Gatsby waits outside the Buchanans' house

After the fatal car accident that killed Myrtle Wilson, Jay Gatsby did not flee. Instead, he stationed himself in the shrubbery of the Buchanan mansion, mounting a silent, all-night vigil to protect Daisy from any possible retaliation by her husband, Tom. This watch, undertaken in the immediate aftermath of the catastrophe, represents the final, desperate act of Gatsby's five-year dream—a physical manifestation of his belief that he could still control events and shield Daisy from the consequences of her own actions.

The Vigil Begins

When Nick Carraway returned to West Egg after the accident, he found Gatsby waiting for him in the darkness near the Buchanan property. Gatsby explained that he had been standing there, watching the house, and that he intended to stay "all night, if necessary. Anyhow, till they all go to bed." He had already spoken to Daisy, who had come to the window around four o'clock, stood there for a minute, and then turned out the light. Gatsby interpreted this as a sign that she was safe, but he refused to leave his post. His plan was simple: if Tom tried any brutality, Daisy would signal by turning her light on and off again. Gatsby's entire focus was on her immediate physical safety, a concern that seemed almost absurd given the enormity of what had just occurred.

The Object of the Watch

Gatsby's vigil was not merely a protective gesture; it was a continuation of his fundamental misunderstanding of Daisy's nature. He had told Nick earlier that Daisy "stood it pretty well" after the accident, speaking as if her reaction was the only thing that mattered. He was convinced that Tom would try to harm her, and he was prepared to intervene. Yet when Nick, at Gatsby's request, crept to the kitchen window to check on the couple, he saw a very different scene. Daisy and Tom were sitting opposite each other at the kitchen table, with a plate of cold fried chicken and two bottles of ale between them. Tom was talking intently, his hand covering hers. They were not happy, but they were not unhappy either; there was an unmistakable air of natural intimacy about them, as if they were conspiring together. Gatsby, waiting outside in the moonlight, was watching over nothing.

The Final Stand

Nick urged Gatsby to leave, to go to Atlantic City or Montreal, but Gatsby refused. He could not possibly leave Daisy until he knew what she was going to do. He was clutching at some last hope, and Nick could not bear to shake him free. Gatsby's vigil was the physical expression of his core belief: that he could repeat the past, that he could fix everything just the way it was before. He stood there, his hands in his coat pockets, turning back eagerly to his scrutiny of the house, as though Nick's presence marred the sacredness of the watch. This was the same posture he had struck on the night Nick first saw him, stretching out his arms toward the green light at the end of Daisy's dock. Now, the light was out, and he was guarding a house that had already closed itself against him.

The Aftermath

Gatsby kept his vigil until dawn. When Nick returned the next morning, he found Gatsby leaning against a table in the hall, heavy with dejection or sleep. He reported that Daisy had come to the window at four o'clock and then turned out the light. That was all. The vigil had ended, but Gatsby's refusal to abandon his dream had not. He still insisted that Daisy had never loved Tom, that she had only been frightened by Tom's cruel revelations at the Plaza Hotel. He spent the rest of that day waiting for a telephone call from Daisy that never came, and then, in the afternoon, he went to his pool for the first time all summer. George Wilson, directed by Tom to Gatsby's house, found him there and shot him dead. Gatsby's final vigil, his watch over Daisy, had been the last act of a man who believed that his will alone could shape reality, and it ended, as his entire life had, in the solitude of a dream that no one else shared.