The Great Gatsby Wolfshiem Quotes

Characters in The Great Gatsby put the thought of money and success before their own health and living standards or personal relationships. When Gatsby takes Nick downtown to go meet up with some associates for lunch, he introduces Nick to Meyer Wolfshiem. Wolfshiem is clearly a mobster of some sort and goes on to discuss an old building across the street from where they were dining after Nick questions its significance,“‘The old Metropole,’ brooded Mr. Wolfshiem gloomily. ‘Filled with faces dead and gone. Filled with friends gone now forever. I can’t forget so long as I live the night they shot Rosy Rosenthal there’”(Fitzgerald 76). Wolfshiem’s unreserved conversation with Nick and Gatsby about a friend being murdered shows his acclimation

Based upon these clues, the reader can infer that Gatsby is willing to put his own life on the line simply by being associated with Wolfshiem and the scene of organized crime. Clearly the fast accruement of wealth outweighs the possibility of his own peril in Gatsby’s eyes. Wolfshiem also crops up later on in the story after Gatsby’s murder. Nick sends Gatsby’s butler into New York with a letter requesting Wolfshiem to come to the funeral. The butler brings back Wolfshiem’s response which includes, among other things, “Such a mad act as that man did should make us all think. I cannot come down now as I am tied up in some very important business and cannot get mixed up in this thing now” (Fitzgerald 177). Wolfshiem’s statement that he “cannot get mixed up in this thing now” shows his concern about simply being associated with Gatsby as more information comes out about him. His entire letter conveys a sympathetic and depressed tone. However, when he is given a chance to back up these emotions by coming to Gatsby’s funeral, he denies it. Wolfshiem is concerned that association with Gatsby may harm his “business”

In her literary criticism of The Great Gatsby titled “Herstory” and Daisy Buchanan, Leland S. Person Jr. describes the conflict that Daisy comes into with both Tom and Gatsby. Person describes Daisy as a victim of the actions of the men in her life, reasoning that “She is victim first of Tom Buchanan’s ‘cruel’ power, but then of Gatsby’s increasingly depersonalized vision of her” (Person Jr. 250). While Daisy is victimized and objectified by both Gatsby and Tom more and more as the novel wares on, she ultimately has the opportunity to choose the more malleable if not lesser of the two evils. In Daisy’s relationship with Tom, Tom holds the majority of the power and is thus able to dictate her actions much more easily. However, when she is with Gatsby, it is by her own decision. Gatsby gives her the opportunity to choose her own course of action. While it is true that Gatsby sees a relationship with Daisy as a goal rather than a relationship, Daisy has the opportunity to control her own destiny when she is with Gatsby. This makes her eventual decision to stay with Tom even more revealing, towards her deeper, possibly even hidden to herself, motivation of wealth and social