The Great Gatsby As A Tragedy

By Kailea MacGillivray

A hurried read of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby can generate a tragic impression. The deaths of three of the main characters and the failure of Gatsby and Daisy’s romance can be viewed as tragic. However, a deeper analysis of the book reveals a much deeper tragedy. The relentless struggles of Gatsby himself parallel Fitzgerald’s apparent ideas of the struggles of all Americans. The American dream romanticized by the majority of the population is really unattainable because it is, in fact, nonexistent.

Every character has an unfortunate role and could be called a tragic character. However, the main tragedy is that of the title character. Gatsby experiences nothing but tragedy in his life. He begins miserable and ends miserable. He begins his life in a poor family where he feels he truly does not belong. His parents were unsuccessful and “his imagination…never really accepted them as his parents at all”(104). Always envisioning a better life for himself and a bigger purpose for his life, he has an amazing ability to make his dreams come true. As a child he dreams of being wealthy and living in luxury, and he attains this. When he is older he dreams of having Daisy, and for a time he achieves this dream as well. He reaches out for the green light at Daisy’s dock symbolizing the embracing of his dream. Once the distance between him and this dream is removed, he has exactly what he thinks he wants. However, it is this belief in the dream that leads to his eventual downfall. Nick reflects on Gatsby’s aspirations saying, “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us” (189). Gatsby has an unusual quality of persistent hope and an idealistic dream of a perfect world. The tragedy is that this perfect world of his does not exist. Gatsby’s final tragedy is his death. Gatsby made a great effort to achieve his dreams, but in the end his efforts were futile.

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Fitzgerald was obviously appalled at the general state of society in the 1920s. He appears to have been particularly saddened by the decayed social and moral values of the well-established American aristocracies. The old wealth seen on East Egg and the people attending Gatsby’s parties signify the careless materialism of the time. Tom and Daisy are prime examples of this. They outrage Nick and by the end of the novel he decides that they are “careless people…they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money” (187). As seen through the disappointed eyes in Dr. Eckleburg’s glasses on the billboard at the Valley of the Ashes, the world itself was in a tragic state. The distinct social classes are what kept Gatsby and Daisy apart. In the beginning, it was his lack of money that made them unable to be together. After they are reunited, it is the great division of the old and new wealth that keeps them apart. Gatsby could never be accepted into Daisy’s social class because on East Egg he could not have self-made wealth.

The novel ends with Gatsby’s death and subsequent funeral. These are representative of the final death of the American dream. Gatsby’s life work had turned out to be for nothing. Although he has many acquaintances and doesn’t “want any trouble with anybody” (48), he has no true friends and no one attends his funeral. On the surface he may have appeared to achieve his goals, but in actuality he never did. Gatsby’s dream corrupted itself. Daisy’s careless laziness and that of the people around her is what caused Gatsby’s failure. The easy money in society and the lack of morals corrupted the American dream. Americans and Gatsby made the tragic mistake of instilling ideas into their dreams that were nonexistent.

Dreams do not often become absolute reality. Contentment and happiness are often not at all associated with wealth and luxury. The American dream to become prosperous and happy can be compared to Gatsby’s dream to have Daisy’s love, admiration and respect. His image of her is in his mind and not real. Gatsby wants Daisy not because of who she is but because of whom he is and what his desires are. The novel’s title itself is ironic. Gatsby is not “great” because he uses crime and lies in an attempt get him to where he wants to be in society. He fabricates a past for himself involving his family, education, and the way he fell into his money. His name is not actually Gatsby either. Like the “Great Houdini”, Gatsby can make unreal things seem real. His entire life is an illusion to everyone but Nick. It is heartbreaking that in order to be happy Gatsby feels that he must put up these false fronts and skew reality in the eyes of others to make him into something that he is not.

Gatsby’s struggles are very similar to those of the American society in this particular era. In one case, the contender is reaching for an unworthy dream and in the other it is the contender that is unworthy of the dream. Fitzgerald combines the two struggles to produce an overall tragic comment on society in the 1920s. The lack of heart in the old aristocracy, the death of the American dream and the falsehood of the dreams unite to form the tragedy in the novel.