The Creation of Jay Gatsby

The Costume

Gatsby’s clothing seems to be relatively normal compared to the time and place. He is often described wearing french button ups, which alludes to his wealth, but also his brief time spent in Europe during the war days. The colour of his suits can represent the mood or a particular theme. During his first meeting with Daisy, he is wearing white. “…Gatsby, in a white flannel suit, silver shirt, and gold-coloured tie…” White represents purity, and it also represents how their relationship is still “pure” as they haven’t yet learnt things about each other which would make them uninterested. The few colours that Gatsby is wearing are also the name of precious metals, again referring to his immense wealth. White is also a colour Daisy is described as wearing during the book, as Daisy is seen as a good girl, pure. “…on which two women (Daisy and Jordan) were…” They were both in white…” The flower is also white.

During the argument scene at the Plaza Hotel, Gatsby is described as wearing a pink suit. “‘Like hell he is! He wears a pink suit.'” The pink could represent the purity of their first meeting (and white suit) being tainted by something bad (like how blood stains white cloth, the cloth goes pink). This shift in colours to be darker and less pure could relate to the fact that later that night Daisy accidentally kills Myrtle in Gatsby’s car.

The Props

The props are a very important thing to Gatsby’s disguise. The main one he has are the yellow car. “‘It was a yellow car,’ he said, ‘big yellow car…” The car has symbolism through its colour. As we talked in class before, yellow is almost a “fake gold”, like it’s pretending. This lines up well with Gatsby as almost everything he does is trying to imitate a sort of wealthy character. Other characters who aren’t pretending are described with actual gold, while Gatsby is related to yellow.

Another prop are his photos, of Cody, of Daisy, of Oxford. While he keeps the picture of Cody around, I believe he does so as to honour the man who helped him with his disguise. He keeps the Daisy photo around as a way to remind himself of her, as soldier do in the war. It kept telling him what all this effort was for. As for Oxford, he keeps it as a way to keep up his disguise, so more people buy into it.