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Examples Of Tragic Hero In The Great Gatsby

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Sam Winchester, Elena Gilbert, Walter White, Sirus Black, Peta Mellark, Jean Valjean, and Jay Gatsby, what do all these characters have in common? They are all tragic heroes. A tragic hero is a character that has a fatal flaw, or tragic flaw, that keeps them from perfection. From HBO shows, to classic literature, writers have been breaking our hearts with tragic heroes for years! Even the title "tragic hero" sounds melodramatic. According to Aristotle, a tragic hero should have a certain traits. He decided that they should be pitied, they should disrespect the natural order, reverse their fate, have a tragic flaw, make an important discovery, and be put in an unavoidable situation (Meirow). In the book, The Great Gatsby, while Jay Gatsby is frantically searching for the American Dream, he displays each of the previous …show more content…

He fell in love with her while fighting in World War II, but then she married another man. The story focuses on his effort to win back her love. This is the one reason why the reader pities Mr. Gatsby, the first character trait of a tragic hero. Gatsby also grew up very poor on a farm. He makes it his life 's mission to live out the American Dream. He wants to get rich and have all of the luxuries that come with it. For example, parties, friends, wealth, and Daisy a pretty girl from a well off family. The reader is rooting for Gatsby to accomplish his goal. The reader 's feelings help them paint Gatsby as a hero who they just want to be happy. Gatsby disrespects the natural order by moving from the farm, and making himself rich by selling illegal liquor. During this time period, he reinvents himself into a sophisticated man by changing his name and adopting good manners. Neither of which is something a farm hand would do. Since Gatsby refuses to accept his fate and the readers pity him, it is easy for the writer to hook the reader into the story and define him as a tragic

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Gatsby has spent his whole life trying to prove to Daisy and everyone around him that he is worthy of her. The only way to be on the same social level as her is to turn himself into new money. Since this is not possible, he has to try to convince to others that he truly is old money. To do this, he becomes rich, and lies about his past, but the only way for him to complete this idea is if he is with Daisy. She is the final piece in his American dream.

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2312 Words | 10 Pages

Fitzgerald attempts to make Gatsby appear as a compassionate and humble man who cares for everyone but fails at doing so by showing his many flaws and actions that go against the very idea of him being a compassionate man. At first, Gatsby appears to be perhaps the only compassionate man in the book and maybe even comparable to Christ. You see him opening his home to everyone, and taking people in and being kind hearted to everyone he encounters but later the reader begins to discover that everything Gatsby does, has an ulterior motive. For example, his kindness to Nick first appears to be just him being kind to his neighbour, however the reader later realises that the only purpose in Gatsby’s kindness towards Nick was to get him to assist him come in to contact with Daisy and be reintroduced to her. “I’m going to make a big request of you to-day” (Fitzgerald 52).

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389 Words | 2 Pages

Jay Gatsby and James Gatz: Who was the Great Romantic Hero? A romantic hero is one who repudiates the standards and customs put upon them by society,they are spurned by society and positions themselves as an important character in their own lives There are three versions of a romantic hero, the Byronic hero, an antihero, and romantic hero. The type of romantic hero that resides in the novel The Great Gatsby, is a Byronic hero.

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585 Words | 3 Pages

The Romantic Hero People either distance ourselves from one another or others look up to each other. This leads others to be cautious of who to be close with or who to distance ourselves from. In the novel, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby shows that he is a romantic hero who was in a world of his own, rather than being a morally corrupt figure who people should stay away from. Gatsby shows he is a romantic hero, because he worked very hard to recreate a better version of himself, he was very determined to fulfill his goals, and he did is all for the people he loved.

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1336 Words | 6 Pages

As said by other critics, “Jay Gatsby's determination to establish a new identity for himself sets him apart from the other characters in the text” (Verderame). Gatsby grew up as a poor farmer boy. Born into poverty from the beginning, Gatsby cared little for his family and was determined to leave them behind for a new life. This tragic past encourages Gatsby to entirely start a new life by changing his identity and personality before the reader is even introduced to the character. “So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen year old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end” (98).Critics say, “In doing so, Gatsby has proven to himself that he can successfully change the story of his past” (Scisco).

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539 Words | 3 Pages

Although Gatsby does not seem to be a selfish man on the surface, his intentions and success may. He builds a ginormous mansion and throws extravagant parties all to get Daisy and her love back. Gatsby does all this for his good since all it consists of is having Daisy all to himself. The corruption and obsession of wealth is displayed through the characters Daisy, Tom and Gatsby as they live their lives in

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756 Words | 4 Pages

Gatsby’s dreams and aspirations in life are rather interesting and amazing as he goes about his life in the book. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald helps highlight the social, moral, and political issue that were very present during the 1920’s and today. Gatsby is the focus of the book as before the book began, he was an ex-soldier who came to wealth by some rather illegal ways. Daisy a married woman is his person of interest, who was his ex-lover 5 years before the book started. Gatsby’s actions, and words demonstrate a clear obsession with Daisy that seems to have no end.

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763 Words | 4 Pages

Gatsby would work hard to obtain wealth. Gatsby showed courage by being willing to sacrifice everything for his love of Daisy. One example is when Gatsby offered to take the blame for the murder of Myrtle after Daisy hit her while driving his car. While Gatsby showed some characteristics of a “Hemingway Hero”, there are some main characteristics he falls short of such as self-reliance

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336 Words | 2 Pages

According to Dictionary.com, a tragic hero is defined as “a great or virtuous character in a dramatic tragedy who is destined for downfall, suffering, or defeat.” In The Great Gatsby, by Scott F. Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby would be a great example of a tragic hero. Even though Gatsby may not be portrayed as an ordinary man, in reality he is just as normal as any other man wanting to change the past. In The Great Gatsby, page 110, the Great Gatsby says, “can’t repeat the past?

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833 Words | 4 Pages

What is more valuable, love or money? In the novel the ¨The Great Gatsby¨ written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, there is old and new money, Gatsby who is the main character in the novel comes from the side of new money. Gatsby finds out that his money can buy: a beautiful home, nice cars, friends, however; his wealth cannot buy the one thing that he wants most. Fitzgerald is conveying that money cannot buy certain things. Gatsby's rise and fall throughout the novel show that money isn't what makes a person happy.

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695 Words | 3 Pages

Through thorough analysis of the text Jay Gatsby meets the criteria of a tragic hero, this can be evaluated throughout many points in the text such as this status leading to his undeserved death, his realization of his fatal flaw, the traumatic experience of losing Daisy wounding him, and this event molding the persona of ”The Great Gatsby”. Gatsby's defined status as a tragic hero can be observed through his realization of the fatal flaw that led to his unfortunate and premature demise. Gatsby's fatal flaw was quite plainly his love for Daisy Buchanan which as he expressed was what changed the focus of his life forever. He knew the moment he was interlinked with Daisy that nothing would ever be the same representing the realization of his fatal flaw when it is said “He knew that when he kissed this girl and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God”. This flaw which was his love and attachment to

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637 Words | 3 Pages

She loved Gatsby, but she also loved money. She then meet a man named Tom. Tom was from a wealthy family. She then married him because her love of money was more important to her than her dream of

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1659 Words | 7 Pages

Characters throughout The Great Gatsby present themselves with mysterious and questionable morals. Affairs, dishonest morals, criminal professions, weak boundaries and hypocritical views are all examples of immorality portrayed in The Great Gatsby. In F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, lies and mischief fill the lives of many and significantly damage numerous relationships. First, Jay Gatsby's whole life is consumed into a massive lie. His personality traits set him apart from others and the attention he accumulates motivates him to falsely portray his life.

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1873 Words | 8 Pages

The characters in the novel pretend that they have their lives all figured out, but through their successes their downfalls and emptiness can be seen, to prove that money cannot buy happiness. Jay Gatsby is the newest and upcoming star in New York during the 1920’s. Through his business and inheritance he is one of the richest men of his time. One may think that his abundance of wealth would lead him to be eternally happy, but he is the opposite. Gatsby longs for his love of Daisy, which is his personal American Dream.

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1373 Words | 6 Pages

While on the surface, Gatsby does have a ‘rags-to-riches’ story, it is not a virtuous one; he amasses his wealth through illegal channels by working with Meyer Wolfsheim, and never fulfills his dream, Daisy. Also, He changes his name from James Gatz to Jay Gatsby when he first encounters Dan Cody. Because Gatsby has to take on an entirely different persona to achieve success, disguising his poor upbringing and suggesting that James Gatz could never achieve the American dream. Gatsby first attempts to earn his financial success by performing menial labor for Cody, but when Cody’s ex-wife swindles Gatsby out of his inheritance, he turns to illegal means of getting rich. Not only does Gatsby illegally gain his wealth my selling grain liquor over the counter, but he also does so under the direction of Meyer Wolfsheim, breaking two essential qualities of the self-made man, virtue, and independence.

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