Jay Gatsby as Tragic Hero of Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby Essay

One in twenty-five people suffer from borderline personality disorder, a condition where a pervasive pattern of instability in interpersonal relations and self-image form at the beginning of early adulthood and continue on. Jay Gatsby pathologically has an excessive and erotic interest in himself and his physical attributes and appearance, which makes him classify as a narcissist. Narcissism and borderline personality disorder can combine together to make a unique set of symptoms, such as a need for admiration, a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, a grandiose sense of self-importance, being interpersonally exploitative, preoccupation with excessive fantasies of success and ideal love, and frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment. In cases that exhibit a grandiose sense of self-importance, a person may exaggerate personal achievements and expect to be superior and be recognized for said achievements. Gatsby has a myriad of these symptoms and behaviors; and, like in most cases, his condition led to a death because of his unfathomable obsession with Daisy, trying to earn her love and compassion, and attempts at altering the past. In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gatsby exemplifies symptoms and mental attributes associated with narcissistic borderline personality disorder.

The word “hero” is a Greek word coming from the word heroine, usually is considered of good character and noble. Making sacrifices that may affect themselves but will result in a greater outcome for others is a typical action made from people and characters who are considered heroic. Jay Gatsby, however, is not a heroic character in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel “The Great Gatsby.” Compared to other characters in other novels who are heros, their personalities and actions do not match up. Take Atticus Finch from Harper Lee’s iconic novel “To Kill A Mockingbird” for example. Finch is honest no matter what he is faced with; he wants to make sure his children are raised properly. No matter how something will affect his reputation, good or bad,

Jay Gatsby, the title character of the novel is an incredibly wealthy young man, living in a medieval mansion in West Egg on an imaginary area of Long Island. Gatsby has many laudable traits. For example, he is filled with optimism and the ability to transform his dreams into reality. Jay is also extremely faithful to his true love, Daisy Buchanan, even to the point of death. When we first meet Gatsby, he is the aloof host of the fantastically opulent parties thrown every weekend at his mansion. It appears he is surrounded by wondrous luxury and is courted by beautiful women and the rich and powerful men of the time. Jay is also a very admirable character due to his status of wealth and being a hero of War World I, “In the Argonne Forest I took two machine gun detachments so far forward that there was half a mile gap on either side… I was promoted to be a major, and every Allied government gave me a decoration- even Montenegro”. However, Nick who narrates the book views Gatsby as a flawed man who is dishonest, deceitful, a liar, and a dreamer whom is searching for answers in the past, “he talked a lot about the past, and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself, perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy… if he could once return to a certain starting place and go over it all slowly, he could find out what that thing was…”

According to Aristotle, a tragic hero character can be defined to be of noble status, but not necessarily virtuous. There is some aspect of his personality that he has in great abundance but it is this that becomes his tragic flaw and leads to his ultimate demise. However, his tragic ending should not simply sadden the reader, but teach him or her a life lesson. In The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby is the tragic hero who portrays the corruption of the American dream through his tragic flaw. His devastating death at the end of the novel portrays the dangers of centering one’s life on money and other materialistic things and warns the reader not to follow his foolish steps. Jay Gatsby is the epitome of a tragic hero; his

Thesis: The pursuit of the American Dream is a dominant theme throughout The Great Gatsby, which is carried out in various ways by F. Scott Fitzgerald, how the author represents this theme through his characters and their actions is one small aspect of it.

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby provides the reader with a unique outlook on the life of the newly rich. Gatsby is an enigma and a subject of great curiosity, furthermore, he is content with a lot in life until he strives too hard. His obsession with wealth, his lonely life and his delusion allow the reader to sympathize with him.

The 1920s is the decade in American history known as the “roaring twenties.” Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby is a reflection of life in the 1920s. Booming parties, prominence, fresh fashion trends, and the excess of alcohol are all aspects of life in the “roaring twenties.”

When Cody died, he left the boy, now Jay Gatsby, a legacy of $25,000. Unfortunately

Any American is taught a dream that is purged of all truth. The American Dream is shown to the world as a belief that anyone can do anything; when in reality, life is filled with impossible boundaries. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald gives us a glimpse into the life of the upper class during the roaring twenties through the eyes of a moralistic young man named Nick Carraway. It is through the narrator's dealings with the upper class that the reader is shown how modern values have transformed the American Dream's pure ideals into a scheme for materialistic power, and how the world of the upper class lacks any sense of morals or consequence. In order to support Fitzgerald's message

Before we can judge if Jay Gatsby is a tragic hero, we should look at the exact definition of a tragic hero. According to the classic definition, a tragic hero is a «great or virtuous character in a dramatic tragedy who is destined for downfall, suffering, or defeat»1, and Oedipus, from the Greek Legends, is defined as the classic tragic hero.

With regards to human nature during the Jazz Age during which he wrote, F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby, would most likely agree with the general philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau on human psychology. In a nutshell, the view of Rousseau was simply that man is naturally pure and free, only to be corrupted by society and the outside world. In connecting Fitzgerald’s use of appropriate color symbolism to the two parts of Rousseau’s view, we can see how he (Fitzgerald) is describing the nature of man in general terms through the story of Jay Gatsby. The colors mainly associated with Jay Gatsby throughout the course of the book are white, yellow, and blue, which, in order, represent the progression of his mental state and his

In the novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, about half of the main characters present themselves as something they are not. Throughout the novel, the theme of passing is apparent in Nick, Jay Gatsby, Daisy, and Myrtle Wilson, although they are all passing, each does it for a very different reason. Many scholars have touched on the idea that these characters are not who they appear to be and that their passing is associated with social class issues of the 1920s. Fitzgerald’s characters are built around the idea of passing and social class restrictions.

Nick is carried away (pun intended) by the fun, fast-paced lifestyle of the rich and powerful in New York City. He is going along with the lavish lifestyle that his friends are providing him. Nick is building dreams with the perception of what his friends are providing him, a name, a reputation. Nick thought that wealth was a great thing to have until after he had found out about the fatal car crash that killed Myrtle Wilson. Nick realized that night after the car crash that wealth corrupts people. The wealthy hide behind their status and money believing that they are untouchable, this belief makes them think that there are no

“You can’t repeat the past?... Why of course you can.” (110 This enduring quote from the famous novel The Great Gatsby by none other than F. Scott Fitzgerald stirs the mind and imagination in wonder of the very character who had uttered these words. Infamous Gatsby is the mysterious man behind the lavish and enthralling parties; a man who made his money and his image in that of a king. But, who is this mysterious man? How did he receive the great fortune of developing all of which he had possessed? He had it all, but we are on the outside looking in; did this man with everything really have nothing at all? If Jay Gatsby is the real person we see him to be, then James Gatz is nonexistent. The day that the world had gained Gatsby, it had

In literature, a romantic hero tends to have idealistic views and they do things based on their emotion rather than their logic affecting their lives drastically. Many Romantic heroes have been rejected by society, and some might be obsessed with a lost love. Romantic heroes are usually on either a physical or an emotional adventure, and many times the Romantic hero's journey begins with a desire to fulfill something for themselves and ends up serving a greater motive. The novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a great example of romantic American Literature. Fitzgerald portrays the life in the Roaring ‘20s, interpreting the conditions at that time in New York City. The protagonist, Jay Gatsby, is an important character in the plot of the story. In the novel, Gatsby displays the fundamental characteristics of a modern romantic hero by making extraordinary achievements, using emotion to make crucial life decisions, and rejecting the set norms.