The Great Gatsby
Prompt #22 · The Great Gatsby
Prompt Type: Symbol/Motif
The clock that Gatsby nearly knocks over during his reunion with Daisy carries symbolic weight. Analyze how Fitzgerald uses this symbol to explore Gatsby's attempt to recapture and control the past. Explain how it contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.
Quote 1
“Luckily the clock took this moment to tilt dangerously at the pressure of his head, whereupon he turned and caught it with trembling fingers, and set it back in place.”
Chapter 5
Argument
The clock symbolizes Gatsby's desperate attempt to physically stop time during his reunion with Daisy, embodying his futile struggle to control and recapture their past.
Quote 2
“He had passed visibly through two states and was entering upon a third. After his embarrassment and his unreasoning joy he was consumed with wonder at her presence. He had been full of the idea so long, dreamed it right through to the end, waited with his teeth set, so to speak, at an inconceivable pitch of intensity. Now, in the reaction, he was running down like an over-wound clock.”
Chapter 5
Argument
The metaphor of Gatsby as an 'over-wound clock' illustrates his emotional exhaustion after clinging to an idealized past, showing how his obsession has left him emotionally depleted.
Quote 3
Chapter 6
Argument
Gatsby's incredulous cry 'Why of course you can!' reveals his delusional belief in manipulating time, directly opposing the clock's symbolic reminder of time's inevitability.
Quote 4
“Possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever. Compared to the great distance that had separated him from Daisy it had seemed very near to her, almost touching her. It had seemed as close as a star to the moon. Now it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one.”
Chapter 5
Argument
This quote demonstrates the moment Gatsby realizes the green light's symbolic power over him has vanished, mirroring the clock scene's theme of lost illusions—both symbols represent his futile attempt to freeze or reclaim time with Daisy.
Quote 5
“And as I sat there brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy's dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night.”
Chapter 9
Argument
The green light's recurrence here, now framed as a lost dream 'already behind him,' reinforces the clock's symbolism of time's inevitability, showing Gatsby's obsession with the past as both his driving force and ultimate failure.