Summary
A lavish party at Gatsby's. Jazz plays as people dance around a giant fountain. Nick enters the party, when a young flapper suddenly hands him a drink. He hears Jordan laughing with a man nearby, and walks up and greets her. "I hoped you'd be here," Jordan says to him, as people dance a wild Charleston on the dance floor. A woman talks about how she ripped her dress at one of Gatsby's parties and he sent her a new one in the mail. A drunken girl then says that she heard a rumor that Gatsby killed a man. Another tells them he was a spy during the war. A man says he heard he was in oil, and that he grew up in Texas. Everyone has different stories about Gatsby.
Jordan and Nick walk through the party, passing by two flappers dancing with each other. A man tells jokes for a crowd, when suddenly a tall man pours a drink on him and a fight breaks out. Jordan and Nick dance a tango on the dance floor. Afterwards as they're talking, a butler approaches Nick and instructs him to follow him, without giving him any details. "I was invited," Nick says, thinking he's getting kicked out, but the butler silently leads him into the house. They ride an elevator upstairs, and as they do, Nick notices a gun in the butler's jacket pocket. "Are you sure you have the right person?" Nick asks, and the butler nods.
Upstairs, Nick finds Gatsby, who calls him "old sport," and shakes his hand. Gatsby wants to get to know Nick, but is strangely silent. Suddenly the phone rings, and Gatsby carries out some tense business, saying to the person on the other end, "I don't give a damn what Philadelphia wants. I said a small town. If that's his idea of a small town, he's no use to us." Hanging up, Gatsby smiles before asking Nick if there's anyone at the party he'd like to meet, then inviting him to lunch the next day.
Nick leaves hastily, running into the gun-toting butler in the hall, then returns to the party. Downstairs, Nick sees a man singing an aria from The Barber of Seville near a piano, and chuckles as it begins to rain and guests run for cover. The guests run into the mansion and continue to dance inside.
The next day, Gatsby shows Nick one of his cars and asks him if he wants to drive it. "What's your opinion of me, anyhow?" Gatsby asks him, but Nick doesn't say much. Gatsby then tells him that he's the son of wealthy people from the Midwest, who are all dead now. "I was raised in America, but educated at Oxford," he tells Nick, as they drive. He tells him that he lived many places in Europe trying to get over a sad event in his early life, before enlisting in the army and becoming a "distinguished soldier." Gatsby shows Nick a medal he received in Montenegro.
"Why are you telling me this?" Nick asks, and Gatsby tells him he thought he might help him make some extra money in one of his side businesses, and that he's taking him to meet a friend and business associate. Nick looks back at a car from Gatsby's following close behind.
At a smokey bar, Gatsby's friend, Meyer Wolfsheim, talks about a restaurant across the street, and one night in particular when an associate of theirs, Rosy Rosenthal, was shot. It seems like Wolfsheim is somehow involved with the mafia, and he asks Nick if he's looking for a job. "This is a friend," Gatsby says, trying to correct Wolfsheim, who abruptly shows Gatsby his watch. Gatsby excuses himself to use the telephone, as Wolfsheim turns to Nick and tells him that he made Gatsby who he is, that when he first met him, he was so hard up, he could only afford to wear his old military uniform. This doesn't match with what Gatsby told Nick about his monied upbringing. Holding up his sleeves, Wolfsheim shows Nick that his cuff buttons are made out of human molars.
As Gatsby comes back to the table, Wolfsheim excuses himself. After Wolfsheim has left, Nick jokes that Wolfsheim is a dentist. Laughing, Gatsby tells Nick that Wolfsheim is a gambler, who fixed the 1919 World Series. "Why isn't he in jail?" Nick asks, and Gatsby tells him that Wolfsheim is too smart to get caught. All of a sudden, they are interrupted by Tom Buchanan, who greets Nick. Nick introduces Tom to Gatsby, and Tom asks him how he can afford to have lunch with big business types.
Later, Jordan visits Nick at work, and asks him to excuse himself, so she can tell him a piece of gossip. Outside, she tells him that Gatsby asked her to ask Nick to invite Daisy over to his house and "let him come over." "Why didn't he ask me himself?" Nick asks, to which Jordan responds, "I think he was afraid. He's waited so long, he thought you might be offended."
"I think he half expected her to wander into one of his parties some night, but she never did," Jordan says. Nick wonders why Gatsby is so enamored of Daisy, and Jordan suggests that Daisy "ought to have something in her life." When Nick asks if Daisy wants to see Gatsby, Jordan tells him that it's supposed to be a secret, and implies that Daisy will be pleased to see him.
Nick pulls his car up to his cottage in the rain and runs up to his porch. Out of the rain comes Gatsby, checking to see if Nick has invited Daisy over yet. Nick suggests the day after tomorrow, and Gatsby notes that he will have to get Nick's lawn mown before then, before adding that he wants to pay Nick for his help. Nick declines and Gatsby leaves.
Daisy receives a call from Nick while she's in the bath. He invites her over and tells her not to bring Tom. A gardener cuts Nick's lawn, and a number of servants arrive with large bouquets of flowers for the house. Gatsby comes over later in a white suit, seeming nervous. Gatsby has a silver tea set brought in and placed on the table in anticipation of Daisy's arrival.
Gatsby reads a magazine, as Nick smiles at him. The clock ticks as they wait for Daisy to arrive. Abruptly, Gatsby says he wants to go home, thinking that Daisy isn't coming and insisting, "This is a terrible mistake."
Daisy arrives in her car and playfully asks Nick if he's in love with her. They go into his cottage and she admires the white flowers everywhere. "White—my favorite color!" she says, when suddenly she spots Gatsby's reflection in the mirror. Nick introduces the couple, but Gatsby tells him that they already know each other, and that it's been 8 years since they've seen each other.
"Shall we have some tea?" Nick asks, but Gatsby and Daisy cannot stop staring at one another. He goes outside and walks onto his lawn, as rain from the gutter pools next to his house. Nick sits on a bench and smokes a cigarette, watching some cardinals eat bird food nearby. After a while, Nick goes back inside and tells Gatsby and Daisy that it's stopped raining. "I feel today's like someone's birthday, let's have champagne!" Daisy says, and Gatsby invites them both over to his mansion.
While Daisy washes up, Gatsby and Nick go on the porch, where Gatsby says he earned the money to buy his mansion in 3 years. "I thought you said you inherited your money," Nick says, and Gatsby says that he did, but lost most of it in "the panic of the war." "What business are you really in?" asks Nick, frankly, and Gatsby tells him he's been in several businesses. Daisy comes out and admires Gatsby's mansion.
They walk through the giant house, when suddenly they come upon a man who moved in after Gatsby's latest party. "Klipspringer here plays the piano," Gatsby says, and Klipspringer begins to play the piano for them as they continue their tour of the house.
Analysis
In this section, Nick meets the mysterious and unknowable Gatsby, after being led to a room by a strangely silent, and gun-toting butler. Gatsby is a man of contradictions. He is a handsome and monied man whose servants carry guns and seem like thugs. He is a man who hosts lavish events on his lawn, but tells Nick that he doesn't like parties. The minute that Nick steps into his room at the mansion, it becomes clear that his life is about to change, but it is unclear just how. At the end of his brief meeting with Gatsby, Nick has learned next to nothing about the enigmatic host, only that he conducts high level business and that he would like to get to know Nick better. Nick leaves the interaction more creeped out than anything.
The more Nick learns about Gatsby, the more mysterious the eccentric millionaire becomes. The day after they meet at the party, Gatsby takes him on a drive and speaks in sweeping, vague terms about his personal history, bragging about his large inheritance and all the medals he won in the war. Gatsby does not wear his privilege easily, and seems rather pretentious when talking about all of his fineries. Then, when they go to lunch in the city, Gatsby's friend Wolfsheim appears to have some ties to the mafia, and gives contradictory information to Nick about Gatsby when Gatsby leaves the table.
Things get all the more mysterious when it is revealed that Gatsby has a connection with Daisy. After their day spent together, Gatsby makes no mention of his desire to meet Daisy, but sends Jordan as a messenger to plant the idea of a tea date with Nick. She participates in the mysterious game, and Nick has no choice but to play along, agreeing to invite his cousin over and being a good sport when Gatsby has the lawn mowed, and flowers and tea brought in. Gatsby and Daisy evidently have a history, but it is unclear what the nature of it is, and it is even more unclear why Gatsby is so nervous. He hardly seems like an imperious business man, but rather comes off as an anxious teenager, as he prepares for a reunion with Daisy.
At the center of the film is the love story between Daisy and Gatsby, and their first encounter, and the revelation that they have already been acquainted, is accompanied by sweeping romantic music that emphasizes the tenderness of their love. When Daisy first looks up from the flowers to see Gatsby's reflection in the mirror, a lush theme song plays. She turns over her shoulder as the camera zooms in on her expectant expression. Gatsby stares back, scared and loving, sweat covering his brow. Almost an hour into the film, the central romance blossoms before our very eyes, and all other characters recede as Daisy and Gatsby are reunited.
Nick becomes that much more distant from the central action once Gatsby and Daisy are reconnected. Their connection is so strong that they can hardly take their eyes off one another once they meet at his cottage, and Nick is left to fend for himself. His services having been rendered, Nick recedes into the background, giving them space and having a cigarette outside while they catch up. His status as an observer, a writer, a voyeur, is all the more heightened by his position in relation to the affluent Gatsby and Daisy. Even though people trust Nick and want him to be around to help them, he is often left outside of events, barely a participant in his own life.
