For my blog post, I am answering; chapter 5, what is revealed about the characters of Gatsby and Daisy based upon their reactions to each other when they finally meet?
In the previous chapters that we have seen Jay Gatsby, he has been portrayed as a calm and collected character. Recently in chapter 5 some other parts of his personality are shown. At 3 o'clock Gatsby arrives at Nick’s house, the event is scheduled to happen at 4 o'clock. This may show that he is very nervous and shows up early to make sure that everything is perfect when Daisy arrives. There are also obvious signs that he is sleep deprived, indicating that he has probably been thinking about the event a lot. As 4 o'clock grows closer, he started to become more and more anxious. Gatsby says that he is going home because he thinks that nobody is coming to tea. Nick talks him out of going home, and Gatsby sits down and looks miserable.
When Daisy arrives Gatsby disappears for a moment only to reappear at the front door after Daisy enters the house. I think that there are two reasons that Gatsby momentarily disappeared, one of the reasons may be that, for a brief moment, he got really nervous and ran, or he wanted to make it look like Daisy arrived before him. When Gatsby enters the living room Daisy instantly recognizes him and starts trying to talk to him. Gatsby acts shy towards Daisy. In the time that follows, awkwardness starts to grow more and more between Daisy and Gatsby. Nick tries to leave the two to be alone, but they both follow him. The tension grows until Nick leaves the two together for about 30 minutes. When Nick goes back to the house, Daisy is crying and Gatsby is “glowed without a word or exultation”. In that time, Gatsby and Daisy spent together they had become comfortable with each other and revealed their feelings for each other.
From this part of the story, we can tell alot about Gatsby and Daisy. Gatsby is not the cool person that can handle anything, in fact he appears to be the opposite. It shows that he is quite vulnerable when it comes to Daisy. His shyness shows a whole new side of him. Before this, he had not been portrayed as a person that is unable to handle talking to people. We can also tell that Daisy and Gatsby have a lot of feelings for each other that they have kept inside of themselves. When they first met some of Daisy’s personality is shown as she starts off by asking questions that seemed like a routine. Gatsby’s acting very shy puts a awkwardness on there relationship, and Daisy starts to become more shy towards Gatsby. Later, they both become more comfortable and more open with each other.
