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Looking for a list of The Great Gatsby characters? We explain who each person in the novel is and how he or she relates to everyone else.
- Themes
Before we introduce our seven main themes, we'll briefly...
- Symbols
Analyzing The Great Gatsby Symbols. This novel is very rich,...
- Jordan Baker
Without Jordan, Gatsby would have relied entirely on Nick to...
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- Eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg
In The Great Gatsby, in the middle of a strange, gray...
- How to Write a Compare and Contrast Analysis of The Most Common Character Pairings
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- Jay Gatsby
The man, the myth, the legend: Jay Gatsby is the titular...
- Themes
- Nick Carraway
- Jay Gatsby
- Daisy Buchanan
- Tom Buchanan
- Jordan Baker
- Myrtle Wilson
- George Wilson
- Owl Eyes
- Klipspringer
- Meyer Wolfsheim
The novel’s narrator, Nick is a young man from Minnesota who, after being educated at Yale and fighting in World War I, goes to New York City to learn the bond business. Honest, tolerant, and inclined to reserve judgment, Nick often serves as a confidant for those with troubling secrets. After moving to West Egg, a fictional area of Long Island tha...
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...
Nick’s cousin, and the woman Gatsby loves. As a young woman in Louisville before the war, Daisy was courted by a number of officers, including Gatsby. She fell in love with Gatsby and promised to wait for him. However, Daisy harbors a deep need to be loved, and when a wealthy, powerful young man named Tom Buchanan asked her to marry him, Daisy deci...
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. He has no ...
Daisy’s friend, a woman with whom Nick becomes romantically involved during the course of the novel. A competitive golfer, Jordan represents one of the “new women” of the 1920s—cynical, boyish, and self-centered. Jordan is beautiful, but also dishonest: she cheated in order to win her first golf tournament and continually bends the truth. Read an i...
Tom’s lover, whose lifeless husband George owns a run-down garage in the valley of ashes. Myrtle herself possesses a fierce vitality and desperately looks for a way to improve her situation. Unfortunately for her, she chooses Tom, who treats her as a mere object of his desire. Read an in-depth analysis of Myrtle Wilson.
Myrtle’s husband, the lifeless, exhausted owner of a run-down auto shop at the edge of the valley of ashes. George loves and idealizes Myrtle, and is devastated by her affair with Tom. George is consumed with grief when Myrtle is killed. George is comparable to Gatsby in that both are dreamers and both are ruined by their unrequited love for women ...
The eccentric, bespectacled drunk whom Nick meets at the first party he attends at Gatsby’s mansion. Nick finds Owl Eyes looking through Gatsby’s library, astonished that the books are real. Read an in-depth analysis of Owl Eyes.
The shallow freeloader who seems almost to live at Gatsby’s mansion, taking advantage of his host’s money. As soon as Gatsby dies, Klipspringer disappears—he does not attend the funeral, but he does call Nick about a pair of tennis shoes that he left at Gatsby’s mansion. Read an in-depth analysis of Klipspringer.
Gatsby’s friend, a prominent figure in organized crime. Before the events of the novel take place, Wolfsheim helped Gatsby to make his fortune bootlegging illegal liquor. His continued acquaintance with Gatsby suggests that Gatsby is still involved in illegal business. Read an in-depth analysis of Meyer Wolfsheim.
- Nick Carraway. Nick Carraway is a recent Yale graduate who moves to Long Island after getting a job as a bond salesman. He is relatively innocent and mild-mannered, especially when compared to the hedonistic elite among whom he lives.
- Jay Gatsby. Ambitious and idealistic, Gatsby is the epitome of the “self-made man.” He is a reticent young millionaire who rose from humble origins in the American Midwest to a position of prominence among the Long Island elite.
- Daisy Buchanan. Beautiful, frivolous, and rich, Daisy is a young socialite with no troubles to speak of—at least, that's how it seems on the surface. Daisy is self-absorbed, somewhat shallow, and a little vain, but she's also charming and high-spirited.
- Tom Buchanan. Tom is the brutal, arrogant, and wealthy husband of Daisy. He is a deeply unlikeable character for reasons including his careless infidelity, possessive behavior, and barely-disguised white supremacist views.
Need help on characters in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby? Check out our detailed character descriptions. From the creators of SparkNotes.
- Jay Gatsby. Jay Gatsby, the titular character of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby, is a complex and enigmatic figure. Throughout the book, Gatsby is portrayed as a mysterious and wealthy man who has made a fortune through shady means.
- Nick Carraway. Nick Carraway is the narrator and one of the central characters in F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby. Nick is a young man from the Midwest who moves to New York City in the summer of 1922 to work in the bond business.
- Daisy Buchanan. Daisy Buchanan is one of the central characters in F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby. She is the wife of Tom Buchanan, a wealthy and arrogant man who represents the old money elite of East Egg, Long Island.
- Tom Buchanan. Tom Buchanan is one of the main characters in F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby. He is the husband of Daisy Buchanan and a wealthy and influential man who represents the old money elite of East Egg, Long Island.
May 21, 2024 · Who are Nick Carraway and Daisy? 🎭 What are Jay Gatsby's character traits? Check our analysis to find out! 👀 See The Great Gatsby character map as well.
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Jay Gatsby is the title character of The Great Gatsby and the man around whom the novel revolves. He’s incredibly wealthy, throws lavish parties, and lives in a large mansion in West Egg, where all the newly rich families establish residences.
