Character Analysis Revision Notes for AQA A-Level English Literature A

Character Analysis

Understanding the characters in The Great Gatsby is essential for appreciating Fitzgerald's critique of 1920s American society. Each figure in the novel represents different aspects of the American Dream and the moral landscape of the Jazz Age. This analysis explores the main characters, their motivations, and their significance within the narrative.

Jay Gatsby

Gatsby is a wealthy businessman whose life is driven by intense romantic dreams and an unwavering pursuit of an idealised past centred on Daisy Buchanan. He has transformed himself from James Gatz, a young man from a poor Midwestern background, into a figure of immense wealth. This reinvention was undertaken with the specific aim of appearing worthy of Daisy's world. Despite his material success, Gatsby remains optimistic yet naive, convinced that he can turn back time and restore his former relationship with Daisy. His charm and apparent confidence conceal profound loneliness and a tragic refusal to face reality.

Key characteristics:

Driven by romantic idealism and desire to recreate the past
Self-made wealth contrasts with his emotional vulnerability
Optimistic exterior masks deep isolation
Unable to accept that the past cannot be reclaimed

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Gatsby's character represents the hopeful side of the American Dream — the belief that anyone can reinvent themselves through determination and hard work. However, his story also reveals the Dream's fundamental flaw: the illusion that wealth and success can recover lost time or purchase genuine love and acceptance.

Key quote and analysis:

I'm going to fix everything just the way it was before... She'll see.

This statement demonstrates Gatsby's delusional conviction that he can reverse time and recover his idealised past with Daisy. The quote captures his fundamental tragedy: his inability to recognise that dreams and reality are irreconcilable.

Nick Carraway

Nick functions as both the narrator and the story's ethical compass. A Midwesterner who has relocated to New York, he is initially attracted to the excitement of East Coast wealth but becomes increasingly troubled by the emptiness and moral corruption he witnesses. His perspective combines sympathy with critical observation, allowing him to admire Gatsby's aspirations whilst recognising the recklessness and selfishness of the Buchanans. As the novel progresses, Nick becomes more morally engaged, particularly as he observes the destructive consequences of the characters' actions.

Key characteristics:

Serves as narrator and moral observer
Initially drawn to wealth but becomes disillusioned
Maintains sympathy for Gatsby despite his flaws
Grows increasingly critical of the careless wealthy elite

chatImportant

Nick's role as narrator is crucial because his moral development throughout the novel mirrors the reader's journey. His growing disillusionment with the wealthy elite provides the lens through which Fitzgerald critiques 1920s American society. Without Nick's honest perspective, we would miss the novel's deeper moral commentary.

Key quote and analysis:

They're a rotten crowd... You're worth the whole damn bunch put together.

Nick directs this statement at Gatsby, expressing his final assessment that values Gatsby's capacity for hope and dreams above the moral bankruptcy of the wealthy. Despite Gatsby's criminal activities and delusions, Nick judges him superior to the careless rich who destroy others without remorse.

Daisy Buchanan

Daisy represents beauty and charm intertwined with superficiality and moral weakness. Raised in privilege, she has become trapped by societal expectations and chooses material security over genuine emotional connection with Gatsby. Her voice is famously described as full of money, symbolising both attraction and spiritual emptiness. Though she is the focus of Gatsby's longing, Daisy ultimately lacks the courage to break away from her protected but loveless existence, contributing directly to Gatsby's downfall.

Key characteristics:

Embodies the allure and hollowness of wealth
Trapped between societal expectations and desire
Lacks moral courage to pursue true love
Her voice symbolises both appeal and emptiness

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Daisy's character represents the fragility and corruption of inherited wealth. Unlike Gatsby, who actively pursues his dreams, Daisy is passive and ultimately paralysed by her privilege. Her inability to choose love over security makes her complicit in the novel's tragedy, even though she never acts with deliberate cruelty.

Key quote and analysis:

I hope I'll be a fool — that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.

This reveals Daisy's cynical understanding of her constrained, performative role within shallow society. She recognises that women in her social position survive best by remaining naive and ornamental rather than seeking genuine agency or fulfilment.

Tom Buchanan

Tom represents the aggressive and arrogant old-money aristocracy. Physically imposing and morally callous, he is openly racist and sexist, maintaining his position through intimidation and entitlement. His double standards are striking: he conducts extramarital affairs whilst ruthlessly defending his marriage when threatened by Gatsby. Tom orchestrates events to protect his own status without any sense of remorse for the destruction he causes.

Key characteristics:

Embodies brutal old-money privilege
Uses physical presence and aggression to dominate others
Demonstrates hypocrisy and double standards
Racist and sexist attitudes reflect broader social prejudices
Shameless in protecting his status at others' expense

chatImportant

Tom serves as the novel's primary antagonist, but more importantly, he represents the corrupt established power that Gatsby can never truly overcome. His combination of wealth, social position, and willingness to destroy others makes him the most dangerous character in the novel. Unlike Gatsby, who dreams, or Daisy, who drifts, Tom actively destroys to maintain his dominance.

Key quote and analysis:

Your wife doesn't love you... She's never loved you. She loves me.

Tom makes this brutal declaration during the confrontation scene, asserting dominance and control over both Daisy and Gatsby. The quote demonstrates his need to maintain power and his willingness to be cruel in defending his position.

Jordan Baker

Jordan is a professional golfer and Daisy's friend who represents the cynical, morally ambiguous facet of the Jazz Age elite. Cool and detached, she lives comfortably within an amoral framework. Her casual dishonesty and emotional detachment contrast sharply with Nick's initial idealism, contributing to his growing disillusionment with the East Coast lifestyle. Jordan embodies the superficial freedom of the era without any accompanying moral foundation.

Key characteristics:

Represents cynical Jazz Age values
Morally ambiguous and dishonest
Emotionally detached from consequences
Comfortable living without ethical constraints
Contrasts with Nick's desire for honesty

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Jordan's character illustrates how the apparent liberation of the 1920s — particularly for women — often masked a deeper moral emptiness. Her independence as a professional athlete and her casual approach to relationships might seem modern, but Fitzgerald shows how this freedom exists without ethical grounding, making her ultimately hollow rather than genuinely liberated.

Key quote and analysis:

She wasn't able to endure being at a disadvantage and, given this unwillingness, I suppose she had begun dealing in subterfuges when she was very young.

This observation illustrates Jordan's pragmatic but morally questionable approach to life. Her dishonesty stems from a refusal to accept any position of weakness, revealing her fundamentally untrustworthy character.

Myrtle Wilson

Myrtle is Tom's mistress from the working-class Valley of Ashes. Desperate to escape her bleak existence, she pursues wealth and social status through her affair with Tom, only to be ultimately destroyed by the carelessness of the wealthy. Myrtle's tragic fate serves as a powerful symbol of how the poor are crushed by the ambitions and recklessness of the privileged classes. Her death becomes a catalyst for the novel's climax whilst highlighting the fatal consequences of social ambition in a rigidly stratified society.

Key characteristics:

Represents working-class desperation
Seeks escape through relationship with wealth
Becomes victim of upper-class carelessness
Her death symbolises the destruction caused by class inequality
Embodies fatal consequences of social ambition

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Myrtle's Tragic Significance

Myrtle's struggle and tragic death underscore the novel's exploration of class disparity and moral decay. She is crushed both literally and metaphorically by a system that uses and discards those without privilege. Her death is not accidental but inevitable in a society where the wealthy can destroy lives without consequence. The fact that Daisy, driving Gatsby's car, kills Myrtle creates a bitter irony: Gatsby's dream literally kills the working class.

Thematic Connections

Each character functions as a representative figure of 1920s American society, revealing different dimensions of the corrupted American Dream. Gatsby embodies hopeful self-invention, whilst Daisy represents fragile privilege. Tom demonstrates ruthless power, and Nick provides moral reflection on the whole spectacle. Jordan illustrates casual amorality, and Myrtle symbolises the fatal consequences of class ambition. Their desires, flaws, and interactions combine to create Fitzgerald's lasting critique of wealth, social class, and the illusion of the American Dream.

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The Class Hierarchy in The Great Gatsby

Understanding the novel's social structure is essential:

Old Money (Tom and Daisy — East Egg): Inherited wealth and established privilege
New Money (Gatsby — West Egg): Self-made wealth without social acceptance
No Money (Myrtle — Valley of Ashes): Working class trapped in poverty

This hierarchy is not just about economics but about moral corruption increasing with wealth. The richest characters are often the most morally bankrupt, whilst those with the least money suffer the greatest consequences.

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Key Points to Remember:

Gatsby is defined by romantic idealism and tragic inability to accept reality; his dream of recreating the past with Daisy drives the entire narrative
Nick serves as both narrator and moral compass, growing increasingly disillusioned with wealthy society whilst maintaining sympathy for Gatsby's dreams
Daisy represents beauty combined with moral weakness; she lacks courage to escape her privileged but empty existence
Tom embodies brutal old-money privilege, using aggression and hypocrisy to maintain dominance without remorse
Jordan illustrates the cynical amorality of the Jazz Age elite, living comfortably without ethical constraints
Myrtle symbolises how the working class is destroyed by the carelessness and ambitions of the wealthy
All characters represent different facets of 1920s society and the corruption of the American Dream, with their interactions revealing Fitzgerald's critique of wealth, class, and moral decay

Character Analysis (AQA A-Level English Literature A): Revision Notes