作为美国著名作家菲茨杰拉德最成功的小说，《了不起的盖茨比》已成为美国现代文学史上的一部经典佳作。
这部小说反映了美国梦的衰败，深刻地揭示了美国梦的实质。
在小说中，菲茨杰拉德精心挑选了不同的人物，例如杰伊·盖茨比，尼克·卡罗威和黛西·布坎南，来代表其在社会中的不同地位，通过他们的生活来反映美国社会的矛盾。
本文通过详尽分析这三个主要角色，比较讨论他们的命运，并且探讨他们性格内部的矛盾，从而来揭示第一次世界大战后美国社会的衰败以及人物不同性格的形成原因，特别是盖茨比的不幸命运的根源。
关键词 《了不起的盖茨比》主要人物 性格分析Title Analysis of the Personality of the Major Characters in The Great GatsbyAbstractThe Great Gatsby is the finest novel written by the famous American writer, Fitzgerald. It is considered by many to be one of the classics of modern American literature. The novel mirrors the decline of the American dream and deeply reveals the essence of it. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald selects skillfully different people such as Jay Gatsby, Nick Carraway and Daisy Buchanan to represent their different statuses in society and eventually to reflect the contradictions of the American world by their lives. This essay will focus on the discussion of the three major characters, by analyzing the three major characters in detail, discussing their fate by comparison and talking about the internal conflict of their personality, to have a further understanding of the corruption of the American society after the First World War and the cause of their different personality especially the misery fate of Gatsby.Keywords The Great Gatsby major characters analysis of personality2006届英语专业毕业论文第 1 页共 1 页Contents1A Brief Introduction to The Great Gatsby (1)2Tragic Jay Gatsby (2)3 Vanity and Selfish Daisy Buchanan (4)4 Neutral Nick Carraway (6)Conclusion (8)Acknowledgements (9)References (10)1 A Brief Introduction to The Great GatsbyFrancis Scott Fitzgerald was considered as one of the most well known writers in America at an era that he named “the Jazz Age”. During the twenty years of his writing, he published about one hundred short stories and four long novels including This side of Paradise, The Beautiful and the Damned, Tender is the Night and The Great Gatsby. In addition, before he died, he left an uncompleted novel, The Last Tycoon. “His books have been considered by as many a symbol for the ‘Jazz Age,’ a time of extraordinary wealth and promise, but Fitzgerald’s novels are much more than that, presenting the truth behind the twenties and creating an atmosphere, which has earned a permanent place in American literature. Fitzgerald’s novels work on many different levels, giving us unforgettable characters and events on one, as well as referring to the problems of American wealth and spirituality on another.”(Millett, 2005) Written in 1925, The Great Gatsby is one of the greatest literary works of this period and one of the classics in American literature, which reveals the moral emptiness and hypocrisy under the prosperity of the Jazz Age. When the book was published, it became famous among the public, because the author criticizes the thought of extreme individualism in the contemporary American society. “This thought is like drugs in the society; poisonous and irresistible. It urges the growth of selfishness of human being.”(Wu Jianguo, 2002:188) Fitzgerald uses his pen to reveal the life and the ideas of people after the First World War and introduces one kind of valuable spirit. The American dream of happiness and individualism has fallen into the mere pursuit of wealth. Many experiences in Fitzgerald’s early life appear in this famous novel. It is proved to be the most successful and mature one of Fitzgerald's novels. In it, Fitzgerald presents the rise and fall of Jay Gatsby, skillfully choosing a first-person narrator, Nick Carraway’s perspective. The famous poet, T.S.Eliot points out that The Great Gatsby has been the first progress made in the American novel since Henry James.2 Tragic Jay GatsbyJay Gatsby, a typical upstart after the First World War, is a sensitive young man who idolizes wealth and luxury. He falls in love with Daisy, a beautiful and charming woman, when he stations at a military camp near her home, but later she marries another man. The protagonist orders his life around for the desire to be reunited with Daisy. His search for the American dream leads him from poverty to wealth, into the arms of his beloved and eventually, to his death. He is attracted by Daisy’s grace and charm, but blinds her shortcomings. Gatsby reveals himself to be an innocent hopeful young man who stakes everything on his dreams, without the realization that his dreams are unworthy. “He gives Daisy an idealistic perfection that she cannot possess in reality.”(Rubinstein, 1998:305) He takes it for granted that he would win Daisy back if he becomes rich. Therefore he “became rich through bootlegging and other criminal activities.”(Hu Yintong, 1995:369)) He holds his opulent parties weekly to draw Daisy’s attention. He tries his best to gain the favor of her by arranging such fabulous entertainment.To some extent, Gatsby is naive and stupid for he never sees Daisy in her true colors just as he never sees the green light clearly. Though he never stops loving and has taken the house in West Egg to be near her, he never realizes that he can’t come back to the old warm world. It is easy to find that throughout his courtship of Daisy, Gatsby is always in a position of less power and lower social status. Because Gatsby has idolized her, Daisy will necessarily not live up to his expectation. The reader may find out the contradiction in Gatsby’s personality after reading the novel. On one hand, Gatsby is innocent and naive in his heart for he sticks to his goal and dedicates himself to achieve his destination, but he never realizes that it is actually unreal. He shows his loyalty to his beloved and dares no effort to make his dream come into true. However, on the other hand, he owns money by all means including illegal ones and he is indifferent to the death of Myrtle Wilson, the superficial wife of a garage man called George Wilson. Just as the novel mentions, “he spoke as if Daisy’s reaction was the only thing that mattered.” (Fitzgerald, 2001: 192) Gatsby is nimble and ambitious in making money, which shows the “sagacity” of modern people, but towards love he gives us the impression of “a naive young man.”The reader may wonder what makes Gatsby great? Gatsby is great because of his loyalty to love. He has the desire to repeat the past, and the desire for money. For Gatsby, Daisy is the soul of his dreams. He believes he can regain Daisy. Although he has the wealth that can match with the leisured class, he does not have their manners. His tragedy lies in his possession of a naive sense. Nick, the novel’s narrator, considers that his greatness lies in the talent for self-invention, the ability to transform his dreams into reality, and his persistent love. His life is dedicated to the recovery and renewal of an early love with Daisy, whose “voice is full of money.”(Fitzgerald, 2001: 11) He believes in Daisy and manages to protect her. But he does not know Daisy has betrayed him when he wants to ensure the safety of her. Daisy has already forgotten him when he lies in the tomb lonely.To some degree, George Wilson is comparable to Gatsby for both of them are dreamers and both are ruined by their pure love for women. He commits suicide after shooting Gatsby dead, just as Marcus Cunliffe comments “ Gatsby is dead-killed by a demented creature that does not realize that the Buchanan’s are to blame for misfortunes”.(Cunliffe, 1998:29) To some degree, Gatsby is doomed to die. Tang Jianqing, the famous translator of The Great Gatsby, points out that “Gatsby’s heart will be broken even if the bewildered garage man does not murder him. He knows Daisy will not give him a call though he takes the risk to wait for Daisy’s phone.”(Tang Jianqing, 1998:4) It is true that Tom and Daisy not only destroy Gatsby but also spoil his belief and soul.Therefore, Gatsby’s tragedy does not lie in his death, but in the death of his dream of utopia. It is his lack of reason and judgment that leads him to death. When introducing the origination of Gatsby’s name, Fitzgerald writes: “The true was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his platonic conception of himself. He was a Son of God–a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that and he must be about His Father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty”. (Fitzgerald, 2001:131) This sets the tone of Gatsby’s tragic life. He has not been aware of the different social statuses between his and Tom’s. In general, Jay Gatsby is one of the best among characters in the novel. Even though he is a bootlegger and all his money is illegally made he still has more conscience than many others. Gatsby wants people to be happy, and if they are happy he will be happy, too. He holds luxury parties for people to attend and enjoy themselves. He also does hisbest to make Nick feel easy in his garden. Gatsby shows a certain amount of kindness to almost everyone he meets. His parties are open to anyone who wants to attend no matter what his social class is. He does his best to be kind to almost everyone. From this aspect, he is a very decent person indeed.All in all, Gatsby is only a dreamiest in his whole life. His loyalty to his love and ideal and the contradictions of his dreams lead to the disillusionment of his American dream. His death, in a sense, serves as a warning, but it also ennobles him.3Vanity and Selfish Daisy BuchananAs a beautiful and charming girl in the upper class, Daisy is quiet active in all kinds of social activities and she once had her true love. In any way, Daisy is undeniably beautiful. In her first appearance, her face is depicted to be sad and lovely. It is safe to say Daisy once really loved Gatsby since she even “packing her bag one winter night to go to New York and say good-by to a soldier who was gong overseas.”(Fitzgerald, 2001:101) Her mother prevents her in time and after that she keeps quiet until the next autumn. To some extent, her mother not only prevents Daisy’s stupid idea but also changes her opinions about the real meaning of life. After that, Daisy becomes a representative of the upper class. At that time, the most important thing for a lady was to find a rich husband with decent status, so Daisy makes good use of her beauty to deal with a lot of young men. Her vanity is completely disclosed when she contacts with those men. She has bright eyes and a bright passionate mouth and her best feature seems to be her voice. It’s charming. Daisy knows how to use it, too. She always murmurs in low, fantastic way to get people to come closer and pay more attention to her. Proving her charm to men is everything in her life. Then she quickly gets rid of another man to marry Tom just because Tom is richer.After the marriage, Daisy is sardonic and somewhat cynical and behaves superficially to mask her pain at her husband’s constant infidelity. Tom has a shady affair with Myrtle Wilson, so she is not happy although she lives a comfortable life. However, she has to endure and pretend to know nothing about it because she knows that having a husband of high status is much more important than having a man’s love.Fitzgerald attempts to describe Daisy as being a little naive or foolish. Daisy even hopes that her daughter becomes a beautiful fool. She says, “I hope she’ll be a fool-that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world.”(Fitzgerald: 2001, 23) Daisy’s remark is somewhat sardonic: It seems that she criticizes the social values of her era, but she does not seem to challenge them. Instead, she describes her own satisfaction with life and seems to imply that a girl can have more fun if she is beautiful and simplistic. Daisy herself often acts in that way. She conforms to the social standard of American feminity in the 1920s, so she is the product of a social environment .To a great extent, women’s intelligence is not important at all. At Gatsby’s party, she focuses on the actress and the director, who are totally unaffiliated with reality. Daisy’s blind eye on reality is disclosed here.Compared with Gatsby, Daisy, Nick’s cousin and Gatsby’s lover, is superficial, shallow, and self-centered for she sees everything from the perspective of her own happiness. For Fitzgerald, women like Daisy represent the deepest seductive power of the American dream as well as its greatest dangers. Daisy’s lack of responsibility is revealed at the end of the story. When she drives over Myrtle and she doesn't even stop, which shows what Fitzgerald wants to reveal in the whole book—the rich have no concept of responsibility in reality. She is a little bit too careless. In fact, her carelessness leads to the death of Myrtle Wilson. She proves her real nature when she chooses Tom over Gatsby, and allows Gatsby to take the blame for killing Myrtle Wilson even though she herself is the murderer.Finally, Daisy and Tom move away rather than attend Gatsby’s funeral, leaving no address. Daisy is indifferent to the death of Gatsby. As a matter of fact, she is the real murderer of Myrtle Wilson. After the accident, she and Tom conspire together and follows her husband’s suggestion to let Gatsby take the responsibility.Why Daisy is unwilling to leave Tom and come together with Gatsby after he becomes rich? In fact, there are also some contradictions in her personality. On one hand, she is moved by Gatsby’s loyalty and stubbornness, which is fully embodied in the reunion between Gatsby and her. In addition, she is also attracted by Gatsby’s wealth and disappointed at Tom’s infidelity. On the Other hand, she dose not have the power to leave her husband and her family when Tom confronts Gatsby. She can’t lose the comfortable and luxury life with Tom. “This life is boring but gives her a feeling of safety.”(QianQing,1994:303) During the First World War, Gatsby is only an inferior officer. Therefore, though Daisy loves him, she is unwilling to marry him. After Gatsby leaves to fight in the war, she marries Buchanan, a young man from an aristocratic family who promises her a wealthy lifestyle. Gatsby gathers great fortune and becomes the new rich, but Daisy is married to Tom Buchanan who is the “the very rich” and the traditional aristocrat. Though Daisy is unsatisfied with Tom’s behavior and never forgets Gatsby, the wealth makes Daisy and him invulnerable. So in the end, Mr. Gatsby’s dream still has not come true and Daisy does not break up with Tom to go with Gatsby.As a representative lady of the upper class at the particular time, Daisy enjoys vanity, selfishness and sophistication that a young woman often has at her time. It’s her vanity and selfishness that cause the death of Gatsby.4 Neutral Nick CarrawayThere is a sharp contrast between Gatsby and Nick. Critics point out that the former is passionate and active, while the latter is sober and reflective. They seem to represent two sides of Fitzgerald’s personality. At the very beginning of the story, Nick is introduced directly, but Gatsby remains a distant and unknown character for a good while.Generally speaking, Nick is a conservative dreamer with independent character. He comes to the East from the Midwest to pursue a happier life like Gatsby but he is greatly affected by the traditional morals, so he has his own rules rather than lose himself among the dishonest people. “They are judged by how well they stand up to his own virtues.”(Opticalcrane, 2005) Just as he says at the beginning of the book, “I’m inclined to reserve all judgments.” (Fitzgerald, 2001:1) Nick represents the lower classes of the society who also strives for the American dream. In fact, he is not very sober at the beginning. He admires his wealthy neighbor and the opulent parties without the realization of the emptiness of the values beneath such luxury life. However, unlike Gatsby, he gradually becomes reflective and objective especially after he is adversely affected by the events of that summer-- the death of a woman he meets briefly and indirectly, who is having an affair with his cousin’s husband and whose death leads to the death of his next-door neighbor.After witnessing the tragedy of Gatsby, he wakes from his unreal dream in time and ends his romantic relationship with Jordan Baker peacefully. This is a turning point of his mind.Nick is the best narrator of the novel; Firstly, he is Daisy’s cousin and Gatsby’s neighbor, and secondly he is tolerant and open-minded so he can give objective comments on events and people. Even so, there is also a powerful conflict existing in his personality that he does not resolve until the end of the book. On one hand, Nick is attracted to the wealthy New York where life pace is fast. On the other hand, he finds that lifestyle grotesque and damaging. Such inner conflict is symbolized throughout the book by Nick’s romantic affair with Jordan Baker. He is attracted by her vivacity and sophistication just as he is repelled by her dishonesty and her lack of consideration for other people. Nick realizes that life in New York is a “quality of distortion”(Fitzgerald, 2001: 236) especially after he stages a small funeral for Gatsby. This life covers horrible moral emptiness that makes him lose his equilibrium, so he returns to Minnesota to look for a quieter life with more traditional moral values. This decision shows that Nick is more mature and sensible than Gatsby for he recognizes that such life does not belong to him. Nick is unlike the other characters of the book and he is not one of the careless people. He has a conscience, he is not selfish, and he has managed to stage a small funeral for Gatsby. His down to earth character shows how superficial Daisy and Tom are. Fitzgerald describes Nick Caraway to be an independent character with his own belief, not a narrator who represents the author’s voice.ConclusionTo sum up, The Great Gatsby is an elegy of the corruption of the American Dream .The novel clearly shows that there is no way from money to love, from material to spirit. The author criticizes the American society in 1920s. Fitzgerald uses the characters to show the destruction of morals in society. The characters in this novel, many of them lose their morals in order to find their ideal place in the society. They hold their beliefs for the hope of being acceptable. Myrtle believes she can change her true social class to be accepted by Tom’s; Jay Gatsby bases his whole life on buying love of Daisy with wealth. However, they all become the victims of their dreams. Fitzgerald also shows how many people in America during this time were confused and lived meaningless life. Nick, Gatsby and Daisy are all westerners. “The East is associated with the fast-paced lifestyle, decadent parties, crumbling moral values, and the pursuit of wealth, while the West and the Midwest are associated with more traditional moral values. In this moment, nick realizes for the first time that though his story is set on the East Coast, the western character of his acquaintances-‘some deficiency in common’ is the source of the story’s tensions and attitudes.”(Brian Phillips, 2003:120) To some extent, their different personalities are caused by their attitudes towards money. Nick keeps his own judgments and he neither attaches so much importance to love as Gatsby nor money as Daisy. That is why he can deal with the relationship properly with Jordan Baker. Gatsby puts love in the first position and making money is just a means to get Daisy’s love. While Daisy loves money and the luxury life more than Gatsby so she marries money. What she wants is the comfortable life so she has to forebear Tom’s fault. In fact, Gatsby and Daisy are destroyed by the decayed social and moral values of the society. Therefore, it is not only the tragedy of love between Daisy and Gatsby but also the tragedy of the American dream.AcknowledgementsThanks everyone for giving me the help to complete my essay, especially my tutor Wu Lianghong, who has given many valuable suggestions and shows great patience to revise my essay. I highly appreciate her seriousness towards my work.Moreover, I am grateful to my classmates who provide me some necessary information. It is their help that encourages me to overcome any difficulties I met in the passed three months.References[1]Cunliffe, Marcus. 美国的文学[M]. 北京:中国对外翻译出版公司, 1998.[2] Fitzgerald, Scott Francis. The Great Gatsby[M]. 青岛:青岛出版社, 2001.[3] Millett, Frederick.C. Analysis: theGreatGatsby[M/CD]. Millettf [June2005]March.2006.</~millettf/gatsby.html>[4] Opticalcrane. 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