Using what I have learned throughout this course, and the research I have done while analyzing the development of several types of heroes throughout the history of literature, I will decipher who Jay Gatsby, from F. Scott Fitzgerald's great novel "The Great Gatsby", is, and what type of hero he best aligns with.
This task aligns itself perfectly with my theme of the importance of heroes and their development in literary history, as its study has allowed me to gather my thoughts and make a thought-out and consistent analysis on a subject within a novel I have read.
Going through the types of heroes I have covered, there is one that we can scratch off as a possibility right away. As Gatsby is not the hero of epic poetry, nor does any particular incredible feat, I can safely say that our Gatsby is not a literary "epic hero".
This then leaves us with "Anti-hero", "Tragic Hero", and "Everyman Tragic Hero". Judging by the fact that Gatsby has redeemable qualities, despite his morally murky methods, makes me eliminate anti-hero as a possibility here as well.
When relating Gatsby to characters like Hamlet and Walter Lee, two very different types of tragic heroes, it becomes difficult to pin Gatsby to a side. While we learn that Gatsby starts his life as an average person and must becomes the great societal presence that he is, the story starts with him already at the heights of his powers. This, along with reason I have yet to mention, makes me think of Gatsby as a more Aristotelian tragic hero, rather than Miller's everyman version.
Gatsby ticks every one of Aristotle's boxes on what it means to be a tragic hero:
1. Comes from a high position
Gatsby is quite literally drowning in money and fortune. His questionable methods prior to the beginning of the novel have landed him millions upon millions of dollars to spend on whatever he thing will attract the love of his life.
2. Has a tragic flaw that leads to his downfall
Gatsby's tragic flaw is his inability to "wake up" from his past dreams and accept reality. This flaw appears in his naive idealism, in which he thinks everything will go the way he has imagined no matter what, that everything will fall into place perfectly without a hitch. This blindness to the real world leads him to act in ways that seal his eventual fate.
3. Experiences a reversal of fortune
(SPOILERS) He dies.
In conclusion, The Great Gatsby is about a larger-than-life hero who is blinded by his idealistic and perfect dream, and the blindness it causes leads him to his eventual bloody demise.
But the question of whether or not he is "great", is a discussion of its own.
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