The Great Gatsby Villain Analysis

Explore the view that it is difficult to decide who is most villainous in The Great Gatsby. Remember to include in your answer relevant analysis of Fitzgerald’s authorial methods.

In terms of Aristotelian tragedy, the tragic villain or the antagonist’s role in the play is to oppose the hero and ultimately create their downfall. Therefore, due to the fact that Gatsby’s downfall in caused by many factors such as the discovery of his past, his obsessive desire to be with Daisy or the effects of capitalism. This could be due to the actions of many of the characters, primarily Tom, Daisy and Gatsby himself.

The firsts reason that Tom could be seen as the antagonist of the play is because the first introduction of him portrays him to be

He does this in many ways, the first being that he has intimidated Daisy into staying with him rather than following her heart, for she clearly shows happiness in being with Gatsby. This can be shown with the contrast between the tears she ‘cried and cried’ on her wedding day and her face that was ‘smeared with tears’ after being reunited with Gatsby. The fact that she ‘cried and cried’ shows that she felt regret in marrying Tom as she still had feelings for Gatsby, the action also seems quite violent suggesting that they may be forced to portray the magnitude of her sadness. This also indicates that there are not true feelings between the couple and Tom confirms this with his ‘woman in New York’, Myrtle. However, as the tears merely ‘smeared’ her face with Gatsby, it seems very delicate, indicating they are tears of joy and that she may be unaware of her actions here. Therefore, one can assume that if Tom wasn’t designed to be such a ‘brute of a man’ Daisy may find the strong will to tell him her true feelings about Gatsby. The second way he ruins Gatsby’s chances is by ultimately causing the death of Gatsby himself, this because he decides to tell George that Gatsby had driven the car that hit Myrtle, even though Tom has no real involvement in the situation already, he claims his motives for doing so are because he ‘had it coming to him’ suggesting that because Gatsby had threatened his place with Daisy and effectively his masculinity he deserved