The Great Gatsby characters Flashcards
Jay Gatsby
Background: Born James Gatz to a poor farming family, Gatsby reinvents himself as a wealthy and mysterious socialite after falling in love with Daisy Buchanan. He earns his fortune through questionable means, driven by his desire to win Daisy back.
Traits: Idealistic, obsessive, determined, secretive.
Significance: Gatsby represents the American Dream’s allure and its ultimate emptiness, as his wealth and status fail to bring him true happiness or genuine fulfillment.
Nick Carraway
Background: A Yale graduate and World War I veteran from a wealthy Midwestern family, Nick moves to New York to learn about the bond business. He rents a house next to Gatsby’s mansion and becomes both a participant and observer in the drama surrounding Gatsby and the Buchanans.
Traits: Honest, reflective, morally grounded, yet sometimes passive.
Significance: As the novel’s narrator, Nick provides an insider-outsider perspective, offering a critical yet sympathetic view of the people around him, particularly Gatsby.
Daisy Buchanan
Background: Nick’s cousin and Gatsby’s former lover, Daisy is married to Tom Buchanan. She is beautiful, charming, and represents wealth and social status, but is ultimately shallow and indecisive.
Traits: Superficial, self-centered, captivating, emotionally fragile.
Significance: Daisy embodies Gatsby’s dreams and the unattainable ideal of the American Dream. Her indecision and carelessness contribute to the tragedy of the story.
Tom Buchanan
Background: A wealthy, arrogant, and domineering man from an old-money family, Tom is Daisy’s husband. He is having an affair with Myrtle Wilson and shows little regard for others’ feelings or consequences.
Traits: Aggressive, entitled, prejudiced, selfish.
Significance: Tom represents the carelessness and moral corruption of the upper class. His cruelty and disregard for others create much of the novel’s conflict.
Jordan Baker
Background: A professional golfer and Daisy’s friend, Jordan becomes romantically involved with Nick. She is independent, cynical, and represents the new woman of the 1920s.
Traits: Dishonest, self-sufficient, aloof.
Significance: Jordan symbolizes the modern, liberated woman, but also the moral ambiguity of the time. Her relationship with Nick highlights his discomfort with the superficiality of their world.
Myrtle Wilson
Background: Tom Buchanan’s mistress and the wife of George Wilson, Myrtle is unhappy with her lower-class life and seeks a better existence through her affair with Tom.
Traits: Ambitious, desperate, sensuous, dissatisfied.
Significance: Myrtle’s tragic fate highlights the destructive nature of the American Dream and the harsh realities of class divisions.
George Wilson
Background: Myrtle’s husband, a poor mechanic who owns a garage in the Valley of Ashes. He is devoted to his wife but is ultimately powerless in the face of the forces around him.
Traits: Hardworking, passive, emotionally fragile.
Significance: George represents the working class, and his despair and eventual breakdown mirror the emotional devastation that results from the infidelity and moral decay of the wealthier characters.
