Tom and Daisy attend Gatsby's party

Tom and Daisy Buchanan attend one of Jay Gatsby's lavish parties, an event that exposes the deep social and personal chasms between East Egg and West Egg, and marks a decisive turning point in Gatsby's pursuit of Daisy. The evening, which stands out in Nick Carraway's memory as peculiarly oppressive, brings the Buchanans into direct contact with Gatsby's world for the first time, and the encounter leaves Daisy appalled and Tom suspicious, setting the stage for the fatal confrontation that follows.

Arrival and First Impressions

Tom and Daisy arrive at Gatsby's mansion at twilight, and Daisy's voice immediately begins playing "murmurous tricks in her throat." She whispers to Nick that the party excites her, and she jokes about kissing him, offering to arrange it if he just mentions her name or presents a green card. Tom's arrogant eyes roam the crowd, and he remarks that he doesn't know a soul there, a statement that underscores his alienation from this West Egg gathering. Gatsby, profoundly affected by Tom's presence, takes them on a ceremonial tour from group to group, introducing them with a flourish: "Mrs. Buchanan . . . and Mr. Buchanan——" After a moment's hesitation, he adds, "the polo player." Tom quickly objects, but the title sticks for the rest of the evening, a label that both flatters and mocks his identity.

Daisy's Disenchantment and Tom's Suspicion

Daisy dances with Gatsby, and Nick is surprised by his graceful, conservative fox-trot. They then sit on the steps of Nick's house for half an hour, while Nick remains watchfully in the garden at Daisy's request, "in case there's a fire or a flood, or any act of God." Tom, meanwhile, disappears into his own "oblivion," eating with other people and enjoying some "funny stuff." When they sit down to supper together, Daisy tells Nick that the girl at their table is "common but pretty," and Nick realizes that except for the half-hour she spent alone with Gatsby, she is not having a good time. The rest of the party offends her—she is appalled by West Egg, this unprecedented "place" that Broadway had begotten upon a Long Island fishing village, appalled by its raw vigor and the too obtrusive fate that herded its inhabitants along a short-cut from nothing to nothing. She sees something awful in the very simplicity she fails to understand. Tom, for his part, demands to know who Gatsby is, suggesting he is "some big bootlegger." When Nick denies it, Tom insists that Gatsby must have "strained himself to get this menagerie together."

Gatsby's Depression and the Unrepeatable Past

After the Buchanans leave, Gatsby immediately tells Nick, "She didn't like it." Nick tries to reassure him, but Gatsby insists, "She didn't have a good time." He is silent, and Nick guesses at his unutterable depression. Gatsby confesses, "I feel far away from her. It's hard to make her understand." He dismisses the dances he has given with a snap of his fingers, saying, "Old sport, the dance is unimportant." What he wants is for Daisy to go to Tom and say, "I never loved you." After she obliterates four years with that sentence, they can decide on practical measures: after she is free, they will go back to Louisville and be married from her house, just as if it were five years ago. When Nick cautions, "You can't repeat the past," Gatsby cries incredulously, "Can't repeat the past? Why of course you can!" He looks around him wildly, as if the past were lurking in the shadow of his house, just out of reach of his hand. He talks a lot about the past, and Nick gathers that he wants to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy.

The Evening's Aftermath and Narrative Significance

The party marks a profound shift in the novel's trajectory. It is the first time Tom and Daisy enter Gatsby's constructed world, and their reactions—Daisy's revulsion and Tom's suspicion—shatter Gatsby's illusion that he can simply reclaim the past. The evening reveals the unbridgeable gap between Gatsby's romantic vision and the social reality of East Egg, and it plants the seeds of Tom's determination to investigate Gatsby's affairs, a determination that will lead directly to the confrontation at the Plaza Hotel and the tragedy that follows. Gatsby's subsequent depression and his desperate assertion that the past can be repeated underscore the tragic flaw at the heart of his character: his inability to accept that time and circumstance have irrevocably changed both Daisy and their relationship.