Jay Gatsby As A Tragic Hero

In the novel The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby is introduced as an enormously rich man during the flashy years of the jazz age when wealth defines importance. Gatsby has endless wealth, power and influence but never uses material objects selfishly. Everything he owns exists only to attain his vision. However, the novel has shown the story as a tragedy, and Jay Gatsby is a tragic hero with a twist of fate which results in the hero’s destruction as he has lost everything he’s gained. Therefore, Jay Gatsby is the doomed tragic hero starting from the zero, blinded by his irrational dream to relive the past even though he has achieved everything - success, fame, money, and power - except his love with Daisy, who has gone

From the past, he was not a true Oxford man as “[he] only stayed for five months”(129). He did not come from the old money or a wealthy family because “his parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people” (98), but his struggle against poverty was what made him exceptional. Instead of discouraging him, his living conditions sparked the desire and pursuit of personal success. With the creation of his daily schedules which was divided into his well organized routine and “general resolves” (173), he has proved his potential for greatness because he predetermined the ways to success, which was constant self-improvement. He knows the limit of his capabilities and has a strong sense of self. The authenticity of his general resolves was magnificent because his ideals of success were very spiritual and pure. Starting from “a penniless young man without a past, and at any moment the invisible cloak of his uniform might slip from his shoulders” (149), he has proved that anything is possible if one sets their mind to it as he now becomes a changed successful man - the Great Gatsby, who will never give up his only

She was Gatsby’s lover of his past and his vision of perfection. However, Daisy just wants to live in the wealth as she decided to leave Gatsby, who was still struggling with poverty, and engaged with Tom Buchanan. Her desire of money has been revealed while Gatsby is introducing his house and his closet full of luxurious and expensive clothes. She is overwhelmed by the tears of joy at his wealth and success, but not really at Gatsby himself as ”Daisy bent her head into the shirts and began to cry stormily” (92). She only feels happy while being surrounded by money - the corrupt materialism. This has made his ideal which was once self-accomplishment turns to the pursuit of materialistic gains. Gatsby’s acquaintance with Meyer Wolfsheim, who is a dishonest man and a member of organized crime, reveals his vast fortune he has earned is actually a fruit of illegal and crooked business. After “he revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes” (91), Gatsby does not only make himself worthy for his true ideal, but also continue to place himself below her and think in ways which make her