Examples Of Duality In The Great Gatsby

When standing in front of a crowd, a presenter will often wear a persona on stage. He shows people what they want to see or what they need to see in order to trust him. Similarly, when social expectations corner the debutante, he will mask his true self in order to please his spectators. Many opinions on making oneself more agreeable in order to achieve success arise, especially in literary works. Along the lines of making oneself more agreeable, authenticity has also become a main theme in popular literary works such as Catcher in the Rye, Hamlet, and The Great Gatsby. In fact, many characters in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby other than Jay exhibit duality of character or falsehood and inauthenticity. Among those characters, Tom

Tom’s reputation, of a rich man of old money, and an athlete, place him in a high social position above most others. When Nick mentions, “[Tom had] left Chicago and come East in a fashion that rather took your breath away; for instance, he’d brought down a string of polo ponies from Lake Forest”, he reveals Tom Buchanan’s taste for expensive, and extravagant things, as well as his willingness to put on a show for anyone within line of sight(6). Further, his want to flaunt draw attention to his social status as compensation for the shortcomings he believes himself to have. His frequent boasting earns him a high opinion among the circles of he public, regardless of the inconsistencies he feels take up space in his life. Similarly, when Tom suggests, “Come on Daisy, I’ll take you in this circus wagon”, his jab at Gatsby, reflects his cocky exterior with which he uses to bring down those he finds threatening(121). Given that he sees Gatsby as a threat to his relationship with Daisy, he acts accordingly; asserting his dominance over Gatsby physically-by attempting to pull Daisy into the car with him- and physcologically- by implying that Gatsby’s life resembles a circus and that he is, overall more dominant, with his ability to take the woman Gatsby loves and his

His insecurities can only be leveraged when he feels threatened by someone else with a challenging masculinity or level of respect. When Tom and Nick meet, Nick notes that Tom has, “a body capable of enormous leverage- a cruel body”, pointing out his physical hypermasculinity; however, the description of his body discomforts Tom, given that when Daisy calls him “hulking” he responds saying, “You make me feel uncivilized Daisy. Can’t you talk about crops or something?”(7,12). His clear discomfort with certain physical aspects of himself contribute to his having a sensitive, less masculine side, vulnerable to those with the right ammunition from. Tom knows his value is greater than that of a hulking brute, and his moment of sensitivity displays the break in the character he plays for the outside world. In addition, when Gatsby refers to Tom as the “polo player” and Tom responds, “I’d a little rather not be the polo player, I’d rather look at all these famous people in-in oblivion”, he, again, reveals his insecurity with his self worth equating to athleticism and physicality(105). When the comparison between his self worth and strength aren’t mentioned, Tom’s facade of dominance hardly wavers, depicting his character as one who enjoys his own definition of powerful without cross-referencing it with the ideas of others. Based on his twisted