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Theme Of Archetype In The Great Gatsby

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F. Scott Fitzgerald, in The Great Gatsby uses the tragic hero archetype to further his point that the American Dream is dead. The tragic hero archetype is defined by Aristotle as a character cursed with hubris who has a reversal of fortune and suffers a greater fate than deserved. Gatsby fits into this definition perfectly, excessive pride being shown when he aspires to reverse fate itself and bring everything back to his definition of normal. His strive to reverse fate and desire to attain the unattainable turns fortune against him and in doing so suffers the greatest fate, dying at the hand of Mr. Wilson who killed Gatsby out of rage, erroneously believing Gatsby to have killed his wife. Gatsby portrays his excessive pride clearly in a number …show more content…

The essence of his whole dream was to marry Daisy and it is all which he has worked towards for years. The time during which Gatsby and all the old money people in the novel go out for the summer is when everything starts to go wrong for Gatsby. During the excursion Gatsby gets into an altercation with Tom over Daisy and his past is unveiled for what it really is. Tom reveals the secret that Gatsby has hidden from Daisy: him being a mobster. Daisy knows the shame that would bring her family and it is obvious to everyone there that she cannot be associated with him romantically. Understanding that he is victorious Tom triumphantly speaks “I think he realizes this presumptuous little flirtation is over”, and it truly is, Daisy has turned mostly cold to him and refused to speak to him much afterwards. Despite losing, Gatsby still clings to his dream and tries to convince Daisy to still love him. The narrator then solemnly reads “Only the dead dream fought on”, explaining how even though Gatsby already knows that he has lost he does not want to give up what has kept him moving forward for many years. Daisy has been Gatsby’s only real objective for many years it is unbearable for him to give up his dream. He fights now not to win but to convince himself that Daisy is still in reach when it is obvious she

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