Saturday, April 30, 2016

How does Daisy react to Gatsby's house?

Daisy ends up bursting into tears on her first visit to Gatsby's house. Initially, viewing its vast splendor from outside, she says, "I love it," but also wonders how Gatsby can live there all alone. She admires the beautiful gardens with their odors of jonquils, hawthorn, and plum blossoms, and then Gatsby takes her through the house itself, ending in his bedroom. At this point, he shows her his vast array of shirts, tossing them...

Daisy ends up bursting into tears on her first visit to Gatsby's house. Initially, viewing its vast splendor from outside, she says, "I love it," but also wonders how Gatsby can live there all alone. She admires the beautiful gardens with their odors of jonquils, hawthorn, and plum blossoms, and then Gatsby takes her through the house itself, ending in his bedroom. At this point, he shows her his vast array of shirts, tossing them into a mound. Suddenly Daisy buries her face in the mound and begins to cry "stormily," saying the shirts make her sad because they are so beautiful.


We can understand Daisy to be emotionally overwhelmed by the events of her day, especially reuniting with an old boyfriend she has not seen in five years and possibly feeling some regret over times past and pressure from Gatsby's intense expectations. We can also see her, as we did in the first chapter, when her dress and Jordan's billowed in the breezes, as a person "blown around" by the men in her life, as if on a sea and crying "stormily" in response to emotions she can't quite understand.

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