by Peter Griffith
F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel ‘The Great Gatsby’ was published one hundred years ago. Since then, it has remained one of the most popular American books; it embodies the ‘American Dream’ and the ‘Jazz Age’.
A certain Jay Gatsby suddenly appears in New York high society. Nobody knows the truth about his past or the source of his enormous wealth. At his estate on Long Island, he organises legendary parties to which New York's elite are desperate to be invited.
But Gatsby stages all this for just one guest: Daisy Buchanan, his childhood sweetheart and the object of all his desires.
Daisy is now married to Tom Buchanan, who in turn is having an affair with Myrtle Wilson. Myrtle dreams of swapping her life as the wife of petrol station owner George for the glittering world of the rich. When Nick Carraway, Daisy's cousin, becomes Gatsby's new neighbour, new opportunities arise to finally see Daisy again...
Photos of 'The Great Gatsby'
Extract from the script 'The Great Gatsby'
| Tom: | Self-control! I suppose the latest thing is to sit back and let Mr Nobody from Nowhere make love to your wife. Well if that’s the idea you can count me out. Nowadays people begin by sneering at family life and family institutions and next they’ll throw everything overboard and have intermarriage between black and white. |
| Jordan: | We’re all white here. |
| Tom: | I know I’m not very popular. I don’t give big parties. I suppose you’ve got to make your house into a pigsty in order to have any friends, in the modern world. |
| Gatsby: | I’ve got something to tell you, old sport |
| Daisy: | Please don’t. Please let’s all go home. Why don’t we all go home? |
| Jordan: | That’s a good idea. Come on Tom. Nobody wants a drink. |
| Tom: | I want to know what Mr Gatsby has to tell me. |
| Gatsby: | Your wife doesn’t love you. She’s never loved you. She loves me. |
| Tom: | You must be crazy. |
| Gatsby: | She never loved you, do you hear? She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me. It was a terrible mistake, but in her heart she never loved anyone except me! |
| Tom: | Sit down Daisy. What’s been going on? I want to hear all about it. |
| Gatsby: | I told you what’s been going on. Going for five years – and you didn’t know. |
| Tom: | You’ve been seeing this fellow for five years? |
| Gatsby: | Not seeing. No, we couldn’t meet. But both of us loved each other all the time, old sport, and you didn’t know. I used to laugh sometimes – to think that you didn’t know. |
| Tom: | Oh – that’s all. You’re crazy! I can’t speak about what happened five years ago, because I didn’t know Daisy then – and I’ll be damned if I see how you got within a mile of her unless you brought the groceries to the back door. But all the rest of that’s a God damned lie. Daisy loved me when she married me and she loves me now. |