All 4 Uses of
compel
in
The Great Gatsby
- Before I could reply that he was my neighbor dinner was announced; wedging his tense arm imperatively under mine, Tom Buchanan compelled me from the room as though he were moving a checker to another square.†
p. 11..5
- For a moment the last sunshine fell with romantic affection upon her glowing face; her voice compelled me forward breathlessly as I listened — then the glow faded, each light deserting her with lingering regret, like children leaving a pleasant street at dusk.†
p. 14..1
- The instant her voice broke off, ceasing to compel my attention, my belief, I felt the basic insincerity of what she had said.†
p. 17..5 *
- Its vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby's house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder.†
p. 180..5
Definition:
-
(compel) to force someone to do something
or more rarely:
to convince someone to do something