He hadn't once ceased looking at Daisy, and I think he revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes. Sometimes too, he stared around at his possessions in a dazed way, as though in her actual and astounding presence none of it was any longer real.
Chapter 5 · Narrator
Context
During the tour of Gatsby's mansion, Nick observes how Gatsby watches not his possessions but Daisy's reactions to them. Gatsby seems to exist in a state of disbelief, as though the physical presence of Daisy renders his material world insubstantial.
Analysis
The juxtaposition of 'revalued everything' with 'none of it was any longer real' reveals the paradox of Gatsby's materialism: his possessions only have value as instruments to win Daisy, yet her presence—the fulfillment of their purpose—simultaneously renders them meaningless. This passage exposes the self-negating logic of Gatsby's dream: the wealth exists to attract Daisy, but once Daisy is present, the wealth becomes irrelevant, suggesting that the true object of desire was never the reunion itself but the state of longing that preceded it.
How to Use in Essay
Essential for essays arguing that Gatsby's wealth is purely instrumental rather than intrinsically valued, or for analyzing the novel's thesis that desire is sustained by absence and potentially destroyed by fulfillment.