The Great Gatsby

Characters
Jay Gatsby
The protagonist who gives his name to the story. Gatsby is a newly wealthy
Midwesterner-turned-Easterner who orders his life around one desire: to be reunited
with Daisy Buchanan, the love he lost five years earlier. His quest for the American
dream leads him from poverty to wealth, into the arms of his beloved, and, eventually,
to death.

Nick Carraway
The story‟s narrator. Nick rents the small house next to Gatsby‟s mansion in West
Egg and, over the course of events, helps Gatsby reunite with Daisy (who happens to
be Nick‟s cousin). Nick‟s Midwestern sensibility finds the East an unsettling place,
and he be- comes disillusioned with how wealthy socialites like the Buchanans
lead their lives.

Daisy Buchanan
Beautiful and mesmerizing, Daisy is the apex of sociability. Her privileged
upbringing in Louisville has conditioned her to a particular lifestyle, which Tom, her
husband, is able to provide her. She enraptures men, especially Gatsby, with her
diaphanous nature and sultry voice. She is the object of Gatsby‟s desire, for good or
ill, and represents women of an elite social class.

Tom Buchanan
Daisy‟s hulking brute of a husband. Tom comes from an old, wealthy Chicago family
and takes pride in his rough ways. He commands attention through his boisterous and
outspoken (even racist) behaviour. He leads a life of luxury in East Egg, playing polo,
riding horses, and driving fast cars. He is proud of his affairs and has had many since
his marriage. Myrtle Wilson is merely the woman of the moment for Tom
.

Pammy Buchanan
Toddler daughter of Tom and Daisy Buchanan. Little mention is made of her, and she
represents the children of the Jazz Agers. She has very little parental contact, yet the
reader is always vaguely aware of her presence.

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 Jordan Baker
a Professional golfer of questionable integrity. Friend of Daisy‟s who, like Daisy,
represents women of a particular class. Jordan is the young, single woman of wealth,
admired by men wherever she goes. She dates Nick casually but seems offended when
he is the first man not to fall for her charms. Although she is savvy, she comes off as
somewhat shallow in her approach to life.

Myrtle Wilson
Married lover of Tom Buchanan. Myrtle serves as a rep- resentative of the lower
class. Through her affair with Tom she gains an entrance into the world of the elite,
and the change in her personality is remarkable. She conducts a secret life with Tom,
wherein she exhibits all the power and dominance she finds lacking in her everyday
life. She eventually suffers a tragic end at the hands of her lover‟s wife.

George Wilson
Myrtle‟s unassuming husband. He runs a garage and gas station in the valley of ashes
and seems trapped by his position in life. Eventually, he finds out about his wife‟s
double life and his response to it helps drive her to her death. Distraught at what
happens, Wilson be- comes Fitzgerald‟s way of expressing the despair prevalent in
the seemingly trapped lower-middle class.

Meyer Wolfsheim
Gatsby‟s business associate and link to organized crime. A professional gambler,
Wolfsheim is attributed with fixing the 1919 World Series. Wolfsheim helped build
Gatsby‟s fortune although the wealth came through questionable means.

Dan Cody
Worldly mentor of Jay Gatsby. Cody took Gatsby under his wing when Gatsby was a
young man and taught him much about living adventurously and pursuing dreams.

Henry C. Gatz
Father of Jay Gatsby, comes from the Midwest to bury his son. Gatz serves as a very
tangible reminder of Gatsby‟s humble heritage and roots.

Plot Structure Analysis

The Great Gatsby, considered by many critics to be one of the most well written and
tightly structured novels in American literature, is an extremely complex story about a
totally interesting character, an absolute dreamer named Jay Gatsby. The novel is
really a story within a story, for Nick Carraway, the frame narrator of Gatsby‟s plot, is
really a protagonist himself. Additionally, there is another subplot revolving around

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the triangle of Myrtle, Wilson, and Tom. Much of the story is also told as flashbacks,
so the chronological order of the plot is constantly interrupted. Fitzgerald, however,
masterfully intertwines all the plots and all the flashbacks into a wonderfully unified
whole.

Nick‟s plot is a simple one. A moral and conservative young man raised in the
Midwest, he feels limited by the mentality and lifestyle of his small hometown; he is
not even sure about the young lady he is supposed to marry. As a result, he seeks to
find freedom and himself on the East coast. He takes a job in New York City to learn
the bond business and rents a small bungalow on the fashionable island of West Egg.
The rising action for him begins when his distant cousin, Daisy Buchanan, invites him
to have lunch at her house with her husband Tom, her friend Jordan Baker, and
herself. From that point forward, Nick is pulled into the tangled web of the careless
lifestyle of the extremely wealthy from East Egg. He soon begins to date Jordan,
whom he finds to be a shallow and selfish female and an incurable liar. He is taken by
Tom to meet Myrtle, his mistress, and is drawn into a wild party at her apartment, that
ends with Tom breaking her nose.

He is taken to lunch by his neighbour, Jay Gatsby, and meets his business associate,
Meyer Wolfsheim, a racketeer who fixed the World Series. He is innocently ensnared
in the affair between Gatsby and Daisy and is in the hotel room when Tom confronts
Gatsby about the affair. Ironically, the day of the Gatsby/Tom argument happens to be
Nick‟s thirtieth birthday, a mark of the passing of youth. It is also the day that marks
the climax of Nick‟s plot, for he realizes that the lifestyle in the East is too shallow
and careless for him. He does not want to be associated with people as uncaring and
immoral as the Buchanan‟s; it is on this climatic day that Daisy kills Myrtle in a hit-
and-run accident and acts like nothing has happened. Nick makes the decision,
unconsciously at first, to return to the Midwest and marry his hometown sweetheart.
When Gatsby is needlessly shot by Wilson and no one shows up at his funeral, Nick
knows he has made the correct decision. His story ends in comedy, for he has found
his true self, which definitely belongs to the moral Midwest.

Gatsby‟s plot is much more complex, for it unfolds through a series of flashbacks and
really begins long before the chronology of the actual story told in the novel. As a
poor, young soldier stationed in Louisville, he meets and falls in love with Daisy Fay,
the most popular and wealthy girl in town. Attracted to Gatsby herself, Daisy plans to
run away and marry him, but her parents step in to prevent it. After Gatsby is sent to
fight the war in Europe, Daisy remains faithful to him for a while; but she soon grows
restless and impatient for Gatsby to return. When he does not come home, she meets,
falls in love with, and marries Tom Buchanan, a very wealthy young man from
Chicago. Gatsby is crushed at the news and determines he will devote his life to
winning Daisy back for himself. It is an impossible dream, but one to which he is
totally committed. When the plot actually begins in the book, Gatsby has amassed a
fortune through bootlegging and other illegal means. He buys an ostentatious
mansion, directly across the bay from Daisy Buchanan. He gives extravagant parties
on a regular basis to which everyone is invited, in hopes that Daisy my someday show
up at one of them.

When Nick Carraway moves into the bungalow next door, Gatsby befriends him. He
soon finds out that Nick is a distant cousin to Daisy, and he thinks his dream is a step
closer to reality. He has Nick invite Daisy over for a tea, to which Gatsby is also
invited. The affair between Gatsby and Daisy develops from that point forward.

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Gatsby feels like he has found his holy grail; unfortunately, the affair for Daisy is just
a relief to her boredom in life. She had no intention of leaving the security of her
lifestyle with Tom to be with Gatsby. What she would really like is to have both men
in her life. Tom, however, will not allow that. When he realizes that Daisy is involved
with Gatsby, he confronts her lover. Gatsby naively tells Tom that Daisy does not
love him and has never loved him. Tom forces Daisy into a decision, and she cannot
say that she has never loved Tom. As a result, Tom is the victor, for he has Daisy for a
wife and Gatsby has a shattered dream, meaning a shattered life. Even though the
scene in the room at the Plaza Hotel is the moment of climax for Gatsby, he refuses to
give up. Even after Daisy accidentally kills Myrtle and refuses to stop at the scene of
the accident, Gatsby stands by her, willing to take the blame in her place. He goes to
the Buchanan house and keeps a vigil outside her window, to make sure she is safe.
Daisy is truly unworthy of such devotion, but Gatsby never realizes that. His dream,
his ideal, is too important; it has been the motivating factor of his entire adult life.

Although Gatsby is a defeated man, he does not acknowledge that to Nick. He tells
his neighbour that he is sure Daisy will call. Of course, she does not. In fact, after
Gatsby is needlessly and brutally shot by Wilson, Daisy does not even telephone or
send flowers to the funeral, fully proving the shallowness of her character and the
unworthiness of Gatsby‟s love. At the time of his death, however, he has proven to
Nick that he is a much more valuable character that the whole lot of the Buchanan‟s
and their friends put together. Still, Gatsby‟s is a tragic life, ended by a tragic death.

There are many things that help to hold the plots and subplots of the novel together.
Fitzgerald carefully weaves repetition throughout the book. The introduction to
Gatsby is the image of his standing in his back yard reaching out to the green light
(symbolic of his dream) that is located at the end of Daisy‟s dock across the bay.
Throughout the book, Gatsby is reaching out to try and capture Daisy, but she always
seems just out of reach, like that green light. At the end of the novel, before his death,
Gatsby again looks across the bay and sees the green light of Daisy‟s dock; this time,
however he does not reach out for it, instinctively knowing the dream is lost forever.
There is also a repetition of party scenes, both large and small. Several of Gatsby‟s
parties are described, including the debris that is left behind to be cleaned up each
time. Additionally, there is the small party at Myrtle‟s apartment that ends in the
shattering of Myrtle‟s nose and the small party in the suite at the Plaza Hotel that ends
in the shattering of Gatsby‟s dream and Nick‟s belief in the East. A third repetition is
the Valley of Ashes, the symbol of the moral decay. Each time one of the characters
from East or West Egg goes into the city, he/she must pass by the ashheaps guarded
by the knowing eyes of T.J. Eckelberg. Nick notices the advertisement during his first
visit to Wilson‟s garage, when he meets Myrtle; Michaelis notices it when he is trying
to comfort Wilson after Myrtle‟s death. There are also many other repeated images.
Daisy is always dressed in white, her voice always sounds like money, and she is
referred to as the golden girl. Any image of Gatsby is in terms of vulgarity and
ostentation, whether it is his clothing, his mansion, his parties, or his cars.

Additionally, Fitzgerald masterfully weaves the three plots together. Nick

conveniently lives next door to Gatsby and becomes friendly with him. Nick is also a
distant cousin to Daisy Buchanan, the object of Gatsby‟s dream. As a result, Nick
really becomes the facilitator to the Daisy/Gatsby affair. Tom befriends Nick because
they have gone to college together. As a result, Nick is drawn into the Myrtle, Tom,
Wilson triangle. Wilson, who is naïve about his wife‟s affair through most of the
book, believes that Tom comes into his garage only because he is interested in selling
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his coupe to Wilson; this gives Wilson a reason to call the Buchanan household, a
number that his wife calls frequently. Gatsby is pulled into the triangle because of his
yellow automobile, which Tom calls the circus wagon but insists upon driving into
New York. He stops for gas at Wilson‟s garage, and Myrtle sees the car. When she
sees it later in the evening, she assumes that Tom is driving it rather than Daisy.
Wilson goes to Tom to find out who really owns the yellow car; when he is told that it
belongs to Gatsby, Wilson shoots and kills Gatsby, officially ending the dream. He
then turns the gun on himself to further destroy the Wilson, Tom, Myrtle triangle. It is
only the careless, despicable Daisy and Tom that emerge unaffected by the
relationships between the plots. Even Nick, though not directly touched, becomes so
disillusioned with life in the East that he makes the decision to move back home to the
Midwest. All loose ends of all the plots are masterfully tied up and ended.

Setting
There are several things to be said about the novel‟s setting. The first is in regard to
the time in which the story is set. In regards to the plot, this context is critical. The
novel is set in the summer of 1922. The decade of the 1920s is an extremely eventful
one in United States history.
Firstly, this decade is commonly dubbed “The Roaring Twenties”, denoting a period
of accelerated and enormous economic progress, partly brought about by the United
States‟ degree of involvement in the First World War, which up until 1917, was in the
form of providing goods and war assets to the Allied countries who were in fact
executing the armed conflict. America was in a state of thriving economic
development, which had deep foundations in the policy of isolationism, which made a
great emphasis in consuming internally-produced goods and literally isolating the US
economy from external (read: European) influence. This made the 1920s a decade of
enormous squandering on the part of the richer segments of the population, which is
widely noted in the novel. Secondly, the 1920s were lived by the US population in the
midst of Prohibition, a policy that came into law courtesy of the Temperance
movement, and basically made alcoholic beverages illegal. This spawned a hugely
profitable business, where bootleggers would make massive amounts of money if they
successfully managed to import and distribute any sort of alcoholic beverage to the
widely demanding population. It is heavily implied, from the introduction Meyer
Wolfsheim, that Gatsby is or was a bootlegger. Prohibition was widely disregarded in
the United States. There is heavy evidence of this throughout the book, where
innocent references are made to the drinking of cocktails and other beverages, with
little preoccupation or remorse; what is more, it is regarded as a normal part of social
life, despite the heaviness with which the policy was enforced by the federal US
government. Furthermore, the importance of the setting continues in the fact that the
geographic allocation is Long Island sound. The East and West Eggs, which
are entirely fictional, might be a reference to the Hamptons, where New York City‟s
rich and posh have large beach houses and go to spend the summers amid the glitz
and the glitter of the high social spheres. This is entirely spot-on with the shallow
lives led by the people in East Egg.

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Themes
 Shallowness
The novel explores the theme of shallowness deeply. Its character set is mostly
composed of upper-class, whose livelihood lies on appearing and outshining everyone
else. There are two sides to this rather broad theme. The first is exemplified to the
letter by the character of Tom Buchanan. Buchanan, a man whose education can be
said to be inferior to that of a person of traditionally wealthy origin, like Nick, has all
the characteristics of a rather chauvinistic shallowness, and the reader constantly sees
him physically abusing women (like he did with Myrtle in Chapter Two), being
judgmental on people (like when he condescendingly asks Nick how “did he come so
far to eat”, as if implying that Nick certainly could not afford eating in a fancy
restaurant) and, overall, having an attitude that can only be described as smug and
petulant. This “money -as- status” mentality is, as far as the book is concerned, typical
of the “new rich”
The other side of the theme lies on Gatsby himself. His extravagant efforts to impress
Daisy, in the form of vast, banal social gatherings that are so inert and one-
dimensional that Gatsby himself claims to “rarely attend”, showing off his estate and
his luxurious lifestyle, and attempting to conceal and compensate his overall inability
as a person to have confidence in himself by using expensive silverware and keeping
everything that is material perfect, are a perfect demonstration of a complete
negligence to the actual value of a person as such, placing the importance on material
goods instead. This is complete shallowness, and can even be seen as disrespectful to
Daisy, who can be taken to be impressed by ultimately unimportant things that do not
necessarily guarantee happiness, as can be seen with her relationship with Tom.

 The American Dream

As stated before, the 1920s were a time of great prosperity in the United States. It was
not uncommon to see billboards boasting that the US standard of living was
the highest anywhere in the world. The novel, by displaying the great affluence of
wealthy individuals, is making an important reference to this tendency, where anyone
could become rich at a low cost in the form of effort. Nick himself is trying to attain
this much-longed status of the American Dream, by moving to the East Coast to
“learn the bond business”. Nick‟s situation, as compared to Tom‟s and Gatsby‟s is a
stark contrast between the process of fulfilling the dream and having gotten there
already. It also displays the American Dream as having little or no personal value, in
support of the overall theme of shallowness that utterly dominates the novel.

Positive Aspects Negative Aspects

 Life, liberty, and pursuit of
happiness.
 A land of infinite opportunities.
 Possibilities through courage and
hard work. We can see Gatsby
recreating himself.
 Materialism and consumerism.
 Corruption as people pursued
wealth. Like when Gatsby gets his
wealth through bootlegging and
other criminal organizations.
 Exclusion of the poor as the rich
get richer.

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Symbols
 The Valley of Ashes
One of the first symbols introduced in The Great Gatsby is the valley of ashes. The
valley of ashes is unlike any other setting in the book. It is the complete opposite
of life in East Egg and West Egg. The valley of ashes is located halfway between
West Egg and New York City. The men who live there work at shovelling up the
ashes. The valley of ashes resembles something lifeless and dark. It symbolizes
poverty and the moral decay hidden by the beauty of East Egg and West Egg. The
people who live here basically have nothing to look forward to in the future and have
little going on in their lives. The death of Myrtle Wilson in the valley of ashes stands
for the pain associated with this area. The characters are almost invariably shocked at
the existence and state of the Valley of Ashes, which also serves as a stark
predecessor to the Great Depression that would follow the Roaring Twenties.

 The Eyes of Dr. Eckleburg

Secondly, the eyes of Dr. T.J Eckleberg are a pair of fading eyes also located in the
valley of ashes. “The eyes of Doctor T J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic...they
look out of no face, but instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles”
(Chapter 2, pg26). It is seen high above on an old advertising billboard for
an optometrist. The eyes look down at everything that takes place in the valley.
Fitzgerald uses the eyes as an important symbol in the novel to help clarify the
different perspectives. The eyes have no fixed meaning because each character has a
different opinion on what it means. They may symbolize the eyes of God as
thought by Wilson in the novel. To Wilson it is much more than an advertisement; he
strongly believes that they are the eyes of God looking upon everyone and judging
them and the American society as a moral wasteland. Wilson is made fun of because
of his strong faith with God. The faded paint may symbolize the distant and decaying
relationship between God and humanity. The eyes of Dr. T.J Eckleberg are very
disturbing due to the lack of a distinct meaning of the image. In addition, the eyes can
also be seen as symbolizing Nick because he is the only one who really knows what is
going on in the novel. This is the ultimate display of complete hollowness and
disregard on the part of the upper, wealthier classes of the United States.

 The Green Light

Finally, the green light at the end of Daisy‟s dock is probably the most crucial symbol
in The Great Gatsby. The initial appearance of the green light is when Nick sees Gatsby
for the first time. Gatsby was standing in front of his mansion and had stretched out
arms saying, “A single green light, minute and far away that might have been the end
of dock”. Green is the colour of hope. The green light at the end of the dock
symbolizes Gatsby‟s distant hopes and dreams of one day reuniting with Daisy again
and winning her heart back. Throughout the novel it is well put that Gatsby believes
in the green light. Gatsby‟s desire for Daisy is associated with the American dream
therefore the green light symbolizes the American dream as well. The end of Gatsby‟s
life also represents the end of the green light and essentially the American dream.

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The Jazz Age
During the Jazz Age, or the “Roaring Twenties,” the standard of living increased for
most Americans. America experienced a general abandoning of the small-town, rural
past in exchange for an urban, cosmopolitan lifestyle. The United States experienced
enormous economic growth as Americans sought to forget the troubles of the war.
The way many chose to do this was by simply enjoying life. Many enjoyed life
through frivolous spending, illegal liquor, and immorality. Although the
18th Amendment to the Constitution prohibited the manufacture and sale of alcoholic
beverages, thousands turned to bootlegged liquor. Mob activity in the United States
increased to supply the demand for what was once legal. The literature, art, and music
of this time period reflected the nation‟s changing values. Many authors attacked
traditional values, while others, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway,
Sherwood Anderson, and Ezra Pound, moved to Paris for some time,
becoming labelled as “the lost generation,” or “expatriates.”

Fitzgerald identified other American characteristics of the 1920s in an article called

„Echoes of the Jazz Age‟ (1931): „We were the most powerful nation. Who could tell
us any longer what was fashionable and what was fun?....This was the generation
whose girls dramatized themselves as flappers, the generation that corrupted its elders
and eventually overreached itself less through lack of taste. That was the peak of the
younger generation, for though the Jazz age continued, it became less and less
an affair of youth…A whole race going hedonistic, deciding on pleasure… It is
associated with a state of nervous stimulation, not unlike that of big cities behind the
lines of war… In any case, the Jazz Age now raved along under its own power, served
by great filling stations full of money… It was borrowed time anyhow –.‟The
metaphorical use of „filling stations full of money‟ and „borrowed time‟ reflects on
some of the key issues of the novel that characterised America. An effective
example is the way Fitzgerald portrays motor cars, which became a newly established
feature of American life by the early 1920s. It symbolised the new freedom and
affluence for American citizens, as well as representing the people‟s carelessness,
which lead to destruction and death. When Daisy does not confess to her „car
accident‟ but simply returns to Tom so she feels protected we feel utter
disappointment and shock at her lack of responsibility for her devastating mistake,
and we are forced to view her in an inauspicious manner. She lives in East Egg, the
part that represents inherited wealth and power in which the aristocratic stick to
traditions and formalities. In contrast to the vulgarity and formlessness of West Egg,
East Egg conserves style and elegance, yet still proves to be careless and
inconsiderate. In the end, Nick criticises Tom and Daisy, „They were careless people,
Tom and Daisy - they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into
their money of their vast carelessness‟ (p. 170). This is further displayed as Tom and
Daisy run away rather than attend Gatsby‟s funeral. We may understand why Tom did
not attend, but we certainly expected more from Daisy considering Gatsby was her
lover, even if it was for a short period. Gatsby, whose wealth derives from criminal
activity, has a true and passionate heart, loyal to his aspirations and possesses the
positive traits of what the true American dream represents. It is ironic and tragic that it
leads to his death in the end, even more so when we know he is taking the blame for
Myrtle‟s death, not allowing any possible harm towards Daisy.

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 The Great Gatsby is a postmodern novel
.Essentially, this means that:

 There is a blend of fiction and non-fiction. The characters are fictitious but are
very much grounded in the reality of the time. There may be references to real
events.

 A fragmented view of society is presented. The narrator is not omniscient and

his view of the events is subjective. The narration may be unreliable or patchy.

 Time-shifting. The novel is written in a non-linear way. There are flashbacks

and there is foreshadowing. The past and present mingle.

 A rejection or challenging of traditional values or assumptions. The author

will aim to challenge the status quo and this will provoke public opinion and
will prompt readers to think about the world. Many novels like this were
written between WWI and after WWII also as people were questioning what it
meant to be human.

 Biographical influences -The voice of the

author:
Examining an author´s life can assist the reader in identifying the author´s voice and
opinions as expressed through the text. Here are some relevant details:

 Fitzgerald was raised in Minnesota (Mid-Western U.S) in an Irish Catholic

family. Minnesota would be considered to be a conservative state based on
family values and reliant mostly on agriculture.

 As a child, Fitzgerald liked to imagine he was from British royalty and had
been abandoned on his parent´s doorstep.

 Fitzgerald joined the army in 1917. In June 1918 Fitzgerald was assigned to
Camp Sheridan, near Montgomery, Alabama. There he fell in love with a
celebrated belle, eighteen-year-old Zelda Sayre, and the youngest daughter of
an Alabama Supreme Court judge. Zelda did not consent to marry him until he
could prove that he was a worthy prospect. The publication of This Side of
Paradise on March 26, 1920, made the twenty-four-year-old Fitzgerald
famous almost overnight, and a week later he married Zelda Sayre in New
York. They embarked on an extravagant life as young celebrities. Fitzgerald
became an alcoholic and Zelda spent many years in mental institutions. The
effects of their party lifestyle caught up with them as their health suffered and
they also had debts.

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 Settings and possible meaning:
The settings in the novel are hugely symbolic.

East Egg: Old money-home to the Buchanan´s. East Egg is symbolic of the wealthy
power structures of American society. These people have had money for generations
and in the novel, they are portrayed as being careless and reckless with the power that
they have. The description of the Buchanan´s home creates an image of a well-
established and impressive home with a history rooted in British colonial wealth. This
reminds us that these people have had wealth for generations.

West Egg: New money-home to Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby. West Egg is a more
modern and more ostentatious (flashy or showing off) version of East Egg. The house
is also an imitation of the real thing and it has no history, unlike the Buchanan´s
house.

Wilson´s garage and The Valley of The Ashes:

The Valley of The Ashes has a mythic quality. It is there to remind the readers of the
consequences of the excesses of the Jazz age. The dust is symbolic of the waste that is
created by the human pursuit of money and success. It could be seen as a religious
reference to the Catholic concept purgatory. (Fitzgerald grew up in a Catholic home)
Purgatory was almost like a waiting lounge, where souls would wait to either go to
heaven or hell depending on the seriousness of their sins.

 Who is the Protagonist of the novel?

The central character in a work of literature is called the protagonist. The protagonist
usually initiates the action in the story and often overcomes a flaw, such as weakness
or ignorance, to achieve a new understanding at the novel´s end. An antagonist
opposes the protagonist, barring or complicating their success. A Postmodern novel
will often break away from this recognizable mould. In the Great Gatsby, Nick
caraway narrates the story but it is Jay Gatsby that is the protagonist. Gatsby´s love
affair with Daisy, her marriage to Tom, and Gatsby´s quest to regain Daisy´s affection
provide the story´s narrative arc. Gatsby´s attempts to regain the past are also central
to the plot development. As the novel´s protagonist, does Gatsby overcome a flaw and
achieve new understanding in the end? Or is it Nick who achieves this understanding?
In a sense, Gatsby´s premature death subverts the classic role of the protagonist as
Gatsby is never allowed to, or is perhaps unwilling to reach this realization. Who is
the antagonist? Tom? Daisy? Wilson? The class divide?

 Gatsby’s Dream
Gatsby‟s dream fundamentally revolves around Daisy, but it is obstructed due to their
respective social statuses. To impress her with his extravagant wealth, he resorts to
crime illustrating the limitless boundaries Gatsby is willing to cross in order to
achieve his dream and it demonstrates the extensive materialism that existed in the
upper class of American society in the 1920s. Gatsby‟s love for Daisy is more
than personal, it is a passion that permeates his entire being as well as his self-image,
and it is the depth of that feeling which most likely intrigues Nick. His naïve response
„Can‟t repeat the past?…Why of course you can!‟ shows that time has not stopped for
Gatsby. Gatsby‟s desire to „repeat the past‟ must inevitably be frustrated by time.
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Daisy is an object of his longing and the creation of his imagination, and by
concentrating on this feature of her charm he is able to ignore reality whereby she is a
woman full of inconsistencies and flaws. As a dream figure, she can remain perfect.

 Characters and the American Dream, Jazz

Age
Fitzgerald positions his characters to symbolise many different aspects of how the American
dream can be interpreted. The Declaration of Independence is a good indicator of what
American‟s ideals are and it initially attracted little attention after the American Revolution.
However, society in the 1920s have undermined the product of hard work in the strife to
succeed, as we see through the eyes of Nick, Fitzgerald reveals the transformation of the
American dream from a pure ideal of security to a convoluted scheme of materialistic power.
He highlights this difference by embodying the purest characteristic of the American Dream –
everlasting hope – inside of Gatsby, and contrasting it against the senseless actions of other
characters, especially the people who attend Gatsby‟s parties.

Characters such as Daisy and Myrtle also have dreams but are unable to strive
for them due to the social expectations and pressures. Myrtle desires Tom because of
his bulky masculinity and his social style, and in a way, her sexuality is a counterpart
of Gatsby‟s romantic passion for Daisy. The difference between the two women is
that Daisy‟s dream is obtainable and it holds a substantial reality whereas Myrtle can
only dream of what she truly wants. She shouts „Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!‟ and this not
only illustrates her immature behaviour but her feelings of frustrations and envy
towards Daisy. She wants what she has, yet the irony here is that Daisy wants what
Tom gives Myrtle, “attention”. Before Gatsby made his appearance, we see that Daisy
feels slightly neglected by him and wishes more of his attention, whereas Myrtle
desires his enormous wealth and his social power. Daisy cannot have both Gatsby and
Tom. She is torn between the responses to Gatsby‟s romantic vision of herself
and Tom‟s materialistic evaluation of her, expressed by the „string of pearls valued at
three hundred and fifty thousand dollars‟ (p. 74), which was his wedding gift. Daisy
could not wait for Gatsby to return from the war, romantic possibility was not enough
for her. Unlike Daisy, Myrtle knows what she wants – Tom, and is not in the slightest
remorseful at the idea of betraying or leaving George. She does not have an
inner conflict, as Daisy seems to have. Myrtle‟s pretentious display is a symbolism of
what she truly wants to be, whereas when Daisy puts on an ostentatious
appearance only because she has to. The fact that Daisy and Myrtle both become
unfaithful to their husbands, the possibility that Daisy only loves the way Gatsby
loves her – not necessarily him, and Gatsby only being in love with an illusion of
Daisy that he has created suggests that characters do not truly know what they want
and that their life remains unsatisfactory and empty. Tom and Daisy exemplifies this
as Nick observes, „they weren‟t happy…and yet they weren‟t unhappy either. ‟Time is
a central concept to the narration of the novel; Fitzgerald deliberately sets the novel in
an era that is lacking in moral values and human altruism towards inspirational
endeavours. America was one of the victors of the World War One, and it began to
rise in international power with substantial population and industrial growth. It
enjoyed its great prosperity during the 1920s, however a more acquisitive type of
society began to develop, which effectively is summarised in Lucille‟s comment „I
never care what I do, so I always have a good time.‟

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On the other hand, people like Wolfshiem and the Buchanans that embody the
corrupted qualities such as indecisiveness and selfishness escape their problems and
fears. Rather than caring about the bond they shared with Gatsby, they prefer to
remove themselves from the unfortunate incident to prevent any suspicions of the
event that might be associated with them. This truly underlines how materialistic and
callous society was during 1920s America and further highlights the death of the
American dream. Moral chaos destroyed faith, greed undermined hard work, and fear
overrode passion. In some respect, the American dream still continues to exist in 21st
Century of America. The element of responsibility and concern for the future
generation shows people still believe in the true ideals of the American dream, and it
is still recognised in today‟s society. Gatsby had believed in „the green light‟ (p. 171)
right to the point of his death. Even if his dream was unattainable, he lived his life
as if it would come true. This strong will power to believe is the subtle basis behind
the idea of the American dream, and perhaps what truly promotes the values of
America, Nick captures this as he say, „tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our
arms further‟ indicating that we will always continue to increase our desires and
aspirations in the future.

 Women’s Role
Women cut their hair very short “bobs”, and wore short skirts. They were called
“Flappers”. Daisy was one, and Myrtle wanted to be one as well. They wore too much
make-up. They stopped wanting to be housewives and wanted to move out to the
world of men. Women‟s vote was obtained in 1920. The position of women in
workplace was still inferior to that of men. They were paid less than men.

 Can we consider Gatsby as a Tragic Hero?

In the novel The Great Gatsby, Gatsby is a tragic hero because he displays the
fundamental characteristics of modern tragic hero. He is a common man, he contains
the characteristics of a tragic flaw, and he eventually has a tragic fall.

Although at first glance Gatsby might not seem to be the everyday man, in reality he
actually is. At one point Gatsby's past is being examined and his parents are described
as "shiftless and unsuccessful farm people" which shows the readers that he came
from humble roots and was just like everyone else (Fitzgerald 95). He was not born
into wealth and privilege and did not have any special background that gave him an
advantage over others. Another instance in which Gatsby is portrayed as the average
man is when Nick is discussing Gatsby's past and he says, "So he invented just the
sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen-year-old boy would be likely to invent"(Fitzgerald
95). This shows that the persona that Gatsby has created for himself is that of any
average, immature boy. As the novel progresses further you find Nick recounting
Gatsby's past and describing him as being a "penniless young man" which again
shows the reader that Gatsby is really just the common man with a big dream

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(Fitzgerald 141). This statement helps take away some of the disguise of wealth and
overwhelming power, and brings him into a more human perspective.

Gatsby's tragic flaw is that his view of the world is obstructed by his own naive
idealism. It is very clear to the reader that Gatsby is idealistic when, while Nick is
over at Gatsby's house, he reflects on Daisy's and Gatsby's relationship. This shows
that even Nick, his best friend and the one that sticks up for Gatsby the most, sees that
Gatsby perceives Daisy to be ideal and perfect. Gatsby does not see things as they
really are and expects them to play out exactly as he thinks they will. An example of
this is when Nick is talking to Gatsby after a party and he tells Gatsby that he can't
repeat the past, and Gatsby responds, "'Can't repeat the past? Why of course you
can!'" This delusion, that he can repeat the past and redo everything, blinds Gatsby to
what is going on right in front of him. It seems as though he does not realize how
absurd the idea of obtaining Daisy love is. Gatsby's idealism also blinds him to how
Daisy really acts and what her personality is like. An example of this can be seen in
the imagery of the novel. Throughout the novel white is used as imagery for pure and
innocent, while yellow represents corruption. A daisy has white petals and a yellow
centre. This imagery relates because it shows how Gatsby perceives Daisy. All he
sees is a beautiful, loving woman who loves him back and he cannot see past his own
idealistic view of the perfect Daisy to the corrupt, shallow, money-loving Daisy.
Another example of Gatsby's overwhelming idealism is his own self-perception.
Gatsby thinks as long as he surrounds himself with riches and the wealthy, that people
will accept him and he can erase his former self; Gatsby the poor farm boy. This
shows how he is idealistic because no matter what a person does, the former self will
always be there. Later in the novel when Nick is reflecting on Gatsby's idea of Daisy
he notes, "He wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and say: 'I
never loved you.” This idea is not a realistic expectation because Daisy is already
married and has a family to take care of; also her religion prevents her from getting a
divorce and marrying him. All these are factors block Gatsby from obtaining his ideal
dream, but he seems to be blind to them.

Although Gatsby's physical fall starts near the end of novel, his spiritual fall arguably
begins before you even meet him. In the middle of the novel you hear about Gatsby's
past and how he was a poor average man, but he was honest and worked hard. As the
novel progresses you hear about his relationship with Daisy and how it ended because
he was not wealthy enough. He needed to become wealthy so that Daisy would marry
him. To obtain this wealth Gatsby started to participate in dishonest and illegal deeds
such as bootlegging. This shows a fall spiritually because he goes against his morals
and values. Closer to the end of the novel, after Daisy kills Myrtle in car accident, you
learn that Gatsby will take the blame for Myrtles death. Although this is a show of
love for Daisy, it is eventually what leads him to his physical downfall. Throughout
the novel you are shown images of Gatsby surrounded by all kinds of wealthy and
high class people, and it seems as though he has many friends. However, at Gatsby's
funeral at the very end of the novel when Gatsby is shot and killed, there is no one
there except for a select few. This image is used very well because it shows how the
mighty have fallen. The one person everyone thought had it all, in reality has nothing;
no money, no love and no friends.

Gatsby is a perfect example of a modern tragic hero because he has an eventual tragic
fall, he displays certain characteristic that shows that he has tragic flaw and if you
look beyond his wealth, you will see that he was just common man with a big dream.

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