In the novel The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses colours to emphasize different aspects of life or the personalities of characters. He uses yellow to portray Gatsby’s and Myrtle Wilson’s death. Green signifies Gatsby’s hopes and dreams of life with Daisy. Blue represents George Wilson’s hopes for better life and the people who live in the Valley of Ashes, hope for prosperity. At the same time blue also represents wisdom seen in the eyes of T. J. Eckleburg represent. White represents Daisy’s fickle and careless approach to life. Fitzgerald incorporates these colours in clothing, surroundings, and belongings of people.
Yellow is associated with the death of Gatsby and Myrtle Wilson. Even before the climax of Myrtle’s death, Fitzgerald prepares us for this tragic event by using yellow to describe Myrtle’s living surroundings. She lives with her husband in the Valley of Ashes above the garage. “ The only building in sight was a small block of yellow brick sitting on the edge of the waste land” (p. 27. ) While Daisy drives with Gatsby in his yellow car, Myrtle runs onto the road in front of the car, trying to stop it. “‘ It was a yellow car,’ he said, ‘ big yellow car. New’” (p. 33).
She believes Tom Buchanan is in the car because she sees him driving the yellow car in the past. Daisy hits Myrtle, and without stopping to look what she did, she drives away. The same yellow car leads to Gatsby’s death because George Wilson figures out who owns the car by inquiring about it. “ He announced that he had a way of finding out whom the yellow car belonged to” (p. 149). George thinks that Tom killed Myrtle. However, Tom explains to George that it was Gatsby’s car that killed her. George goes over to Gatsby’s house and shoots Gatsby.
Yellow also ends the life of Gatsby. He is last seen alive walking by the yellowing trees. “ He shook his head in a moment disappeared among the yellowing trees. ” (p. 153) He is shot by George Wilson and the yellow trees shows the reader that he was going to die. By repeating symbols of yellow, Fitzgerald makes us understand how colours can be used to emphasize events. The second colour used in this novel is green. It represents Gatsby’s hopes and dreams of life with Daisy. At the beginning of the novel, Gatsby sees the green light on the other side of the dock where Daisy lives. I glanced seaward- distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been at the end of a dock. ” (p. 25).
That is where Gatsby stares with a dreamy look because the green light that is at the end of a porch across the lake from Gatsby’s mansion shines at Daisy’s house. This is his hope that he will one day be with Daisy. He loves Daisy so much that he hopes that he can persuade here into leaving Tom. Whenever the green light shines at the end of Daisy’s house, it represents Gatsby’s hope that he will someday be able to live with Daisy.
“ She never loved any one except me! ” (p. 24) Gatsby believes that Daisy will leave Tom and go and live with him but Daisy cannot say that she never loved Tom so Gatsby gets embarrassed. Tom spoils Gatsby’s chances with Daisy by humiliating him. Gatsby asks Daisy to come over one night. She does not and once Gatsby realizes this, his hope for Daisy is over and he no longer sees the green light. “‘ I waited, and about four o’clock she came to the window and stood there for a minute and then turned out the light’” (p. 140) When the light was “ turned out” Fitzgerald uses this as a symbol of Gatsby’s end of hope and dream. Blue represents hope in the story.
Tom’s blue car represents Tom’s hope that he will be able to repair his relationship with Daisy. T. J. Eckleburg’s eyes show that there is hope for the people in the Valley of Ashes. “ The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic” (p. 26). The poster of T. J. Eckleburg looks over the Valley of Ashes and gives everyone who live in it hope. Wilson, who lives in the Valley of Ashes hopes that he will someday be rich because he has rich clients who can make him a wealthy man. “ When he saw a damp gleam of hope sprang into his light blue eyes” (p. 28). It is Wilson who hopes to be rich and move somewhere else.
Blue not only represents hope but also wisdom. God is a person who knows all and sees all. He is the most influential person and is the mightiest. “ God sees everything. ” When George Wilson says this he is referring to T. J. Eckleburg who is looking down on the Valley of Ashes just like God looks down on the earth from Heaven. Also, Tom’s blue car can represent his wisdom. He figures out that Gatsby is a fraud and that Daisy wants to leave him for Gatsby. “‘ And what colour’s your car? ‘ ‘ It’s a blue car, a coupe’” (p. 135). He finds this all out by himself without the help of anyone else.
Finally, Wilson finds out that Myrtle is not faithful to him and is cheating on him. He never finds out that it is Tom but he still finds out that she was not faithful. Wilson’s blue eyes “ When he saw a damp gleam of hope sprang into his light blue eyes” (p. 28) represents his wisdom. Blue represents wisdom of some characters in this story as well as hope for them. White represents Daisy’s artificial and selfish way of life. “ For Daisy was young and her artificial world was redolent of orchids and pleasant, cheerful snobbery” (p. 143). This shows that Daisy only cares about herself and that she does not care for anyone.
She first does not marry Gatsby because he is poor. She marries Tom because he is rich. Her life does not really have any meaning because she does not do anything with it. She drives a white car, “ They had driven in her white car. ” (p. 145), her curtains in her house are all white. “ The windows were ajar and gleaming white against the fresh grass outside” (p. 13), she and even her friend dresses in white. “ They were both in white, and their dresses were rippling and fluttering as if they had just been blown back” (p. 13). The white surroundings and belonging represent her shallow and superficial life.
Fitzgerald successively portrays one character with one colour. In this case it is Daisy who is associates with white colour. The characteristics are shown by colours in the Great Gatsby. As people come to their death, yellow signifies the end of their lives. Daisy is Gatsby’s green light witch represents his hope. Blue represents hopes and wisdom for many people throughout the novel and white represents fickleness of Daisy. F. Scott Fitzgerald does a good job using colours as characteristics because he uses the same colours for the same characteristic over and over again.
