What is the allusion to David Belasco in The Great Gatsby?

On his first visit to Gatsby's mansion, having been invited to one of his parties, a slightly tipsy Nick ends up in Gatsby's library, where he meets Owl Eyes, another guest. In the library, Owl Eyes calls Gatsby a

a regular Belasco. It’s a triumph. What thoroughness! What realism!

David Belasco was a famous theater producer known for his lavish sets. Owl Eyes is indicating that he knows Gatsby is simply putting on a show with his mansion and his wild parties. Nevertheless, he is impressed that Gatsby has not simply ordered cardboard book backs to simulate a library: instead, he has purchased genuine books. The only problem is, he has not cut open the pages, which you would have had to do at the time so that you could read the book.
Owl Eyes captures in the uncut books the enigma of Gatsby. Gatsby goes ninety percent of the way to create his illusion—more than most people would— but in the end, can't quite be totally convincing as the wealthy man who comes from old money.
Interestingly, the book Owl Eyes pulls down is of lectures by Stoddard, presumably the racist Lothrop Stoddard Fitzgerald is alluding to when Tom mentions reading "Goddard." According to Tom, Goddard has written The Rise of the Coloured Empires. Stoddard wrote The Rising Tide of Color against White World Supremacy. Presumably, if Gatsby had read the Stoddard book, he might have been better prepared for Tom's racism.


David Belasco was a famous theatrical producer and impresario renowned for the realism of his productions. But though his impressive creations were realistic, they weren't actually real. In fact, they couldn't be; there's always going to be a difference between art and reality.
Gatsby's library is also realistic but not real. It looks just like a regular library, the kind that a wealthy, well-read aristocrat would have in his stately home. But is isn't. Like everything in Gatsby's West Egg mansion, it's all for show. On closer inspection, Owl Eyes can see that the books in Gatsby's library haven't been read, indicating that Gatsby's carefully-constructed persona of an educated Oxford graduate is completely false.
Gatsby has been playing a role all along, acting out a part he's written for himself and performed on a stage where he prefers to remain one of the supporting characters. He's a regular David Belasco alright, but as with the Broadway legend, he can never successfully bridge the gap between fantasy and reality.


The allusion of David Belasco in The Great Gatsby functions to emphasize both the flaws and the success of the disguise Jay Gatsby has designed for himself. David Belasco was a theater legend, making his mark on audiences with his lavish productions and his own attempts at playwriting. Though Belasco was definitely successful at creating fictional worlds (just as Jay Gatsby himself was successful, to a certain degree), he was also criticized for his focus on realism. Belasco employed excessively complex systems on his sets in order to create a realistic situation for his theatergoers; one production even involved a decision to place real sheep on stage. This attention to detail is something Jay Gatsby could likely relate to, as Gatsby also sought to create convincing environments for his guests to enjoy. Like Belasco, Gatsby went to extremes to convince others of his fictional world. These attempts, for both men, were successful in many ways, but ultimately, they collapsed under the weight of reality.


The allusion to David Belasco appears in chapter 3 when Owl Eyes is looking around Gatsby's library. He says:

This fella’s a regular Belasco. It’s a triumph. What thoroughness! What realism!

To understand this allusion, you need to know that David Belasco was a theater producer, well-known in the 1920s for creating sets that were very realistic.
By using this allusion, Owl Eyes is saying that Gatsby's library is just like one of Belasco's sets. Instead of being a real library, Gatsby's library is a fake set, designed to trick people into thinking that he is an educated and well-read man. Owl Eyes has discovered this by carefully looking around the library. He sees that the books are real but that the pages have not been cut. This proves that Gatsby has never read them.
Gatsby, therefore, has faked this library, just like the rest of his persona. It is all part of a well-designed and well-crafted ruse designed to impress Daisy Buchanan so that she will come back to him.

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