Chapter 5 Practice Quiz — The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: Chapter 5
Why is Gatsby's house fully lit when Nick arrives home at the start of Chapter 5?
Gatsby is restlessly pacing through his rooms, unable to sleep because he is anxiously waiting to ask Nick to arrange the reunion with Daisy.
What does Gatsby offer Nick as an implicit payment for arranging the meeting with Daisy?
A side business opportunity that would allow Nick to make extra money, which Nick declines because the offer is clearly a quid pro quo for the favor.
What preparations does Gatsby make at Nick's house before Daisy arrives?
He sends a man to cut Nick's lawn and has an enormous delivery of flowers from a greenhouse sent over, filling Nick's cottage.
What does Gatsby do immediately after Daisy arrives at Nick's cottage?
He disappears from the living room, circles the house in the rain, then knocks formally at the front door as if he is a stranger arriving for the first time.
What happens during the awkward silence after Gatsby and Daisy are first face to face?
Gatsby leans against the mantelpiece trying to appear at ease, accidentally tilts a clock with his head, and catches it with trembling fingers before it falls.
How long has it been since Gatsby and Daisy last saw each other?
Almost five years. Gatsby states precisely, "Five years next November."
What does Gatsby whisper to Nick in the kitchen after following him out of the living room?
He whispers "Oh, God!" and says the reunion is "a terrible, terrible mistake," revealing his overwhelming anxiety.
What transformation has occurred when Nick returns after leaving Gatsby and Daisy alone?
All embarrassment is gone. Daisy's face is smeared with tears of joy, and Gatsby literally glows with happiness and a new sense of well-being.
How does Gatsby's behavior change across the three emotional states Nick identifies in Chapter 5?
He moves from acute embarrassment during the initial meeting, to unreasoning joy once he and Daisy reconnect, to a dazed wonder at her actual presence, running down like an overwound clock.
What does Daisy's reaction to Gatsby's shirts reveal about her character?
Her sobbing over the shirts shows a complex mix of genuine emotion, regret for choices she made, and a deep responsiveness to material beauty and wealth that is inseparable from her romantic feelings.
How does Nick describe Gatsby's appearance when he opens the front door to him?
Gatsby is "pale as death, with his hands plunged like weights in his coat pockets," standing in a puddle of water and glaring tragically into Nick's eyes.
Who is Klipspringer, and what is his role in this chapter?
He is a freeloading "boarder" who essentially lives at Gatsby's mansion. Gatsby summons him to play piano for Daisy, and he performs "The Love Nest" and "Ain't We Got Fun."
Who is Dan Cody, as mentioned in Chapter 5?
An elderly man whose photograph hangs in Gatsby's study. Gatsby says he was his "best friend years ago" and is now dead. Cody was Gatsby's mentor and the source of his aspirational lifestyle.
What does the chapter suggest about whether reality can match Gatsby's dream?
Nick observes that Daisy "tumbled short of his dreams—not through her own fault but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion," suggesting Gatsby's idealized fantasy has grown beyond what any real person could satisfy.
How does Chapter 5 treat materialism as a form of emotional expression?
Gatsby uses possessions—the cut lawn, greenhouse flowers, his mansion tour, imported shirts—as substitutes for words he cannot speak, making material display his primary language of love and devotion.
What happens to the green light's symbolic meaning in this chapter?
With Daisy physically present, the green light loses its enchanted significance and becomes merely a light on a dock. Gatsby's "count of enchanted objects had diminished by one," suggesting desire depends on distance.
What is pathetic fallacy, and how does Fitzgerald use it in Chapter 5?
Pathetic fallacy is the literary technique of reflecting characters' emotions through weather. The rain mirrors Gatsby's anxiety, sunshine appears when the couple reconnects, and mist returns when the green light is discussed.
What does the mantelpiece clock symbolize when Gatsby nearly knocks it over?
It symbolizes Gatsby's futile attempt to stop and reverse time in order to recreate his past with Daisy, as well as his extreme nervousness and loss of his usual composure.
What is ironic about the song "Ain't We Got Fun" playing at the end of Chapter 5?
Its lyric "The rich get richer and the poor get children" introduces class tensions that undercut the romantic mood, foreshadowing the social inequalities that will ultimately doom Gatsby's dream.
What does the word "defunct" mean as used to describe the mantelpiece clock?
No longer functioning or in use. The clock is broken or stopped, reinforcing the symbolism of frozen time.
What does "vestiges" mean in the phrase "every vestige of embarrassment was gone"?
A vestige is a trace or remnant of something that once existed. Nick means that absolutely no trace of their earlier awkwardness remained.
What passage does Nick use to describe Gatsby as running down after the reunion?
Nick says Gatsby "was running down like an overwound clock," comparing his emotional exhaustion after the intense buildup to a clock mechanism that has been wound too tightly and is losing its spring.