The Great Gatsby Analysis (characters)

Characters:

1.Describe three key characters and explain how they change throughout the novel. (Nick, Daisy and Gatsby)

Nick

Throughout The Great Gatsby, Nick experienced the most change out of all the characters. At the start of the novel, Nick started off as a naive innocent young man. He hadn’t yet been exposed to the harsh world and learned more as the book progressed. He believed that their was good in each and everyone of us, just a strong wall of camouflage stood tall, hiding the wholesomeness. Nick eventually realises how self centred and egotistical all East egg people are and his judgement starts to kick in again. As he deceives an image of the real Tom and Daisy, he states “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.” Nick changes from appreciating Daisy and Tom, to disapprove of them.

At the beginning, Nick was different from the rest of the bunch (the upper class), but as the book comes to a halt, he starts to blend into the crowds and moulds into “one of them”. Nick also becomes more and more biased towards Gatsby as we read more into the novel. Not only does himself and Gatsby start to blend into the upper class side, he thinks that they are better than Tom and Daisy. Towards the end of The Great Gatsby, Nick gets fed up of the all the drama that is going on between the eggs and tells Gatsby, “You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together.” Nick’s opinion of Gatsby changes throughout the novel to thinking he’s a shady, mysterious man, to realising that he’s only a man trying to achieve his goals. He quotes “Gatsby turned out alright at the end”, this shows the readers that starting off, Gatsby wasn’t liked by Nick, but soon enough Gatsby starts grows on him and Nick begins to protect all of Gatsby’s actions despite them being wrong or right.

Daisy

Daisy alternated between personalities hugely in the novel, each one showing a different side to her. I firstly thought she would maintain her character throughout the novel and not change. She was so absorbed into her superficial wealth lifestyle that I thought she would be ineligible to remove herself from her shallow living, but I learnt quickly enough that she was capable of change and showed it. She started off as a floozy, ditsy, gullible character who spoke with no meaning and wasn’t aware of what was going on in the present time. She believed anything she heard and thrived off gossip, “We heard it from three people so it must be true”. The readers started to feel sorry for her as she was mistreated by Tom, she only wanted to start her life and get married, just like every other girls dreamt about. The readers grew to feel sorry for her, but as we learnt more about Daisy, we realised we shouldn’t have. At the beginning of the book I saw her as a pushover who was incapable of deciding her own decisions. She seemed inadequate to think “out of the box” for the reason of her bland personality. Tom controlled her and she allowed him to. Then as we read further into the novel, we start to regret feeling sorry for her as grasp the fact that all her actions revolve around wealth. As the novel continued on, we started to see the real Daisy and how selfish she really is. She becomes so caught up on money and her own social status that she only values people depending on their wealth.

Daisy becomes emotionally unstable when she was accompanied by Gatsby. She didn’t break down when she first met Gatsby or even when she first talked to Gatsby, but when he displayed his wealth, she realised what she was missing out on. “They’re such beautiful shirts,” she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. “It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such—such beautiful shirts before.” This highlights her materialism and how she only accepts people with money. Her motivations and goals at the start of the novel were extinct, whereas later on in the book we learn that all of her motives are derived from money only. She symbolises broken promises and treads on other people for her own selfish reasons. Reuniting with Gatsby brought out the real Daisy and destroyed her wall of camouflage she had protecting herself before.

Gatsby

All of Gatsby’s motives and dreams revolved around Daisy. Gatsby’s choices are all driven by Daisy. He wanted her to complete his American dream and win over the ‘golden girl’. No one knew what to think of Gatsby, rumours spread fast and everyone knew about them. “You look at him sometimes when he thinks nobody’s looking at him. I’ll bet he killed a man.” One of the women at Gatsby’s parties assumed. He seems friendly on the surface but no one quite knows what is going on with him so he is still a very closed book. He had a big house, the money, and the fame, he seemed like he had everything under control and in order. Then we start to read more into the novel and we learn how obsessed Gatsby is with Daisy. He will drop everything for her no matter what. He knows Daisy and how she admires money, so he built up his reputation to be loved by her. As Nick and Gatsby become closer, Nick starts to appreciate him more because he’s a man driven for love not money like everyone else is. Nick can see how madly in love Gatsby is and how he will go to all limits to get Daisy.

Gatsby goes from being a shady, obscure man who was very popular and everyone knew, to being someone who was hardly spoke about. F. Scott Fitzgerald leads Jay Gatsby to undergo many changes as the book progresses and allows the readers to see him for who he truly is.

2. Identify how each of the characters you have explored above presented the idea of ‘illusion’ in the text. Describe how they concealed their true self from other characters in the novel. Explain what help you uncover their illusion in the text.

Gatsby

Gatsby held up an illusion of himself. An illusion that he was foolproof and had everything impeccable. One of Gatsby’s party guests, Owl eyes, attempts to expose Gatsby as he does not believe Gatsby is who everyone thinks he is (a perfect stable man). Owl eyes attends one of Gatsby’s memorable parties and becomes surprised at the fact that all his library books are real.‘Absolutely real—have pages and everything. I thought they’d be a nice durable cardboard. Matter of fact, they’re absolutely real. Anyone else would cut out cardboard to imitate books to fool others so they can look superior, but Gatsby doesn’t. The fact that Gastby has real books shows the audience that he can fool people very easily and speculates how looks can be deceiving. We learn more about Gatsby as the book goes on and the truth uncovers his life. The closer we look, the more we learn about Gatsby. His misleading looks protects his inner self and no one really knows what actually goes on. Gatsby built up an image of himself, a reputation to get to his love of his life, Daisy. His dreams and vision of him and Daisy ending up together have nearly reached impossible. His immense illusion he holds above him is as far away from reality can be. He continued to build on hopes for himself, not knowing when time would catch up with him. In the end, Gatsby could never escape time or achieve his dream.

Nick

Nick’s illusion that he represents is a typical one that we would all like to think about ourselves. He truly believes that he is unbiased and reserves all judgement. Its only till the end of the novel where we truly see Nick without his illusion. His tolerance is easy to break and he is in fact very judgemental and biased. His illusion is all in his head and is an internal one where as Gatsby for instance is related around his external self.

Nick is one of the few people who lives life in reality not stuck in an illusion. Nick attempts to tell Gatsby that he can’t erase time or go back, Gatsby fails to believe this and stays in the great illusion. Nick’s strong awareness and how realistic he is, makes it easier for him to notice the little things and not get caught up in the upper class lifestyle. Everyone’s Emotions ran high in this novel while Nick stood back and had the ability to see straight through the illusion. The lack of skill being able to tell what’s real and what’s not lets the rest of the characters down and leads to all their major downfalls. Gatsby and Nick prove a prime example of this. “ I’ll tell you God’s truth. I am the son of some wealthy people in the middle west.” Gatsby informs Nick. Later on in the book we find out this is not true and we find out that he’s actually from a poor family and gained his money from bootlegging. The harsh truth of Gatsby’s life shows how distant reality is and how easily illusions can overrule reality.

Daisy

Many people are blinded by Daisy’s illusion, Gatsby is one of them. Her illusion of fulfilling every man’s “American dream” makes her desirable in every way. She’s a woman who draws men in for their money only. Daisy’s internal self is emptiness, empty in a way that she’s only valuable for her money.  Gatsby tells Nick that “Her voice is full of money”. Nick never thought about this before until now. “That was it. I’d never understood before. It was full of money—that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals’ song of it. . . . High in a white palace the king’s daughter, the golden girl.”

Daisy’s appearance attracts everyone towards her, but she’s full of nothing. Her beauty makes her stand out of the crowd, but her personality blends into everyone else’s. Daisy’s deceptive manner rules her as a selfish materialistic women who uses and abuses people around her. As the book goes on, we start to see her illusion, the closer you look, the more you see what she holds, which turns out to be truly nothing at all.

3. Describe three important relationships in the text. Explain how these relationships were presented as being “false”.

Daisy and Tom

During the Great Gatsby, it is evident that Tom and Daisy’s relationship is toxic and held up by lies. These characters both come from wealth upbringings and both thrive off money. Tom settle for a big house, the dream girl, and an even bigger ego. Daisy is in love with money and the thought of having a rich, righteous lifestyle. They both want what they can’t have and share the same obsession for money. Daisy and Tom both have zero respect for anyone who is in a lower status than they are. Tom had the money to satisfy Daisies wants whereas Gatsby did not. Daisy didn’t marry Gatsby, despite how in love they were, as he didn’t have money to maintain her wanted lifestyle. Tom will always win Daisy over Gatsby as Daisy’s attracted to money only. Sure Tom isn’t the perfect ideal husband, but his wealth and class are sustainable and this is what appeals to Daisy. Their relationship represents the falseness of the whole novel and how superficial each character is. They don’t love or care for each other, Daisy loves tom for his exterior things he holds such as his wealth and his social status. They are both similar in a way that they care so much for their image, more than they care about each other. Nick proved this point when he says, “they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.” Nicks statement perfectly outlines Daisy’s nature and how she only cares about herself. She would do and does do anything for money despite any consequences that might follow. Her life revolves around Money, hence the reason she choose’s Tom over Gatsby.

Daisy and Gatsby

Gatsby’s obsession with Daisy and his long lasting hope for them to end up together dragged on throughout the book. Everything Gatsby did was for Daisy. Gatsby’s love for Daisy influenced the novels plot. 5 years before the novel, Gatsby and Daisy met. The instant Gatsby laid eyes on Daisy he saw the beauty seep through her. She was gorgeous and had every man fall at her feet. Their relationship began to progress forward and eventually they kissed: “Then he kissed her. At his lips’ touch she blossomed for him like a flower and the incarnation was complete.” Unfortunately for them both, their romance came to a halt as Gatsby departed off to the war. In 1919 when Gatsby came back to the US from the war, he found out the horrifying news that Daisy had married another man (Tom Buchanan).

Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship is no longer existent as Daisy has moved on whereas Gatsby was still caught up in the past. Their relationship is lopsided and an uneven emotion of love from both sides, Gatsby had tried to reclaim time and stay in the past where him and Daisy were still in love.Gatsby’s motive enhances as he reunites with Daisy and he does anything and everything to win her back. This relationship of theirs is fake and Gatsby can feel Daisy slipping away as time continues. Daisy no longer has feeling for Gatsby, she’s married and has started his life without him inlcuding having a little baby girl with his husband, Tom. With Gatsby’s fail attempt to relive the past, this leaves daisy and Gatsby’s relationship false as their is truly no relationship there at all.

Tom and Myrtle

Tom and Myrtle’s relationship seems to be driven by physical attractions only. This affair that they have started has different meanings for them both individually. Myrtle sees their relationship as a way out of her own fractured marriage, whereas Tom identifies it as another one of his mistresses who he will leave vulnerable and hurt once their relationship becomes exposed. Myrtle take on their relationship sees the harsh reality as she comes to realise that Tom would never leave her for Daisy: “Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!” shouted Mrs. Wilson. “I’ll say it whenever I want to! Daisy! Dai——” “Making a short deft movement Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand.” Despite the cruel violence of this scene, Myrtle continues on the affair with Tom because she is either so desperate to escape her nightmare of a marriage or she is so caught up on what Tom thinks of her. Their relationship is unstable and and very false. They don’t love each other they are only using each other for their own sakes. This shows how most characters in the book only do things that will benefit themselves not for anyone else.