The Great Gatsby · Chapter
Epigraph explained
A four-line poem attributed to Thomas Parke d'Invilliers, which serves as the book's epigraph.
What happens
A four-line poem attributed to Thomas Parke d'Invilliers, which serves as the book's epigraph. It presents a cynical view of courtship, suggesting that extravagant displays of wealth and effort (symbolized by a gold hat and high bouncing) are the means to win a woman's affection.
Themes in this chapter
The American Dream & Illusion
The epigraph immediately frames the novel's central critique. It reduces the pursuit of love and success to a performative, materialistic display ('gold hat'), suggesting the American Dream is built on illusion and the commodification of desire.
Love and Desire
Love is presented as something to be acquired through performance and material proof. The lover's actions are calculated to elicit a specific cry ('I must have you!'), portraying desire as transactional rather than genuine.
Key passages
“Then wear the gold hat, if that will move her;”
Use the external symbol of wealth and status if that's what it takes to attract her.
Establishes materialism as a primary tool for winning affection.
“If you can bounce high, bounce for her too, Till she cry 'Lover, gold-hatted, high-bouncing lover, I must have you!'”
Exert all your energy and perform spectacularly until she is overcome by the image you've created and demands to possess you.
Highlights the performative, exhausting nature of the pursuit and the ultimate goal: to be desired as an objectified ideal ('gold-hatted, high-bouncing lover').