How Does Fitzgerald Use Music In The Great Gatsby

Music in the Great Gatsby Music plays a significant role in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Jazz music, most commonly found throughout the story, is often associated with the decadence and excess of the Roaring Twenties, as well as the freedom which also came with it. Music is often used as a way to comment on issues in society, Fitzgerald uses it to comment on moments within his story. Music in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is an allegory symbolizing the irony of moments within the novel.

After Gatsby asks his pianist to play a song for him he plays, “ONE THING’S SURE AND NOTHING’S SURER THE RICH GET RICHER AND THE POOR GET— CHILDREN.” (Fitzgerald, 102) The only time in the story that Fitzgerald directly quotes a song.

At the start of Chapter 3, Nick notes the scene coming from one of Gatsby’s parties. “There was music from my neighbor’s house through the summer nights. In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars.” (Fitzgerald, 43) Gatsby’s parties are a major display of wealth, and the closest accomplishment of the American Dream in the story. As these men and women partake in the lavish parties of Gatsby, they listen to Jazz, a music which is the embodiment of freedom. Gatsby has money, he has freedom, he has music. His parties and the music which surround it follows Gatsby and the freedom he has. But, he places a constraint, his infatuation with his dream continues to limit his freedom, tying him to a place which he will spend his days searching for something he will die

Gatsby’s dream, a lover and married woman, Daisy. Daisy and Gatsby sneak off during one of his parties, “Daisy began to sing with the music in a husky, rhythmic whisper, bringing out a meaning in each word that it had never had before and would never have again.” (Fitzgerald, 116). Gatsby is a man who firmly holds on to the past, longing to relive it. The change in him and Daisy’s relationship is something that he refuses to accept. Each moment is different and will never be repeated again, despite Gatsby’s attempt. Lost to the world except in someone’s memory, just like a performance would be. In this instance music is used to draw a connection between impermanence and Gatsby. Gatsby’s dream is to relive his past with Daisy, something that will never be achieved. The American Dream at its very core is broken, unattainable. Even in moments of happiness, Gatsby’s dream woman continues to melt