The reference to Jay Gatsby glancing into his rooms is found at the beginning of Chapter 5. Nick had seen Gatsby's mansion ablaze with light, creating the impression that it was on fire. When he got out of his taxi and it departed , he saw Jay walking towards him. He then commented that the house looked like the World's Fair and Jay told him that he had been glancing into some of the rooms.
The most likely reason for Jay doing this stems from the fact that he had asked Jordan Baker to approach Nick with the request that he arrange a meeting with him and Daisy at Nick's house. Nick was Daisy's cousin and he lived right next to Jay. The pretense would be that it would be a social call and that Jay would then meet Daisy as if by accident. It is more than likely that Jordan had already told Jay that Nick had agreed to the request.
Jay was obviously excited about seeing Daisy, his lost love, after five long years and he obviously would want to show her what a success he had made of his life and of himself. He was proud of his achievements and wanted to ensure that if she should visit his mansion, that everything would be just perfect. Everything had to be in place. His grand dream of finally being with her once again could not be spoilt by anything out of place. He had worked so hard to put himself in a position where he could be an equal to Tom Buchanan, who had essentially stolen her from him, and he wanted her back.
It is for this reason that he had had all the lights, from top to bottom, switched on so that he could scrutinise everything. All of Jay's actions were deliberate. His entire focus was on winning Daisy back and he would not allow anything to jeopardize his dream. His glancing into the rooms also foreshadows his actions later, when he takes Daisy and Nick practically through the entire house to witness its grandeur, after they their meeting at Nick's tea party, as indicated in the following excerpts:
...we wandered through Marie Antoinette music-rooms and Restoration salons...
...Gatsby closed the door of “the Merton College Library.”
We went up-stairs, through period bedrooms swathed in rose and lavender silk and vivid with new flowers, through dressing-rooms and poolrooms, and bathrooms with sunken baths — intruding into one chamber...
Finally we came to Gatsby’s own apartment, a bedroom and a bath, and an Adam study,...
Jay's actions were, therefore, a deliberate attempt to impress Daisy. He succeeded admirably, for her pleasure is symbolized in her comment about Jay's huge collection of beautiful shirts:
“They’re such beautiful shirts,” she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. “It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such — such beautiful shirts before.”
At the end of the chapter, Nick is forgotten and Jay and Daisy have eyes only for each other, as Nick somewhat drily comments:
They had forgotten me, but Daisy glanced up and held out her hand; Gatsby didn’t know me now at all. I looked once more at them and they looked back at me, remotely, possessed by intense life. Then I went out of the room and down the marble steps into the rain, leaving them there together.
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