How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Part.Paragraph)
Quote #7
There was a long silence. All of them felt their nerves straining, and for the first time in a year Charlie wanted a drink. (3.40)
Again Fitzgerald forces us to question the permanence of Charlie's new and improved self. If he's still drinking every day, and he still wants a drink under times of stress, is he really a recovered alcoholic?
Quote #8
He went back to his table. His whisky glass was empty, but he shook his head when Alix looked at it questioningly. (5.15)
Because Charlie doesn't go back to drinking after losing Honoria, we have to reconsider his motives for not drinking in the first place. Perhaps it wasn't just to get his daughter back. We suspect that his transformation is more deeply rooted in the loss of his wife, his fortune, and his entire way of living. It also might be that Charlie holds on to his hope of getting Honoria back – he's thinking of the future, despite his claim that he's now too old to have nice thoughts and dreams.
Quote #9
He would come back some day; they couldn't make him pay forever. (5.17)
Given the religious allusion imposed on the story by its title, we can think of Charlie as waiting in a sort of purgatory. Purgatory is a Christian term for the place where souls go before heaven. In purgatory, one pays for one's sins and is purified; it is after passing through purgatory that one can go on to heaven. Charlie is very much in a similar state. Here, in this line, he wonders how long he'll have to wait in limbo before he finishes atoning for his former sins.