Tom Buchanan

Daisy’s immensely wealthy husband, once a member of Nick’s social club at Yale. Powerfully built and hailing from a socially solid old family, Tom is an arrogant, hypocritical bully. His social attitudes are laced with racism and sexism, and he never even considers trying to live up to the moral standard he demands from those around him.
Being born into a family that is wealthy has made Tom a spoiled man. He hasn't really worked his entire life and instead spends his days in indulgence and ease. This is what motivates Tom; gratification. He has a shameless affair with Myrtle because it satisfies his needs. He flaunts their relationship in public because he does not concern himself with the consequences of his actions, he's never had to. This is also why he and Daisy escape in the end of the book. There was a situation they would have to face and they didn't want to. So they ran to their money and fled the situation, leaving it to be dealt with by others. Tom will spend his whole life doing things like that because that is who he is: A careless man who won't be bothered by the suffering he causes.

sturdy, straw-haired man of thirty with a rather hard mouth and a supercilious manner. Two shining, arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face, and gave him the appearance of always leaning aggressively forward … you could see a great pack of muscle shifting when his shoulder moved under his thin coat. It was a body capable of enormous leverage—a cruel body. 

If you're getting the picture that our narrator doesn't much like Tom. But Nick is also fascinated with Tom. He probably can't help it; like Daisy, Tom is a fascinating kind of guy. Like Daisy, he's got something that everyone else wants: he's got power.

Maybe He's Born With It

Tom's family is rich. Really rich. Not well-to-do like Nick's family, and notnouveau riche like Gatsby, but staggeringly wealthy, with money going way back. (Or as far back as any money in America goes, anyway.) And he does extravagant, crazy things with it, like bringing "a string of polo ponies for Lake Forest" (1).

Okay, yeah, that doesn't mean much to us, either. It's probably something along the lines of buying a private jet: you know people can do it, but it's a pretty flashy move. Especially because he's so (relatively) young: "It was hard to realize that a man in my own generation was wealthy enough to do that."

In his own way, Tom is just as flashy as Gatsby. But everyone somehow knows that Gatsby's a newcomer. Tom, on the other hand, has something you can't buy. You might call it "breeding," but that sounds weird and a little racist, or even eugenicist. So, we're going to call it "arrogance": the absolute conviction that, thanks to money and family, he was born to inhabit a certain world; to marry a certain type of woman; and to receive homage from, well, pretty much every other man he encounters.

Although, come to think of it, eugenics is a good touch point here: Tom has been doing some light reading, and he's obsessed with the idea that the "lesser races" are going to come knock the Aryans—excuse us, "Nordic" people—off their white privilege pedestal." If we don't look out the white race will be—will be utterly submerged" (1), he says.

Okay, now Nick isn't the only one who doesn't like Tom. We're not big fans ourselves.

But why is Tom obsessed with the idea that his "race" is on the verge of being submerged? He certainly doesn't seem like he's going anywhere, because money isn't the only thing that makes him loom larger than life. He's also physically powerful, a college football star (for Yale), and someone whom Daisy calls a "brute of a man, a great, big, hulking physical specimen" (1.70).

Problem is, Tom doesn't like being called "hulking." We're not sure why, but we do have an idea: Tom believes that he has natural superiority. He's better than everyone else because of his family, his "blood," his station in life.

In fact, Daisy suggests, he comes by his power in the oldest, least classy way: he's just bigger and stronger than anyone else. And maybe, this passage seems to suggest, that's the root of all power. It has nothing to do with naturally superior races, or naturally superior families: it just has to do with whether or not you're big enough to steal someone else's woman. (Or money.)

Cruel Summer

Tom is definitely big enough—and he's also mean enough. He's a cruel man. It's not enough for him to take a mistress; he flaunts her "wherever he was known" (2.3-4), making sure that everyone sees her with him and apparently unconcerned with Daisy finding out about it.

And when he wins his little battle of wills with Gatsby, he drives the metaphorical knife in just a little bit more when he insists that Daisy drive home with Gatsby, saying "Go on. He won't annoy you. I think he realizes that his presumptuous little flirtation is over. (7.298).

Talk about burn. This little exchange makes Gatsby's undying love seem like a middle school crush; it deflates any feelings Daisy might have had for him; and it put Gatsby in his place by calling him "presumptuous." That's a lot of insult for a few words. And that's the point. He doesn't care about Daisy; he doesn't care about Gatsby. All he cares about is getting what's his. And Daisy, unfortunately for everyone, is his

Daisy Buchanan

Partially based on Fitzgerald’s wife, Zelda, Daisy is a beautiful young woman from Louisville, Kentucky. She is Nick’s cousin and the object of Gatsby’s love. As a young debutante in Louisville, Daisy was extremely popular among the military officers stationed near her home, including Jay Gatsby. Gatsby lied about his background to Daisy, claiming to be from a wealthy family in order to convince her that he was worthy of her. Eventually, Gatsby won Daisy’s heart, and they made love before Gatsby left to fight in the war. Daisy promised to wait for Gatsby, but in 1919 she chose instead to marry Tom Buchanan, a young man from a solid, aristocratic family who could promise her a wealthy lifestyle and who had the support of her parents.
After 1919, Gatsby dedicated himself to winning Daisy back, making her the single goal of all of his dreams and the main motivation behind his acquisition of immense wealth through criminal activity. To Gatsby, Daisy represents the paragon of perfection—she has the aura of charm, wealth, sophistication, grace, and aristocracy that he longed for as a child in North Dakota and that first attracted him to her. In reality, however, Daisy falls far short of Gatsby’s ideals. She is beautiful and charming, but also fickle, shallow, bored, and sardonic. Nick characterizes her as a careless person who smashes things up and then retreats behind her money. Daisy proves her real nature when she chooses Tom over Gatsby in Chapter 7, then allows Gatsby to take the blame for killing Myrtle Wilson even though she herself was driving the car. Finally, rather than attend Gatsby’s funeral, Daisy and Tom move away, leaving no forwarding address.
Like Zelda Fitzgerald, Daisy is in love with money, ease, and material luxury. She is capable of affection (she seems genuinely fond of Nick and occasionally seems to love Gatsby sincerely), but not of sustained loyalty or care. She is indifferent even to her own infant daughter, never discussing her and treating her as an afterthought when she is introduced in Chapter 7. In Fitzgerald’s conception of America in the 1920s, Daisy represents the amoral values of the aristocratic East Egg set.
Daisy is a trapped woman. She's trapped in a marriage that she is unhappy in and trapped in a world where she has no chance to be free or independent. She is at the mercy of her husband, a man who takes her for granted. Daisy is also terribly clever, delivering some of the funnier lines of the book. When a reader looks at the foolishness and shallowness of Daisy they must realize that Daisy may be doing out of necessity. As she said when she delivered her daughter, "- that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool". Daisy is smart enough to understand the limits imposed on her and has become jaded and indulgent because of them.
The word careless also describes Daisy well. Many of the things that Daisy does, the accident with Myrtle in particular, show a woman who is just careless. She has become very much wrapped up in herself. Part of this is due to the fact that she had been spoiled all her life. She was born into money and had an endless assortment of men who would continue to spoil her. So she has learned to think only of herself without regard for the people that it may hurt.

Jay Gatsby. What makes him great?

 The title character and protagonist of the novel, Gatsby is a fabulously wealthy young man living in a Gothic mansion in West Egg. He is famous for the lavish parties he throws every Saturday night, but no one knows where he comes from, what he does, or how he made his fortune. As the novel progresses, Nick learns that Gatsby was born James Gatz on a farm in North Dakota; working for a millionaire made him dedicate his life to the achievement of wealth. When he met Daisy while training to be an officer in Louisville, he fell in love with her. Nick also learns that Gatsby made his fortune through criminal activity, as he was willing to do anything to gain the social position he thought necessary to win Daisy. Nick views Gatsby as a deeply flawed man, dishonest and vulgar, whose extraordinary optimism and power to transform his dreams into reality make him “great” nonetheless.

Why is he ‘great’?

F. Scott Fitzgerald already sets us up to understand that Gatsby is Great, but why? Even people who have read this book cover to cover, took notes on the inner symbolism, and got A's on the tests; do not know the reason that Gatsby is considered great. Therefore, let us look on how F. Scott Fitzgerald creates a character good enough to be called "great". I feel this is a good time to point out that F. Scot Fitzgerald, nor any author but Fitzgerald took pain staking drinking binges to achieve it, does not write ANYTHING accidentally or arbitrarily. F. Scott Fitzgerald thought out every minute and every second of his book he called "his crowning achievement". In Gatsby, he has developed a character that can only be considered great, and develops it all the way to the end of the novel.

In short, F. Scot Fitzgerald created Jay Gatsby to embody the American dream. That unique American ability to go from rags to riches. The ability of each of us to live as rich as we want, and dream as big as we want. A dream that is the epitome of all dreams, and that all people have dreamt at one time or another: The poor boy or the broke soldier having the very very rich girl, and rising to the class of the rich and famous. James Gatz, the man who would become Jay Gatsby, had only $5 in his pocket when he arrived in New York and met Wolfshiem(from the end of the book after Gatsby's death) This little piece of info shows that in a mere 3 years, he went from nothing to owning one of the largest houses in New York speaking to the most powerful people around, and throwing parties that every important person in the Us attended. This is the American Dream.

F. Scot Fitzgerald places him as a mid-west good old boy, who went into the Army to fight "the great war". He is the all American boy. Then we find out that he had a list of things to guide his life and become great. These are directly reminiscent to Ben Franklin's rules to live life by from his autobiography. F. Scott Fitzgerald knew the history, and added these in because these rules took over the 10 commandments as Americas laws to live by, and we live by and know many of them right now. By doing this, F. Scott Fitzgerald has likened him to one of our greatest founding fathers.

F. Scott Fitzgerald has put this information into the book to show that we do have the ability to do these things, to become as great as we want. Even though F. Scott Fitzgerald could have stopped there, he did not feel that James Gatz had truly become great. Fitzgerald then lifts Gatsby to god like status. He points out that yes, we all do have this ability in America; but Gatsby, unlike everyone else, achieved this greatness for love. When one person selflessly gives themselves, sacrifices themselves, sacrifices everything they have, and even gives their life for someone else; they are greater than anyone - they are akin to the status of Jesus.

James Gatz lived his entire life to love Daisy. When he shows her the stuff in his house, he's showing her the house he has created for her. He doesn't really care for any of this - it's all done specifically for her. The parties stopped when she didn't like them, because they too we for her. In the end, he says that he will tell the police that he was driving, he waits outside her house like a gallant knight, and finally takes a bullet for her so that she may live on. Jay Gatsby has lived and created all that eh has in the name of love and the name of Daisy, not James Gatz or Jay Gatsby.

F. Scott Fitzgerald made the general populace as the ashen men. He has them, symbolized by George, to rise up to kill the most powerful of them, and the one and only exemplar that the normal people had for what they could do and become - Jay Gatsby. This parallels the death of Jesus who did all things exactly as the Jewish people had written them. He came in on a Donkey on the exact date, he entered the temple at the required time, he challenged the status quo when it was suppose to be, and told everyone that there was a possibility to live in a world of love; and they all denounced him. Without a thought of anger or fear, and even to the very last moment on the cross, he stated that he loved all of them. The last comment from Gatsby is about Daisy coming to him, and Nick responds by stating that Gatsby is better then all of them. So Gatsby dies for love, for the people, and as an example of what can be if we want it to be.

Zelda through Daisy

Like most authors, F Scott. Fitzgerald is not exempt from incorporating the effects of societal and personal events into his writing. The rise of the flappers throughout the Roaring Twenties and his wife’s heavy involvement in the ideology of the revolution became a recurring theme in Fitzgerald’s novels and female characters. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays his strained relationship with wife Zelda through his characterization and actions of Daisy Buchanan

Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald was raised the privileged daughter of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Sayre in a prominent southern family with roots dating back to the Confederacy. As a child, Zelda was well known for her mischievous, vivacious personality and her physical beauty, traits that would follow her to her adulthood leading to her becoming the quintessential woman of the Jazz Age. Being the eccentric wife to a renowned author, Zelda became instantly famous due to her inspiration for the character of Rosalind Connage in Fitzgerald’s first novel The Side of Paradise, a novel advocating the “free” lifestyle of both Fitzgerald and Zelda.

Fitzgerald’s first attempt to court Zelda, however, was not originally successful. Scott, a twenty-one year old second lieutenant, attempted to court the youthful eighteen year old Zelda after meeting her at a dance. The young couple had a short-lived romance of only a couple months in which Zelda “threw herself into their courtship,” testing the waters that could possibly lead her to her ultimate escape of the South (Cline). Zelda initially agreed to an engagement but was doubtful of Fitzgerald’s ability to maintain her materialistic lifestyle. This inability would lead to Zelda’s eventual withdrawal from the engagement. Zelda moved on to other men, and Fitzgerald left to war for a year, returning and successfully publishing his novel The Side of Paradise. With his persistence and publishing of his novel, Scott is finally able to marry Zelda in 1920 (Curnutt). Together, the couple would embrace “the freedoms and excesses of the 1920’s Jazz Age” (Curnutt), consequently morphing Zelda into the symbol of the liberated woman and the “flapper” lifestyle.

As the couple continued to live a luxurious lifestyle, the Fitzgerald’s briefly stopped at France and had their only child Frances “Scottie” Fitzgerald. Zelda can be quoted in saying that she wished her daughter was a “beautiful little fool” (Curnutt). The Fitzgeralds’ joy, unfortunately, was ephemeral; Scott found difficulty in producing any plays or novels of great success, leading the family into debt. During the couples period of struggle, Scott found solace in alcohol leading to an addiction and alleged violence between Zelda and himself. In an attempt to escape the distractions of America, the family returned to France which led to the successful creation of Scott’s novel The Great Gatsby, but the straining of his marriage due to Zelda’s secret affair with French aviator Edouard Jozan (Bruccoli). Through the affair was ambiguous in nature, Zelda’s close friends noticed a change in the Fitzgeralds’ relationship. Scott was too immersed in his writing to notice Zelda’s slow detachment from him and Zelda only became more and more infatuated with the young Frenchmen, going as far as to indirectly profess her strong attraction to him in her novelSave Me the Waltz (Cline).


The relationship would only dissipate after The Great Gatsby as the couple separated, Fitzgerald continuing his work in America while Zelda attempted to become a professional dancer in vain and eventually being diagnosed with Schizophrenia, after which she was sent to a clinic where she wrote her only novel Save Me the Waltz, recounting the couples unstable marriage (Curnutt).

While Fitzgerald’s relationship with Zelda was hardly idealistic, he found inspiration for several of his novels through her. He became well known for “describing in semi-autobiographical fiction the privileged lives of wealthy, aspiring socialites” (Willhite) and creating a new breed of characters: “the independent determined young American woman” (Bruccoli). Not only did he use Zelda as inspiration for his heroines but Scott also quoted Zelda through his characters and on one occasion used a passage straight from Zelda’s diary for one of his novels (Curnutt). Through Scott’s constant use of Zelda in his writings, it becomes more than evident that Scott had a slightly obsessive deep compassion and care for Zelda, or rather the modern woman he hoped Zelda would be.

At the turn of the century, women’s role in society began to change rapidly. Women became intolerant of the suppression forced upon them by the changing society of the early twentieth century. Lady-like rules of the past were quickly vanishing, woman did not wish to “button-up their gloves,” speak in the refined language of the aristocracy, or partake in the feminine submissiveness demanded by woman of the pre-flapper era. The Flapper Revolution called on young woman who dress in revealing clothing rode in automobiles, flirted with men and sought out individual pleasures; flapper became the “epitome of modernism” (Gourley). Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald would become the poster-girl for the modern woman, embodying all aspects of the flapper lifestyle. Daisy Buchanan, the character most notably inspired from Zelda in Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby, too, became representative of the flapper lifestyle. Daisy, like Zelda, sought to find a liberated self, breaking the barriers of tradition with her open sexuality and personification of the “freedoms of modern life” (Chadwick).

Daisy’s life and relations in the novel seem to parallel Zelda’s life in most aspects. Daisy was a woman who lived for the moment, preoccupied by the today over the tomorrow, a belief system advocated by Zelda herself (“The Great Gatsby”). And like Zelda, Daisy came from a southern, aristocratic family of “old money”; she was a girl who knew “how to dress, how to act and what to say in order to maintain appearances” (Willett). Daisy was the perfect representation of the changing roles of woman during the 20’s; she portrayed the dichotomy of both the sexual and virginal woman of the time. 

Fitzgerald’s relation with Zelda becomes present as the novel progresses through Daisy’s relationship with Jay Gatsby. Gatsby and Daisy were separated by a class distinction that would not allow Daisy, whom was graced with a “voice of money” as described by Fitzgerald, to elope with a soldier of no particular social class. However much like Fitzgerald returned with wealth to redeem himself, Gatsby also returned to New York to finally return to his love Daisy; both men feeding their respective lover “illusion that money makes everything beautiful, even if it’s not” (“The Great Gatsby”). Though Daisy is married, Gatsby persist on seducing the “idea of Daisy…rather than the real woman she is”.

When viewing Zelda and Scott as portrayed through Daisy and Gatsby, Fitzgerald’s frustrations in his marriage to Zelda become apparent. He has personified Zelda as a detached and irresponsible wife. As Daisy practically ignored her “beautiful little fool” child, Zelda did as well, with her conveniently equivalent daughter. And Daisy’s dependency on her husband Tom, for his money and strength, parallel Zelda’s necessity of financial stability. 

Zelda’s affair becomes a key role in the novel’s plot. “Daisy’s two betrayals of Gatsby were based on Zelda’s broken engagement to Scott and her romance with Jozan” (Cline). In the novel, Gatsby valiantly tries to reserve Daisy’s love for himself, much like Scott attempts to do with Zelda after the Jozan episode. Scott goes on to take inspiration from Zelda in Daisy’s response, “…I love you now – isn’t that enough? I can’t help what has passed” (Cline). As the lust for Daisy brought success the downfall of Gatsby, early Fitzgerald biographers defined Zelda as both “an inspiration and a liability”, even Hemingway characterized a fictional Zelda, in A Movable Feast, as a harridan who derailed her husband’s career.

By the end of the novel, Gatsby and Daisy cannot be together; Gatsby is killed and Daisy returns to her abusive relationship. Scott and Gatsby’s “American Dream” become a fantasy alone, as Gatsby died, so did the illusion of Fitzgerald’s marriage to Zelda. Fitzgerald makes the claim that his relationship with Zelda was improbable from its conception. The tragic ending of the novel does not only provide a glimpse into the dismal delusions brought on by Scott and Zelda’s disconnect from reality, but the universal illusions construed in lust, ambition and the inability to move on from the past.