Great Gatsby Seminar Questions

Opening Question:
     1. How is the idea of infidelity portrayed through the characters in the Great Gatsby, and what are their reasons for it?
Core Questions:
    1. Why are there far-fetched rumors told about Gatsby?
            - The people who come to Gatsby's parties make and spread rumors about him because they don't         know who Gatsby actually is. The reason why they are rumors and not facts is because it portrays Gatsby as a mysterious character that nobody has seen or heard. Instead, they make extravagant rumors, such as killing a man because he "had found out that he was nephew to Von Hindenburg and second cousin to the devil" (p. 61). They also say he was a German spy, is a bootlegger, and related to German royalty. The people knew nothing about him, and so to fill in that empty knowledge they would guess and repeat things they had heard.
    2. Why does Daisy cry over Gatsby's shirts?
          - When Daisy says that she is sad because she has never seen such beautiful shirts before, she is sad because she realizes that if she had waited for Gatsby after the war, she could have had love and money with a man she truly loves. Instead though, she lives in an unhappy marriage where her husband is unfaithful. She slowly begins to realize how much of a difference this might have made in her life, as she admires Gatsby's splendid house. "Daisy admired this aspect or that of the feudal silhouette against the sky, admired the gardens, the sparkling odor of jonquils and the frothy odor of hawthorn and plum blossoms..."(p.90) and as they tour the house, they  "wandered through Marie Antoinette music-rooms and Restoration salons" (p.91) and "period bedrooms swathed in rose and lavender silk and vivid new flowers..." (p.91).This description of the rooms lays way to how extravagant the rest of the house is and how Daisy admires it, and it is not until she sees the shirts of sheer linen, thick silk, and fine flannel in all kinds of colors and styles that the realization of the life she could have had causes her to cry.

Closing Question:
    1. It has been known for marriage to be in the interests of wealth instead of love for both men and women, as seen in Daisy's and Tom Buchanan's marriage, because it was viewed as necessary  in society to marry into a wealthy family. How would this idea of marrying for money be viewed in present day society?