatsby--"Somebody told me they thought he killed a man once"--and "East
Egg consescends to West Egg," as West signifies death and the end. Even the narrator,
Nick Carraway has this perception:
I had taken two finger bowls of champagne and the
scene had changed before my eyes into something, significant, elemental and
profound.
He waves his hand
"at the invisible hedge in the distance," and Gatsby appears with a rare smile that has
a "quality of eternal reasssurance in it."
The illusionary
tone of the chapter continues as "the fraternal hilarity increased" at the party.
Discord then interrupts as wives fight with their husbands and people are lifted away
"kicking into the night." Down Gatsby's drive there is "a violent confusion" as a car
that Owl Eyes drives ends in a ditch. After the party, Nick narrates that
A
sudden emptiness seemed to flow" and the windows and great doors of Gatsby's house are
endowed with complete isolation.
Returning home, Nick feels
a "sinking in my heart." His relationship with Jordan Baker ebbs and flows as Jordan has
broken the rules. Nick says he is "full of interior rules that act as brakes on my
desires. For, he views himself as "one of the few honest people that [he has] ever
known" and he sets about breaking off his relations with
Jordan.
All is alluring, illusionary, and impressionistic
in Chapter Three: the language, the structure, and the point of
view.
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