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What is the significance of the phone call that Tom receives during dinner in The Great Gatsby?

The phone call Tom receives in Chapter I is significant in many ways. For one thing, it suggests that Tom is having an affair and suggests further that this is not his first one. It has reached the point where his current mistress is actually phoning him at his home. Nick senses that there is something wrong between Daisy and her husband, but Jordan Baker confirms it when she tells him, "Tom's got some woman in New York." The blatantly aggressive phone call characterizes the caller and suggests that the woman who is creating trouble by calling Tom at home is probably trying to break up his marriage. Later when we meet Myrtle Wilson we see that she does have hopes that Tom will get a divorce and marry her--which, of course, would mean that she would have to divorce her present husband George.


Fitzgerald apparently wanted to suggest that there was some possibility of Gatsby getting Daisy. It would help Gatsby's cause if Daisy and Tom had a fragile marriage. She would have a good emotional and legal excuse for obtaining a divorce. In that case, Myrtle's dreams might actually be realized when Tom married her. The phone call shows how the characters and their conflicts are interrelated. The phone rings symbolically for Tom and Daisy, for Tom and Myrtle, for Myrtle and George, and for Myrtle and Daisy. It also rings for Nick Carraway, because he is going to get involved in all the other characters' affairs. 

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