How Is Jay Gatsby A Tragic Hero

Jay Gatsby, born James Gatz, the son of poor farmers, “sprang from his platonic conception of himself” (Fitzgerald 98). Thanks to a job on millionaire Dan Cody’s yacht, Jay was inspired to change his way of life. Despite his mysterious past, including rumours that he killed a man, Gatsby was in every way a tragic hero. After meeting a beautiful girl named Daisy in Louisville, Gatsby spent his whole life fighting to be with her. He was too poor to ever be seen with her, so he got in deep with some gangsters just trying to earn enough money to be with her. When he finally had enough cash, he found out that she was married. The instance comes up where he had to lie for her, and she wasn’t even grateful. After trying so hard for all those years
If you had the best summer romance of your life with an amazing person, only to have them tell you that you were too poor to be with them, what would you do? Would you give up, or would you fight for them? Jay Gatsby chose the latter. After Daisy told him he wasn’t rich enough, he was devastated. Tragically, when he was finally rich enough to be with the girl of his dreams he found out she’d moved on. The only thing that Gatsby could do was admire her from afar, which is kind of creepy but apparently some girls find that romantic. “‘Gatsby bought that house so that he could be just across the bay.’ Then it had not been merely the stars to which he had aspired on that June night. He came alive to me, delivered suddenly from the womb of his purposeless splendor.” (Fitzgerald 78). Gatsby was so in love with Daisy after all those years that he moved right across the bay from her. He was so obsessed with her that he didn’t stop to think about the consequences. Daisy was married, and pining after a married woman just screams ‘bad idea’. If her husband ever found out... watch out Gatsby. He was so overwhelmed when he finally saw Daisy again, he thought it was unreal, surely thinking back to when they were initially together. “He hadn’t once ceased looking at Daisy, and I think he revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes. Sometimes,
At that point he probably would have done anything to get Daisy back, including getting involved with some very bad people.”’Meyer Wolfsheim? No, he’s a gambler.’ Gatsby hesitated, then added coolly, ‘He’s the man who fixed the World’s Series back in 1919.’” (Fitzgerald 73) Meyer Wolfsheim was a very bad person with molars for cuff links, and young Gatsby must have thought that getting involved with his ‘business’ would help him earn enough money to be good enough for Daisy. You would think that someone with teeth for accessories would be a person to generally avoid. Wolfsheim helped Gatsby get the money he needed by selling alcohol during the time of prohibition and selling him some drug-stores. Earning all that money in such an awful way must have been a story Gatsby didn’t share very often.
“’It took me just three years to earn the money that bought it.’
‘I thought you inherited your money.’
‘I did old sport,’ he said automatically. ‘But I lost most of it in the big panic. The panic of war.’
I think he hardly knew what he was saying for when I asked him what business he was in he answered, ‘That’s my affair,’ before he realized that wasn’t the appropriate reply.
‘Oh, I’ve been in several things,’ he corrected himself. ‘I was in the drug business and then I Was in the oil business. But I’m not in either one now.’” (Fitzgerald