The Great Gatsby

why do you think daisy sobs when gatsby shows her his shirts? what are gatsby's feelings by the end of the chapter?

his feelings hmmm

Asked by
Last updated by jill d #170087
Answers 1
Add Yours

DAISY AND GATSBY'S SHIRTS Suddenly in this scene the meaning of the novel's epigraph becomes clear: the four-line poem of Thomas Park d'Invilliers that Fitzgerald quotes on the title page describes exactly what Gatsby has done. He has symbolically worn the gold hat; he has bounced high, accumulating possessions for this moment, so that when Daisy sees them she will cry out, like the lover in the poem, "I must have you." And Daisy does. She admires the house, the gardens, the gigantic rooms, the colors o f pink and lavender, the sunken baths. The princess is astounded. Gatsby overwhelms her with these tangible signs of his affection and when he takes his shirts, ordered from England, out of his cabinet and throws them on the bed, she bends her head into th e shirts and begins to cry. "They're such beautiful shirts," she sobs. "It makes me sad because I've never seen such beautiful shirts before."

It seems silly of course to cry over shirts. But it is not the shirts themselves that overwhelm her but what they symbolize: Gatsby's extraordinary dedication to his dream. Wouldn't you be moved to tears to find yourself the object of so much adoration?

Source(s)

http://www.studyworld.com/studyworld_studynotes/great_gatsby/chapter_summaries.htm