How Is Jay Gatsby A Tragic Hero

Published in 1925 by Scribner and Sons, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” received mixed reviews and would not sell well for decades to come; only 20,000 copies were sold in the first year. Fitzgerald would die in 1940, believing his was a vain attempt at literature, his novel consigned to oblivion. This was a premature forecast for what would become his life’s work. The novel was to experience a rebirth during the 1940s’, and became part of the American academia as one of those classics that endure. The novel was to go on to be considered a literary classic and considered a strong competitor for the title of “Great American Novel”. Adapted numerous times for both stage and screen it has endured down to today. Many of Fitzgerald’s

Gatsby faces these hurdles with honor and audacity. Gatsby is a nostalgic daydreamer who will see his dream made reality by assembling a fortune with the hope of winning the heart of his lost love, Daisy. The tragedy for Gatsby's tragic dwells in his inability to see that his dreams and the here and now cannot exist simultaneously. Gatsby's believes that the past he can repeat the past. When told that no one can repeat the past, Gatsby responds, "Can't repeat the past? Why of course you can!” (85) His inability to reconcile that his youth and Daisy's love are forever behind him shows demonstrates his dream’s failure. Nick prophetically states at the beginning of the novel, “it was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again. No, Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams.” (5) It is Gatsby’s belief that he can win the woman of his dreams with wealth, he amasses immense wealth to coerce his love to his side. Unwilling or unable to see that she is only in love with his material success, Gatsby's downfall is brought home to home when he realizes he cannot purchase this

The Daisy he loves gone forever, and his trying to replay the last five years which ends up killing him. Men would explain away Jay Gatsby’s many flaws, some more than others. Perhaps his greatest flaw was his passion for Daisy, Daisy herself is the one thing between Gatsby and his idyllic fantasy, she is the one thing he lusts after but can’t win. In the end, she is the death of him. No. she did not pull the trigger, but she may as well have, it is this that is inevitable conclusion of her disastrous impact on his life. Daisy strips him of his mysterious aloofness, turning his cool demeanor into a childlike persona. She exposes him and his humanity, allowing him to be but one amongst man flawed human being. When Daisy finally attends one of his extravaganza’s he is quick to move among the milling throng, abandoning his perch on high. Jay has fallen under the spell of the much younger Daisy, one from which he cannot extricate himself. He young and poor, she rich; their social strata would forever keep them apart. This inevitably leads to a parting that Jay will never get over her. Daisy's desire for wealth and ease has a strong impact on Jay so much so that adopts this same ideology. When Gatsby's goal of reuniting with Daisy fails his life is left in ruins. “Reunited with Daisy, Gatsby realizes that "it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one" (100), Gatsby himself