Jay Gatsby

In F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, there are many characters that play vital roles in developing the story and plot. The most important of these characters is, ironically enough, the focal character of the story, Jay Gatsby. From the beginning of the story, Mr. Gatsby is elusive, as he is first seen staring off into what Nick thinks is the stars but is later revealed to be the green light at Daisy's dock on her side of the waters. After attending one of Gatsby's parties, Gatsby soon forces his friendship onto Nick after learning that he was related to Daisy. This sparks the beginning of Gatsby's charades to win her heart.

Obviously in the beginning of the book, Gatsby is a very static, very flat character. All he ever does is sit around in his mansion throwing parties for people he doesn't really know. All that is known about him is his name and the rumor mill is running wild with absurd stories about his past. In the midst of this chaos, Nick Carraway first meets Mr. Gatsby at one of his aforementioned parties. Right off the bat Gatsby is perceived as an odd fellow as he doesn’t seem to speak much and spends the night drifting from guest to guest in his home. His oddness hits new levels as he begins calling on Nick almost immediately after meeting him.

This sudden favoring of Nick and the way Gatsby acts toward him are peculiar. Why would a man who seemingly cared about nothing suddenly want to be best friends with the guy from next door? It is this peculiarity that drives Nick to dismiss Gatsby, but he works his way back into Nick’s life from afar. This prompts Nick to find out about Gatsby’s past which he does through the stories of Jordan Baker.

As it turns out, our elusive Mr. Gatsby grew up as a wealthy, ready to learn boy who had a falling out and ventured off on his own. Eventually ending up in the military, he met a girl named Daisy Fay who he fell desperately in love with. After a falling out with her, Gatsby wandered for a while and began to build his fortune on illegal activity. None of this mattered, though. To him, nothing mattered but Daisy and he held a flame for her for over five years. 

“I can’t describe to you how surprised I was to find out I loved her, old sport. I even hoped for a while that she’d throw me over, but she didn’t, because she was in love with me too.” This is one of the most important quotes of the book. Suddenly all of Gatsby’s actions throughout his presence in the book make sense. He has been harboring feelings for Daisy for years and has been acting to win her heart back throughout the story. The parties, the lavish lifestyle… they were ploys that Gatsby used to try and lure Daisy back in because deep in his heart, he loved her. And after going through certain things, loving Daisy was terrifying because he was scared of losing her. So there you have it. The thing that makes Jay Gatsby tick? Love.