Megan Muldoon

Mrs. Helms

Honors English III

5 January 2018

The Eyes Watching From Above

The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are mentioned many times throughout the book The

Great Gatsby. F. Scott Fitzgerald uses blue eyes and yellow spectacles that were displayed on a

billboard located in the valley of ashes between West Egg and New York as the form of a God in

the book. As Doctor T. J. Eckleburg looks down on everyone who is in his sight, he judges them

and is a witness to all that happens.

The first time Doctor T. J. Eckleburg’s eyes come up in the story, Nick describes them.

He says that they are “blue and gigantic-their retinas are one yard high” (23) and that they “look

out of no face, but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a non-

existent nose” (23). Fitzgerald uses imagery to introduce the billboard and put an image of its

enormity and mysterious vibe in the readers head. The next time the eyes were brought up was

when Nick ventured to the city with Tom to meet his mistress, Myrtle. As they were on their way

to her house, Nick says, “I followed him over a low whitewashed railroad fence, and we walked

back a hundred years along the road under Doctor Eckleburg’s persistent stare” (24). Doctor

Eckleburg’s eyes were persistently staring at them and were aware of the cheating that was

occurring. This is one example when Fitzgerald uses personification of the billboard to show that

Eckleburg disapproved of what Tom was doing. In the seventh chapter, the billboard appears for

the third time while Nick, Tom, and Jordan are on their way to town in Gatsby’s car. Nick

explains, “Then as Doctor T. J. Eckleburg’s faded eyes came into sight down the road, I
remembered Gatsby’s caution about gasoline” (122). As Nick saw the billboard, its vigil warned

him of a problem that was about to occur; what he thought was a lack of gasoline. It turned out

that the real problem was that George Wilson had discovered that his wife Myrtle was having an

affair with someone else. As they approached George’s garage for more gas, they find him rather

upset at Myrtle which brought much discomfort to Tom. The final time Doctor Eckleburg’s eyes

were referenced in The Great Gatsby was when George Wilson had said “I told her she might

fool me but she couldn’t fool God” (159) and Michaelis “saw with a shock that he was looking at

the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg, which had just emerged, pale and enormous, from the

dissolving night” (159). George mentions here how he sees the billboard in a God-like way, for it

was always watching what Myrtle was doing. He makes Myrtle feel bad about everything she

has done by showing her the eyes and telling her that God was watching her the whole time.

Doctor T. J. Eckleburg’s eyes witnessed many events throughout the story that led to

conflict. The billboard was seen as a God, looking down on everyone and judging them. Tom,

Daisy, Gatsby, and Myrtle were all looked down on for the morally wrong actions they took all

through the book. By the end of The Great Gatsby, the billboard with T. J. Eckleburg’s eyes on it

ended up being a major personified character due to its relation to God.