The Great Gatsby
(F. Scott Fitzgerald)

Nick Carraway

Nick is the narrator who is twenty-nine at the start of the novel. He is from the Midwest but has recently moved to the West Egg area of Long Island to pursue his career in bonds. He is accepted into high society because of his Ivy League education and his relation to Daisy Buchanan who is a high society Queen Bee. As he befriends the mysterious Jay Gatsby he realizes the disgusting, and shallow realities of living the American Dream and the lengths that people will go to achieve happiness and success when they are able to get away with anything.

Jay Gatsby

Jay Gatsby (birth name James Gatz) is a mysterious man who lives in the West Egg right next door to Nick. He throws the most lavish parties though he is rarely seen. Jay has been in love with Daisy for many years and has achieved a life of success through white lies and illegal activities in order to make her fall in love with him again, despite her marriage to Tom Buchanan. Jay, as Nick points out, has spent all of his time reaching for a goal that lies in the past rather than in the future. Despite the fact that Daisy is obviously only interested in being adored, regardless of who is doing the adoring.

Daisy Buchanan

Daisy is the cousin of Nick and the object of Gatsby’s undying love. The impression given is that Daisy is a unique sort of girl with a voice that is special and always rings of excitement. She loved Gatsby when she was a young woman but ended up marrying Tom Buchanan, who has always been unfaithful and abusive toward her. In an effort to find the adoration, she has been craving Daisy has an affair with Gatsby. Daisy ends up staying with Tom in the end because Tom can provide her the life that she has always known, rather than the life of spontaneity and unexpectedness that Gatsby would provide.

Tom Buchanan

Tom is Daisy’s abusive and unfaithful husband. Right after they were married, he had an affair with a hotel maid and at the time of the novel he was having an ongoing relationship with a woman named Myrtle Wilson. Tom is shallow and a snob, who thinks that people who are not of inherited money or who have not had an Ivy League education are not worthy of his time or of his social circle. Tom is extremely selfish, finding no fault in his own extramarital affairs but furious over Daisy’s affair with Gatsby. He convinces his mistress’ husband that Gatsby was the one she was having an affair with, which leads to the death of both Gatsby and George Wilson.

Jordan Baker

Jordan is a professional women’s golfer and Daisy’s best friend. Jordan is as deceptive as anyone, which makes her more acutely aware of the deceptions of others that any of the other characters. She is extremely cynical and believes nothing that anyone says, especially Jay Gatsby. She is beautiful, self-centered and independent, and she starts a relationship with Nick, whom she finds to be one of the few honest people, though she changes her mind at the end of the novel. Jordan, always critical of the actions of others, is known to have lied in order to win her first golf tournament.

Myrtle Wilson

Myrtle Wilson is married to George Wilson and has been involved in a longtime affair with Tom Buchanan. Myrtle feels sorry for herself for marrying a man who owns a run-down garage and is going nowhere in life and tries to improve her situation by having an affair with someone who is of a higher class. Unfortunately for her, Myrtle chooses Tom to have an affair with, and Tom is far too stuck up to leave his high society wife for a woman like Myrtle, though he makes her promises to keep her around. She accepts Tom’s abuse as a sign of masculinity, something George is lacking in her opinion.

George Wilson

George is the husband of Myrtle. He owns a run-down auto repair shop that sits on the edge of the Valley of Ashes. He loves his wife very much, and when he finds out that she is having an affair he is devastated; his devastation is only made worse when Myrtle is killed by whoever is driving Gatsby’s yellow Rolls Royce. George allows Tom to convince him that Gatsby is the man who Myrtle is cheating with and George tracks Gatsby down and kills him, then turns the gun on himself. George is sympathetic character who is actually quite a bit like Gatsby in that they both are dreamers who are unfalteringly in love with women who are in love with Tom.

Meyer Wolfsheim

Wolfsheim is Gatsby’s shady business partner. He is known to be a key player in the organized crime world and is rumored to have rigged the World Series of 1919. It is the Wolfsheim’s character, which makes the reader, and the other characters, wonder how Gatsby really made all of his money. Wolfsheim is the person who got Gatsby into the bootlegging of illegal alcohol and their continued relationship with one another leads Nick, and the reader, to believe that Gatsby must still have a hand in the business. Wolfsheim does not bother to show for Gatsby’s funeral, which Nick finds both unfortunate and disrespectful.

Owl Eyes

Owl Eyes is a character that Nick meets at his first party at Gatsby’s home. He encounters the man in the library where he admits that he has not been sober for a week and hopes that being surrounded by books will sober him up. He appears to be in awe that so many books exist in place and that they are all real. The night of that party he crashes his car into a wall while he is leaving the drive way and loses a wheel. To Nick’s immense surprise the only one of Gatsby’s acquaintances who attends his funeral other than himself is Owl Eyes.

Klipspringer

Klipspringer is a freeloader who lives in Gatsby’s home most of the time and takes advantage of his generosity and his money. Klipspringer uses Gatsby’s piano, eats his food, and participates in his parties but seems to have no actual feelings for the man at all. When Gatsby dies Klipspringer disappears, but he does call the house once, not to pay his respects for Gatsby’s death, but to tell Nick that he left a pair of his tennis shoes at the house, and he would like to get them back. Klipspringer also does not bother to attend the funeral.

Mr. and Mrs. McKee

Chester McKee and his wife are guests at the impromptu party that Tom throws in his New York love nest. Chester is a photographer whom Nick finds to be incredibly boring and self-centered. He tries to act above his class and says that he has been to a party at the home of Jay Gatsby whom he has heard many rumors about. Mrs. McKee gives the impression that she and Chester have a great marriage, when Myrtle complains about her own marriage, but Nick can tell that their relationship is just as toxic as all the others.

Catherine

Catherine is Myrtle’s sister. She is another guest at the party in Tom’s New York apartment. Catherine makes a big show of not being a drinker, and, for some reason, she seems very protective of the fancy furniture in Tom’s love nest apartment. Despite the fact that Catherine says she does not drink, she is totally inebriated the night that Myrtle is killed. She also adamantly denies that Myrtle was having an affair behind George’s back, so she has no idea what would make George go into the rage that caused him to kill Gatsby and then himself.

Mr. Gatz

Henry Gatz is the father of Jay Gatsby. When Nick informs him of his son’s death he goes on and on about how wonderful Jay was and all of the goals and ambition he had as a young boy. He thought that his son had a tremendous amount of potential to really make his mark on the world. Jay had told Nick that his whole family was dead, but Nick finds out that Jay actually purchased Henry’s home for him. Despite the fact that Jay rarely spoke to, or of, his father Henry came to Long Island to attend the funeral. This is ironic as the person who Jay spent his time loving and doting on, Daisy, did not bother to attend the funeral, or even acknowledge his death.

Dan Cody

Dan Cody was Jay’s best friend and mentor. He was a millionaire and traveled on a yacht. Jay rowed himself out to the yacht one day to tell Dan that the wind was coming in, and Dan took Jay aboard as his first mate, assistant, sometimes babysitter, and basic Jack of all trades. Dan was a drunk, which is one of the reasons that Jay does not drink often. When he died, his will stated that Jay was to inherit everything from him, but his mistress, Ella Kaye, took everything for herself and left nothing for Jay at all. Jay has a picture of Dan hanging in his West Egg mansion.

Michaelis

Michaelis is a Greek man who owns a Greek restaurant next to George Wilson’s garage. He is one of the people around when Myrtle is killed, and he is there to comfort George. He also tells Nick about the accident in which the yellow car ran Myrtle over when she came running at it. Michaelis stayed with George, worried that he would do something rash. When he left in the middle of the night to take a nap George snuck out and went to Gatsby’s home to kill him.