The Great Gatsby Summary
A chapter-by-chapter summary of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, with analysis, key quotes and illustrations of the scenes.
Plot overview
F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, published in 1925, is set in the summer of 1922 on the North Shore of Long Island. The narrator, Nick Carraway, is drawn into the world of his mysterious neighbor Jay Gatsby, a self-made millionaire fixed on one goal: winning back Nick's cousin Daisy Buchanan, the woman he loved years earlier.
Gatsby's enormous parties, his obsessive pursuit of a lost love, and the hollow glamour of the Jazz Age come together in a story about the underside of the American Dream. Fitzgerald sets old money against new and idealism against the corruption that money brings, and lets Gatsby discover how little of the past can actually be repeated.
The novel is one of the most widely read and taught works in American English, known for the precision of its sentences and the force of what it has to say about wealth and class.
Chapter summaries
Chapter 1: Arrival in West EggNick Carraway moves to West Egg, visits his cousin Daisy and Tom in East Egg, meets Jordan, learns of Tom's affair, and first sees Gatsby at night.
II: Valley of AshesNick travels with Tom to the desolate Valley of Ashes where Tom's mistress, Myrtle Wilson, lives and they host a tense, drunken apartment party that ends in violence.
III: Gatsby's Party NightNick attends one of Gatsby's lavish, rumor-filled summer parties and finally meets Gatsby in person.
Chapter 4: Gatsby Revealed and PastNick rides into the city with Gatsby, learns a self-revealing but doubtful biography, meets Meyer Wolfsheim, and Jordan tells Gatsby–Daisy backstory and a plan.
Chapter 5: The Reunion at Gatsby'sNick arranges and witnesses Gatsby and Daisy's awkward, rain-soaked reunion at Gatsby's mansion, which culminates in an intimate, transformative afternoon.
VI: Gatsby’s Past and PartyNick learns Gatsby’s origins and past with Dan Cody, and Daisy visits one of Gatsby’s parties that ends in disappointment.
Chapter 7: Heat, Confrontation, TragedyA broiling day brings a public confrontation between Gatsby and Tom, a fatal car accident, and Gatsby's vigil at Daisy's house.
VIII: Aftermath and Gatsby's PastNick stays with Gatsby through a sleepless night; Gatsby recounts his past with Daisy; Wilson seeks vengeance and the chapter ends with Gatsby and Wilson dead by the pool.
IX: Aftermath and DepartureNick arranges Gatsby's funeral, few people attend, Gatsby's father arrives, and Nick returns West, reflecting on Gatsby and the American past.
Characters
Nick CarrawayNarrator
Tom BuchananAntagonist
Daisy BuchananMajor character
Jay GatsbyProtagonist
Jordan BakerMajor character
Dan CodyMinor character
Meyer WolfsheimMinor character
Ewing KlipspringerMinor character
George WilsonMajor character
Myrtle WilsonMinor character
Owl EyesMinor character
CatherineMinor character
Read The Great Gatsby illustrated
Every scene in these notes comes from the Book2Life reader, where the full public-domain text is illustrated as you read, with character portraits and narration. Free in your browser and on iPhone.
