If you’ve ever sat through a high school English class, you probably think you know the characters in The Great Gatsby. You’ve got the rich guy with the yellow car, the girl who cries over shirts, and the narrator who seems a bit too obsessed with his neighbor. But honestly? Most of the "standard" takes on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s cast miss the point. They treat these people like cardboard cutouts of the Jazz Age rather than the deeply flawed, sometimes monstrous, and occasionally pathetic humans they actually are.
It’s easy to get lost in the prose. Fitzgerald writes like a dream, but the people he’s writing about are often nightmares. When we talk about the characters in The Great Gatsby, we aren’t just talking about a love story. We’re talking about a group of people who are essentially playing a high-stakes game of "pretend" until the bodies start dropping.
Jay Gatsby: The Man Who Invented Himself
Jay Gatsby isn’t his real name. You know that, right? He was born James Gatz in North Dakota. This is the pivot point for his entire personality. Everything he does—the parties, the fake "Old Sport" accent, the library full of books he hasn’t read—is a performance.
He’s a bootlegger. He’s a striver. He’s a man who believes that if you make enough money, you can actually hit the "undo" button on time itself. It’s kinda delusional. But that’s what makes him the most compelling figure in the book. He isn't just "rich"; he’s "new money," which in the 1920s meant he was looked down upon by the very people he was trying to impress.
Gatsby's tragedy isn't that he died. It’s that he spent his entire life trying to be someone worthy of Daisy Buchanan, not realizing that Daisy wasn't worth the effort. He turned a flawed human woman into a "green light," a symbol of everything he wanted. When you look at the characters in The Great Gatsby, Gatsby is the only one who actually believes in something. The rest are just drifting.
The Problem With the "Great" Gatsby
Is he actually great? Not really. He’s a criminal. He’s involved with Meyer Wolfsheim, the man who supposedly fixed the 1919 World Series. But compared to the "careless" people like the Buchanans, Gatsby has a "heightened sensitivity to the promises of life." He’s a dreamer in a world of cynics. That’s why Nick Carraway, who usually hates everyone, ends up liking him.
Daisy Buchanan: The Golden Girl or the Villain?
People love to hate Daisy. They call her shallow. They call her a "flapper" without a soul.
Honestly, that’s a bit of a simplification. Daisy is a product of her environment. She’s a woman in 1922 who knows that her only power comes from her beauty and her husband’s social standing. Remember what she says when her daughter is born? "I hope she’ll be a fool—that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool."
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That isn't a line from someone who is stupid. It’s a line from someone who is deeply cynical about how the world works for women.
Daisy is the "golden girl," but her voice is "full of money." That’s a famous line for a reason. She doesn't love Gatsby; she loves the way Gatsby loves her. It’s a huge distinction. When things get messy—when there’s a hit-and-run and Gatsby is taking the fall—she retreats back into her money. She and Tom "smash up things and creatures and then retreat back into their money or their vast carelessness."
Tom Buchanan: The Brutal Reality of Old Money
If Gatsby is the dream, Tom is the reality. Tom is a former football star from Yale. He’s hulking, aggressive, and incredibly racist. Early in the book, he’s rambling about a book called The Rise of the Colored Empires. It shows his insecurity. Even though he has everything—the name, the money, the status—he’s terrified of losing it.
Tom is the primary antagonist among the characters in The Great Gatsby. He’s having an affair with Myrtle Wilson, but he’s outraged when he finds out Daisy is "having an affair" with Gatsby. The hypocrisy is staggering.
But here’s the thing: Tom wins.
In the end, Gatsby is dead, George Wilson is dead, Myrtle is dead, and Tom is just out shopping for jewelry with Daisy. He represents the invulnerability of the ultra-wealthy. You can’t touch him. He doesn't have a conscience to prick.
Nick Carraway: The Unreliable Narrator
We see everything through Nick’s eyes. He tells us on page one that he’s "inclined to reserve all judgments."
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He’s lying.
Nick judges everyone. He’s incredibly judgmental. He’s also probably half-in-love with Gatsby himself. Nick is the middle-class guy from the Midwest who thinks he’s better than the people he’s hanging out with, even as he drinks their champagne and hangs out at their parties.
Why does this matter? Because it means we can’t fully trust his descriptions of the other characters in The Great Gatsby. He paints Gatsby as a tragic hero and the Buchanans as monsters. While that might be mostly true, Nick is also cleaning up his own image. He’s involved with Jordan Baker, a woman he eventually dumps because she’s "dishonest," yet he stays friends with a bootlegger.
The Supporting Cast: Myrtle, George, and Jordan
The "lower" class characters in the book—Myrtle and George Wilson—are the ones who pay the literal price for the Buchanans' lifestyle.
- Myrtle Wilson: She’s Tom’s mistress. She thinks she’s climbing the social ladder. She’s loud, vibrant, and desperate. Her death—hit by a car driven by Daisy—is the most violent moment in the book. It’s the moment the "dream" of the Jazz Age turns into a bloody mess on the pavement.
- George Wilson: He’s the "spiritless" man who runs a garage in the Valley of Ashes. He’s the only character who mentions God. When he looks at the billboard of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg, he says, "God sees everything." Then he goes and kills Gatsby. It’s a tragic misunderstanding fueled by Tom Buchanan’s lies.
- Jordan Baker: The professional golfer. She’s cynical, she cheats at her sport, and she "incurably dishonest." She’s basically a younger, more detached version of Daisy. She represents the "new woman" of the 1920s, but she’s just as bored and empty as the rest of them.
The Valley of Ashes vs. West Egg
You can't understand these people without understanding where they live.
West Egg is where Gatsby lives. It’s for the "new money" folks who don't know the "rules" of high society. East Egg is where the Buchanans live. It’s old, established, and judgmental. Then there’s the Valley of Ashes—the gray, industrial wasteland between the Eggs and New York City.
The characters in The Great Gatsby are constantly moving between these spaces. The car accidents, the parties, the confrontations—they all happen in transit. It’s a book about people who are never satisfied where they are.
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Why We Still Care About These People
It’s been over a hundred years since the book was published. Why are we still talking about Gatsby?
Because the "American Dream" hasn't changed that much. We still have people who believe they can reinvent themselves through wealth. We still have the "old money" elite who look down on the "nouveau riche." We still have people who get caught in the crossfire of the wealthy and powerful.
The characters in The Great Gatsby aren't just historical figures. They’re archetypes. We see them in modern celebrities, in tech billionaires, and in the way we curate our lives on social media. Gatsby was the original influencer—he just used parties instead of Instagram to create a fake image of perfection.
Common Misconceptions
- Myth: Gatsby and Daisy were a great love story.
- Fact: It was an obsession. Gatsby didn't love the real Daisy; he loved the idea of her.
- Myth: Nick is a "good" guy.
- Fact: Nick is complicit. He sets up the affair, hides the truth about the accident, and only leaves when things get too "dirty" for his liking.
How to Analyze the Characters Yourself
If you’re reading the book or watching the movies, look for the "masks." Every character has one.
- Look at the dialogue. Notice how Tom talks over people. Notice how Gatsby uses "Old Sport" as a shield.
- Watch the colors. Daisy is often associated with white (purity/emptiness), Gatsby with gold and green (wealth/hope), and the Wilsons with gray (ashes/death).
- Identify the turning points. For Gatsby, it’s the moment he realizes Daisy won't say she "never loved Tom." For Daisy, it’s the moment she realizes Gatsby’s money is "dirty."
Actionable Insights for Readers and Students
If you want to truly grasp the complexity of the characters in The Great Gatsby, stop looking for a hero. There isn't one. Instead, try these steps:
- Read the "Valley of Ashes" section again. Pay attention to how the wealthy characters treat George Wilson. It explains the entire class dynamic of the novel in about five pages.
- Compare Gatsby's parties to his funeral. Only three people show up to the funeral (Nick, Gatsby’s father, and "Owl Eyes"). This tells you everything you need to know about the "friends" he made with his money.
- Trace the "carelessness." Every time a character does something destructive, look at how they justify it. Usually, they don't. They just move on.
- Question Nick's reliability. Ask yourself: "What is Nick not telling us?" Why does he wait so long to tell the reader about Gatsby's real past?
By looking at the characters in The Great Gatsby as people trying (and failing) to survive their own ambitions, the book becomes less of a "classic" to be studied and more of a mirror to be looked into. The tragedy isn't just that Gatsby died; it’s that in the world of the Buchanans, someone like Gatsby never stood a chance.