Character Analysis of Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

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.

Multiple quotes from The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, can be used to explain how the characters work. You could use Nick explaining his past on the first page, the first time Daisy and Gatsby reunited, and even more. But one quote stands out compared to the rest. This quote is spoken by Daisy Buchanan to Jay Gatsby during the fight in chapter seven “’Oh, you want too much!’ she cried to Gatsby. ‘I love you now – isn't that enough? I can't help what's past.’She began to sob helplessly. ‘I did love him once – but I loved you too’” (Fitzgerald 7.261). Daisy was the puzzle piece that pulled everything together. She was the cause of everything that happened. So why does this specific quote stand out, she had said plenty of other things in the novel, why this one? This specific quote is said during the fight between Gatsby and Tom Buchanan. Gatsby claims that Daisy never

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s famed novel The Great Gatsby incorporates many dynamic characters and situations into the world of the Roaring Twenties. Given the title, many readers will argue over whether the main character, Jay Gatsby, a mysterious man who throws elaborate parties, was truly great or not. The true definition of great is one who is selfless, pure of any illegal actions, and who doesn’t lie. Gatsby rebelled against all of these characteristics. Gatsby was selfish, committed illegal actions and lied about his overall past. Using these three reasons, one can prove that Jay Gatsby was not as great as some believed him to be.

Gatsby creates an identity for himself as a wealthy man, who lives a glamorous life by throwing huge parties, and is known by the most prestigious figures in New York. What the partygoers don’t realize is that the parties and his wealth is all in the hopes of rekindling with his love from the past, Daisy. In the novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald tells the story of a young man named Jay Gatsby, who came from nothing, and built up to be everything that he had hoped and dreamed of being. However, his one dream did not become a reality due to misfortunate events. All the money in the world couldn’t make Gatsby happy, as he died as his true self, not the identity he created for himself.

The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald gives the reader a look inside the drama driven world of the high class of New York. Told from the point of view of one of the novel’s protagonists Nick Carraway, the novel displays recurring themes of love and deceit. The narrator considers himself to be on the outside looking in, and he feels justified in judging the characters within the elite society due to his belief that his sense of morality is stronger than theirs. Despite his belief, however, he unintentionally reveals to the reader the true manner of his character, which is really just as unacceptable as the people he commentates on. Though Nick prides himself in his honesty, he falls in love with Jordan Baker, suggesting that he is not better than the high society he abhors.

Gatsby is a character who aspired to be successful and to realize his dreams of love and wealth, however, when he faced his reality he was never able to fully accomplish his dreams, revealing that one will use all their energy to hold on to a dream that will never reach a reality.

Have you ever noticed how people almost always talk about what they do not have instead of what they do? Well in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, this is a major part of the book. Fitzgerald’s characters are used to show that people are greedy and always will be. Specifically, Fitzgerald uses Jay Gatsby to show that society is greedy because he always focuses on what he does not have instead of what he does have. First, Fitzgerald shows how Gatsby does everything to impress Daisy, by how Gatsby becomes rich to win her over and how he does everything for Daisy. Secondly, Fitzgerald shows how Gatsby throws extravagant parties to impress Daisy. Finally, he shows how Gatsby is not happy being rich or poor. This is important because

Francis Scott Fitzgerald, the author of a book widely renowned as the greatest American novel, is known for his tendency to insert autobiographical elements within his works of fiction. Within The Great Gatsby itself, Fitzgerald wrote scenes and storylines from his own corrupted and perverse experiences, ones brought about by his damaged psyche. The greatest examples of Fitzgerald’s personal biography within The Great Gatsby are the amoral female characters which he wrote. Nevertheless the fact that the 1920s are widely regarded as the era in history when feminism first began to have a fighting chance, Fitzgerald wrote his female characters as destructive forces who are less than their male counterparts and have to be controlled. Fitzgerald’s misogynistic opinions are present in Daisy, a woman villainized despite being under the control of others, Jordan, a corrupted girl who negatively represents the feminism of the jazz age, and Myrtle, a character who was written more like an animal than she was a woman. Drawing from his own negative experiences with women, including unhealthy obsessions with those out of his social league and an affair-ridden marriage with his wife, Fitzgerald branded his female characters within The Great Gatsby with practically irredeemable qualities, revealing his sexist ideals and intentions.

         Being accepted by “old money” was very important to Jay Gatsby. He thought that if he was accepted by this elite group he will be able to win over Daisy, the woman he had come to love. Yet his unwillingness to trust himself and to be proud of who he was lead to

The Great Gatsby is an extraordinary novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, who tells the story about the wealthy man of Long Island named, Jay Gatsby, a middle aged man with a mysterious past, who lives at a gothic mansion and hosts many parties with many strangers who were not entirely invited. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, many characters are discussed uniquely to an extent from the festive, yet status hungry Roaring Twenties. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald introduces many characters who all seem to cause conflict with each other because of incompatible personalities. The main character that F. Scott Fitzgerald sets the entire book over is Jay Gatsby, Gatsby, is first shown as a mysterious man whose

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

Jay Gatsby is not a lazy person, he cannot stop working until his dreams have been realized, he knows that he is destined for greatness, and to not seek out greatness would be a waste, as Nick says,“So he made the most of his time, he took what he could get, ravenously and unscrupulously”(Fitzgerald 149). Gatsby’s drive is everything to him since before he met Daisy, he has strived to become more than just some kid from nowhere. As a self-made millionaire, he can only afford to rely on himself and himself alone, as there may be no one else in this world who may believe in him. Opportunities to succeed present themselves to people every day, but only a few have the gifts needed to utilize these opportunities, one of whom, is Jay Gatsby, as Nick says, “he was only a young man, but he had a lot brain power here”(Fitzgerald 168). In life, humans are blessed with many things, arms, legs, a heart, one’s very soul, is a blessing. Although the one thing that holds weight over all else, the one thing that can never be taken away, is one’s mind. Knowledge is power, especially as one climbs higher into the social rankings of society. James Gatz did not just become Jay Gatsby overnight, he was built up over the course of many years of experiences, as Nick says,“My first impression, that he was a person of some undefined consequence,

When reading The Great Gatsby, the mystery of Jay Gatsby’s history is intriguing. Upon completion of the novel and research of Francis Scott Fitzgerald, it is evident that the author’s own life impacted the background of Gatsby himself. After research, the mysteriousness behind Gatsby’s history and past relationships may not be so arbitrary after all; they come directly from experiences of the author.

Gatsby is a man of the past, and it seems that he will, sadly, stay as such. He surrounds himself with a multitude of things from his past, from the “better days” when he and Daisy were a socially accepted couple. Yet these days did not last for long, because a single sentence managed to tear the two lovers apart. Jay was sentenced to fight in the war. This was devastating for Jay, as he loved her with every fiber in his being, and being torn from her was more painful than anything. Yet even once the war was over and he received his medal from “little Montenegro” (66), Daisy had moved on and he could not return to her. In order to combat this harsh truth, Gatsby creates for himself an empire built on bones and bottles. He became a continental bootlegger, and made a fortune. But this did not help his mental state. Jay was still traumatized by the incident of Daisy’s separation and the war, so he remained in the mental state of regression and reminiscence, always living in the past. Nick tries to remind the man that he cannot live in the past any longer, but he replies with an enthusiastic “Why of course you can!” (110). This is probably one of the worst things that a man can to do himself, and that is living in a time that is not the present. This takes a great toll on Gatsby and his mind as it ultimately leads to his

First off, Gatsby is a man who feels secure in his privacy and allows very few people into his personal life due to lack of trust. Jay often throws parties at his lavish house, only to shrink away from contact with his various guests that frolic in his privately funded bashes. He does not drink, mainly because he has a high