It is always important when considering questions like
this one that asks you to interpret a given quote to look at what comes before and after
the quote to see if this helps you pick out the significance. Note that the context of
this quote comes as Gatsby and Daisy are reunited together after being separated for so
long. As they go to Gatsby's house, Nick reports how ironically Gatsby mentions the gren
light that marks out Daisy's house across the water. Throughout the novel, the green
light stands for the hope that Gatsby has of getting Daisy back. Note what Nick tells us
about this comment, directly before the quote you
give:
Possibly
it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished
forever. Compared to the great distance that had separated him from Daisy it had seemed
very near to her, almost touching her. It had seemed as close as a star to the
moon.
Now, however, he has
Daisy, and thus it is that "his count of enchanted objects had diminished by one." The
green light is therefore explicitly related to his hope of gaining Daisy, and, at this
point in the novel, it appears that he has her, so the green light becomes just "a green
light on a dock," rather than being imbued with all of Gatsby's longings, hopes and
dreams.
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