Regardless of the person wearing it, clothing is a gauge of the class that an individual belongs. The novel “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald is set up in the 1920’s, an era during which new liberties were being discovered in fashion. Customary clothing was being substituted by new, ostentatious attire that demonstrated the wealth of persons, through the use of exaggerated colors and cloths.
Fitzgerald employs clothing descriptions to symbolize all from class on a physical height to deceit on a psychological height. Physically the attires Gatsby is dressed in symbolize wealth. We are told that “he’d left Chicago to East in a fashion that rather took the breath away” (Fitzgerald 10). On a further profound thinking, the colors Gatsby dresses for events are worth being interpreted too. In the mind of James Gatz, better know as Jay Gatsby, new clothes make a new man. He employs this line of thinking and forms his new personality, attire, and house as a deception into the humanity of “Old Money” on his pursuit of Daisy Fay, his long lost love.
Every color brought into view in the novel appears to have a profound meaning when explored. Gold is a key color employed to symbolize wealth apparently, but also contentment (Huber n. p.). Gatsby dressed in a gold tie when he dined with Daisy (Fitzgerald 73), representing his wealth, in addition to, the pleasure he felt at that instance. Silver is, in addition, utilized as color imagery in the story; Gatsby dresses in a silver shirt as he goes for lunch with Daisy, besides the formerly discussed gold tie. Silver is an extra color that represents wealth; a thing that Gatsby desires everybody to imagine he owns (Huber n. p.).
Gatzs utilized attires to make himself for ages, dating back to over five years, when he initially met the gorgeous Daisy Fay. In those days, his idea of attires making the man was slightly dissimilar; it was not his gold ties and silver shirts to make persons imagine he was wealthy, but his military uniform that concealed his social class from everybody, since it made him appear just like any other combatant, wealthy or deprived. He utilized this uniform as a hidden veil with the intention of get close to Daisy.
Sadly, nearly all of the attires and colors revealed formerly are merely tricks for Gatsby to seem like he is wealthy and has never been something else other than that. He employs his attires to reconstruct nearly each aspect of himself history and current (Hughes and Jamie n. p.). Everything in James Gatz’s being appears to be false and just an additional bit of “clothing” to frame the eminent Jay Gatsby: the attire, residence, vehicle and festivities. From the perspective of James Gatz, attires can make a man.
Daisy dresses in a lot of white in the story, which is most probably intended to represent purity; she is depicted as the clean, unblemished award that Gatz is running after. She says, “…dressed up in white flannels, I went over to his lawn” (Fitzgerald 36). Gatsby, as well, has a range of other colors that he dresses. These other attires may have insignificant connotation independently, although in one vital scene Gatsby fetches Daisy up to a room in his residence and reveals to her “a heap of silk shirts that covered the table in many colored disarray -in coral, apple-green and lavender and faint orange with monograms of Indian blue” (Fitzgerald 89). Suddenly, Daisy recognized that she could have had true affection and affluence with Jay. Totally, every other color aids symbolize his riches and his endeavors to be seen.
The landscape wherein Jay Gatsby shows and presents Daisy his clothes is a representation of these riches (129). Wealth and the stern significance of it are revealed through Fitzgerald’s’ diction, orientations to other themes concerning wealth all through the book, and as an elucidation to why Daisy weeps when Gatsby brings the clothes into her sight. Gatsby boasts of his clothing to Daisy as an approach to strike her with his wealth, and Daisy is tickled, since money is all she has ever acknowledged. Fitzgerald’s use of words, or diction, assists to form and put in to Gatsby’s riches as visualized through his attire. While describing the attire, Fitzgerald marks every expensive material.
Diction is, as well, significant when Fitzgerald is recounting the prints and colors of the materials. A reference to dressing, which happens in a later episode, is something that Tom pronounces regarding Gatsby. Abruptly, Gatsby gains lead over Tom and he encounters difficulties trying to cope with the situation (Fitzgerald 127). This concerns the clothing, since Daisy is so possessed with riches that she sheds tears at the view of striking shirts. These shirts had “stripes and scrolls and plaid in coral and apple green and lavender and faint orange with monograms of Indian blue” (Fitzgerald 115).
This sentence is lengthened, thus making the person who reads think that there were more fabrics than there were. The sentence, as well, appears to continue ceaselessly, matching the endless shirts he owned (Shmoop University n. p.). Daisy was brought up with riches and constantly obtained everything that she desired, but this circumstance is dissimilar. On seeing the shirts, she sobbed that …”they are such beautiful shirts” (Fitzgerald 76). Although driving into the town in the vehicle with Jordan and Nick, Tom declares that he has been examining Gatsby (Fitzgerald 98).
Most people would deem the crying of Daisy as a useless action, since tears are usually saved for serious occurrences. Clothing is a thing that everybody can associate with, and that explains why this book is traditional. Since Gatsby dresses in a suit that is flamboyant and looks like a clown suit, Tom supposes that he is not capable of being an Oxford man. The verity that this has such significance in the novel makes much logic (Fitzgerald 97). Gatsby is deemed as new wealth, since he does not know how to be conformist and is continually flashing his wealth about on objects like abundant clothing. Through demonstrating his riches to Daisy, by way of clothes, Gatsby increases Daisy’s fascination with riches through showing her precisely what she desires to observe (Shmoop University n. p.).
Whilst Gatsby is in his forces uniform it becomes hard to distinguish his class. He utilizes this to his benefit, as he manages to catch the attention of Daisy (Shmoop University n. p.). He deceives her that he belongs to a family of high class. In veracity, however, Gatsby was extremely poor, compared to Daisy. His martial clothes create him the man he desires for Daisy. Following arrival from the combat, he spends time and endeavors to make cash, in order he could be the groom Daisy desired to wed (Fitzgerald 137). He then dresses in tailored suits and silk shirts. If he lacked these items, Daisy would not have recognized him, which demonstrates the material character of Daisy.
In conclusion, dressing has always had a key role in the community. The much profligate one’s attire is the better-off one is thought to be, and the less exciting one’s attires are the much inferior one looks. After one observes ties and suits, he/she instantly thinks that one belongs to the upper class, and conversely, sweatpants and sweatshirts formulate an image of a blue-collar person. While these opinions could, be the opposite, this is the approach that is mostly used when evaluating clothing. Fitzgerald employs clothing descriptions to symbolize all from class on a physical height to deceit on a psychological height. Physically the attires Gatsby is dressed in symbolize wealth. Also, colors brought into view in the novel appear to have profound meanings. Gold symbolizes wealth and contentment while silver represents just wealth.
Within the novel, Gatsby does his optimum to look fabulous, in order to deceive Daisy. He desires Daisy to know how rich he has developed into, since she left him due to poverty. Gatsby deems that his riches will win Daisy back. In the current society, we typically judge persons based on the attires they dress in and settle whether somebody is deprived or rich by the clothes they dress. In the current world, persons who dress in excellent attires are more respected in culture than those who do not.
Works Cited
Fitzgerald, Scott F. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 2008. Print.
Huber, Herbert. Use of Colors in The Great Gatsby. 2010. Web.
Hughes, Meredith and Jamie Wheeler. Gatsby’s Clothing. 2007. Web.
Shmoop University. Great Gatsby Society and Class Quotes. Web.