The relationship between Daisy and Gatsby is all wrong. You have a woman who is only interested in Gatsby because of his wealth. For example when she gets overly emotional about the shirts, “They’re such beautiful shirts,” she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. “It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such-such beautiful shirts before” (p 92). Come on there just shirts, shouldn’t she be crying over the fact that the man she wanted to marry in the first place is back with her. Not eyeing every lavish ornament in his house. Gatsby is no better he just wishes for something he can not get. The thrill of the chase excites him. Daisy is the green light he wants to worship from afar. Once he can attain that light it’s no longer exciting for him. This is explained when Gatsby has gotten daisy and Nick is right about to leave, “As I went over to say good-by I saw that the expression of bewilderment had come back into Gatsby’s face, as though a faint doubt had occurred to him as to the quality of his present happiness. Almost five years! There must have been moments even in that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams-not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion” (p 95). Gatsby has put her image on a pedestal making her super unattainable, only seen in dreams, now that she’s real he doesn’t know what to do.
-Michael Spinosa
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Michael, you're getting to the core of the novel here--but I'd like to make two (perhaps three) comments. First, they're not "just shirts"--they're symbols of Gatsby's wealth. Second, while it's true that Gatsby's "doesn't know what to do," it's because he's so "bewildered" by his own happiness. It's not the "thrill of the chase" that excites him--it's finally having Daisy. Notice that the quotation you include about "Daisy [tumbling] short of his dreams" is attributed to Nick, not to Gatsby. One of the points of the novel is that Daisy NEVER "tumbles short of [Gatsby's] dream"!
Dr. No
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