hello everybody and welcome to this video it's a continuation in the series on The Great Gatsby everything I go through in today's video comes from mr. Bruce guide to the Great Gatsby written by mrs. Hallahan available in paperback form kindle form an e-book so follow the links in the description and pick up a copy so today we're going to look at the character of Jay Gatsby now our uncertainty of Gatsby is mirrored by his own self-perception he's both duplicitous and honest privileged and disadvantaged self-absorbed and outward looking from the beginning the seed of uncertainty is sown by Nick when he says that Gatsby turned out all right in the end and this faint praise is the first impression we're given of Jay Gatsby leading the reader to initially presume much of Gatsby's character is indeed not alright if he turns out all right in the end then we're assuming that he's not alright to begin with we can see Gatsby as a tragic hero rising and falling in success as he attempts to win the heart of a woman who was undeserving of his love there is an Aristotelian notion of a fatal flaw or a Hamas or a personality trait that causes our tragic hero to be imperfect and in some way responsible for his own death Gatsby's inability to tell the truth and his determination to recreate the past leads to Daisy's rejection in the hotel suite and their subsequent journey home towards death through the cooling Twilight in Greek and Shakespearean tragedies their heroes have noble births their kings Prince's sometimes unknowingly so sons and daughters of houses both alike in dignity as we see in Romeo and Juliet and so on but Gatsby has no such connection however Fitzgerald does give him a kind of nobility in his rebirth before boarding Dan Cody's boat this new Gatsby gives himself a different heritage when where his parents were wealthy people in the Middle West whose ancestors have all been educated at Oxford for many years and this artificial history grants Gatsby a noble heritage and fulfills the tradition expectations of the Greek tragedy Fitzgerald appears to be commenting on the American ability to reinvent yourself to start again through his presentation of Gatsby as a born-again aristocrat the Mayflower landed on American shores in 1620 and reinvented Europe some 300 years later and Gatsby is on the shore of Lake Superior and is doing the same so Nick's changeable opinion of Gatsby varies according to what side of Gatsby is being exposed to him Gatsby the soldier a fellow veteran is someone who caraway feels an immediate affinity for and during that first party it's the only conversation he has all evening that he seems to enjoy he feels a connection of eternal reassurance with another human however Gatsby falls from Carraway's favor in the time between their first meeting and the confession of Gatsby's intentions for Daisy on the morning that Gatsby picks him up for lunch in the city Nick muses that Gatsby had little to say and is probably a person of some undefined consequence this Gatsby appears to caraway to be shallower and Nick is distrustful of the different stories surrounding his mysterious neighbor venturing to even speculate that perhaps he was a little sinister Gatsby rises and falls and Nick's estimations Nix refers to the Nick refers to the point where he believed everything and nothing about him as a time of confusion but Gatsby inspires renewals of great faith in Nick and through this language Fitzgerald is intimating that their relationship is similar to that of God and worshipper Fitzgerald depicts Gatsby as a god throughout the novel Gatsby was quote the Son of God also quote going about his father's business similarly Fitzgerald encourages us to echo Nick's opinion of Gatsby when he doubts so do we when he believes our faith is similarly renewed and in his creation of this flawed and unreliable God Fitzgerald criticizes a society where material possessions are sold as the solution for inner happiness and where people worship quote a vast vulgar and meritorious beauty meretricious I should say gotta put my reading glasses phone over more spiritually enriching pursuits so Gatsby was the party thrower but not a party goer in so much as he never drinks never dances never revels with the revelers and Carraway's first comment that Gatsby was alright in the end seems all the more strange when the reader finishes the novel so spoiler alert for those of you who haven't read the whole thing yet but as we know what happens at the end is Gatsby dies so Nick who admired Gatsby and assisted Gatsby and grieves for Gatsby sees in his friend's death a lesson in modern morality Gatsby dies so that others can live and of course this is a parallel to Jesus Christ this christ-like sacrifice was in Gatsby's case was unintentional but Fitzgerald constructs the death so that when Gatsby dies it provides George a sense of peace he believes he's avenged his wife's death before he himself commit suicide and Gatsby's death also excused his Daisy from having to tell him she isn't going to leave her husband after all and finally for himself in dying Gatsby avoids the suffering he would have had to endure had he lived and realized that the woman who was his sole desire was in fact undeserving of his love the careless people of Tom and Daisy had been careless with Gatsby he'd dreamed too big and his fall was inevitable Fitzgerald lamb busts the hypocrisy of the post-war upper classes and their focus on respectability over quality of character Daisy and Tom symbolized the snobbery that had simultaneously enchanted and rejected a young Fitzgerald desperate to be accepted Gatsby has never visited in his death Daisy who had previously been visiting quite often in the afternoons stays away and does not even attend his funeral Gatsby never has the witness has to witness this rejection in his consequently spared the pain by the end of the novel Fitzgerald divides the unreliability of love that comes with caveats Daisy's love was unconditional and there for less pure and never destined to last Gatsby did not drift coolly out of nowhere and buy a place on Long Island South but instead built his business empire up over five years with the one purpose of enticing Daisy of course the Daisy he knew as Daisy Fay now known as Daisy Buchanan away from her husband and back into his arms after a lot of back and forth between Gatsby Jordan and Nick his plan finally comes to fruition the day Gatsby finally given his opportunity with Daisy he's a mass of nerves he looks about with vacant eyes he speaks in an uncertain voice as Nick and he wait for Daisy's arrival in anticipation of her visit Gatsby's Pete cocked himself for her dressing in wealth for there's two things he does the first thing he decorates Nick's house with a green house of flowers and then he dresses himself in a silver shirt and gold colored tie so Fitzgerald caricatures Gatsby here as a nervous schoolboy rendered infantile by his love for Daisy and this comically pathetic portrait contrasts sharply with the Gatsby gossiped about at his own parties where people shared stories about him having killed a man here he's so painfully embarrassed by the situation that he stands at the mantelpiece a contorted figure of agony his head rested against the clock in an attempt to lean back and look at ease so much so the clocks knocked off and he catches it in his trembling hands and this vignette serves two purposes one humorous slapstick where incredible tension is dispersed by the ridiculousness of Gatsby's hyperbolic response to Daisy's presence but to a nicely symbolic gesture of Gatsby trying to play with time the whole meeting with Daisy is intended to allow Gatsby to go back in time but of course it's unsuccessful much like his encounter with the clock it requires Nick our unexpected hero to save the day reprimanding Gatsby with the words you're acting like a little boy and this observation is painful in its honesty Gatsby's courtship with Daisy is by his account the only courtship he's engaged in during the last five years and that courtship has mainly place metaphysically just as much as Gatsby wishes to turn back time it seems as if he's struck you know back in time he's stuck at five years back in this emotional state and although Daisy is not the naive pre debutante teenager from Louisville that he had met originally Gatsby still the young man odd in Daisy and everything that she represents Nick leaves the pair and in his absence they reconnect and when he returns the sun shining and Gatsby glowed and a new well-being radiated from him he smiles quote like an ecstatic patron of recurrent light end quote at Nick and the three make their way to Gatsby's house Fitzgerald cuts through the previous humor with real celebration of the Union and he does so with beautiful prose and light imagery that honors the love of Gatsby and Daisy it's worth noting though at this point that Daisy is not yet seen Gatsby's house and she's full of unexpected joy and her voice full of aching grieving beauty and this is Fitzgerald's hint that on some level the love between Gatsby and Daisy was sincere and true the plan comes together then and Daisy is auld by Gatsby's possessions as they walk through the gardens Daisy comments on Gatsby's huge home and wonders that he lives there all alone for Daisy she's filled with admiration but for Nick he supposes there are guests concealed behind every couch so strange it feels to be in Gatsby's house and it not be crammed full of party goers on their journey through each room it's quite interesting to think about what happens obviously there's this you know obsession with all of the shirts he has and but as they travel through each room of the house each is swayed in rose and lavender silk and Nick notes that Gatsby has revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes Daisy is Gatsby Centerpoint everything is measured in relation to her and his whole world has been orchestrated around her existence without her even knowing it and this highly romantic and sentimental idea is not expressed sinisterly by Fitzgerald instead by depicting Gatsby as a lovestruck fool around Daisy one who nearly toppled down a flight of stairs in their presence this obsession is sweet and innocent in comparison to Tom Gatsby is so outward looking he forgets to take care of himself whereas Thomas so inward looking he's shocked when faced with the idea that Daisy had a world that exists outside of his own so in contrast to Nick's wavering faith in Gatsby Daisy's a more steady devotee although in the time before the events in the novel begin we're aware of Daisy's faltering faith in Gatsby when Nick supposes she was feeling the pressure of the world outside and in her letters there was a nervous despair which worried Gatsby Daisy's belief in Gatsby faltered at the beginning and of course she married Tom and then faltered at the end and she stayed with Tom Gatsby's behavior following the crash is that which is almost pitifully depicted a silent man in the garden of his lovers house while she sat inside conspiring with her husband Nick leaves for fear of spoiling the sacredness of the vigil implying a solemnity to Gatsby's actions ionised by the readers knowledge that Gatsby's belief in the pair that the power in separate rooms is incorrect and that they are instead sitting talking over fried chicken Fitzgerald contrasts images of gullible trust in Gatsby and the more cynical self-serving Buchanan's further confirming to the reader that Gatsby may have come from lowly beginnings but his morals are no better than those that were of those who were born into more respectable families Gatsby's crime is important he's in a car that hits a woman who ran into the road and doesn't stop his motivation is Daisy for whom he will of course take the blame and Tom doesn't stop for two reasons to avoid being connected to the crime Vera's wife and to avoid this connection to Myrtle being revealed although both are deplorable gatsby manages to be slightly less so and his misplaced faith in Daisy makes his act of sacrifice all the more pathetic given that we later find she leaves the state to avoid prosecution whilst Gatsby stays and then is slain on the back of mom's lies Daisy's most emotionally charged conversation with Gatsby is possibly the show it's conversation Gatsby's showing Daisy just how worthy he is now of her showing her his shirts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine flannel provoking an emotional reaction from Daisy who began to cry storm Lee that there's such beautiful shirts Daisy values Gatsby here in the material goods he's been able to possess just as Daisy's value rose in Gatsby's eyes due to the other men that had loved her and in return his value increases for equally vacuous reasons this commercialization of romantic love mirrors the increase in commercialization of every aspect of American life in the 1920s the rise of advertisements in magazines radio billboards newspapers means that commerce was permeating normal life and this parallel of Daisy's opinion of Gatsby is Fitzgerald's observation of the inevitable commercialization of the human heart if Gatsby excites Daisy through the contents of his wardrobe rather than his physical body or mind then Gatsby's possessions and financial powers are what Daisy finds attractive of course Daisy's influence upon Gatsby is particularly highlighted when the parties stop following her unsuccessful attendance in Chapter six Gatsby feels dazed he didn't like it and Nick considers that much of the party offends Daisy from the doorstep doorstep of Nick's home she and Gatsby share a pleasant half hour in the quietness of Nick's home and out of sight of the party now comparing the last moments of the party where they wait on Gatsby's doorstep waiting for their car Nick has to listen while Stasi and Tom argue whether the people were interesting with Daisy defending Gatsby and the origins of his fortune and these two encounters are interesting to compare due to their character traits that they highlight Gatsby and Daisy's desire for privacy which echoes Jordans sentiment earlier on in Chapter three that large parties are so intimate and Daisy and Tom's incompatibility are paralleled with each other yet again Fitzgerald gives an insight into the discord of their relationship interestingly Daisy's reaction is to sing and in doing so exhibits a type of cognitive dissonance where you exist with two different conflictive and conflicting emotions between her state of mind and her ability to stay with Tom Daisy both loves Gatsby and loved Tom and rather than address the necessary reality to remedy her depression and actually leave Tom she sings as Daisy sings Nick our reliable observer watches and imagines Gatsby above and supposes if a radiant young girl might catch Gatsby's eye and brought out his devotion to Daisy Daisy is trapped by her marriage and the societal expectations that accompany that whereas Gatsby's free to other romantic possibilities interestingly this could also be interpreted as Fitzgerald's continuing presentation of Gatsby as a tragic hero Daisy is the siren serenading him below her voice enchanting him and so therefore he's unwittingly mesmerised and controlled by her in ways both beyond his comprehension and controlled and this idea that Gatsby is plowing ahead totally unable to stop the tragedy that awaits him confirms the idea of Gatsby as a tragic hero a person who cannot avoid his destiny Gatsby's credibility is damaged by his lies Jordan supposes that Gatsby's oxford claim was untrue as early as chapter 3 where she tells Nick I don't believe him and it is via this lie that Tom's able to wedge a gap between Daisy and Gatsby when he lies regarding his acquisition acquisition of his wealth and those lies are exposed in the hotel suite in Chapter 7 tom declares I found out what your drugstores were and follows up with a string of accusations regarding Gatsby's illegal business endeavors up until this point Daisy's literally and metaphorically stood by him albeit with a visible effort however once this is exposed Daisy falters and whatever courage she had was definitely gone Gatsby's duplicity then is his fatal flaw and his undoing occurred the moment tom was able to cast out his past actions Fitzgerald challenges a society where a person like Gatsby is judged on his past where people like Daisy and Tom were able to hide their past indiscretions the car accident the affairs with their affluence the air of suspicion that clouds people's opinion of Gatsby is created through his own reluctance to admit his lonely beginnings Fitzgerald would be acutely aware of high society snobbery regarding attempting to infiltrate higher social circles yet as a modern reader we perceive Gatsby's success more remarkable given his background even when the more unsavory business activity is taken into account it's clear that Gatsby as a talented businessman Gatsby's drive to succeed as an admirable quality and Fitzgerald romanticizes in years of Gatsby as a focused youth in Chapter 9 when Gatsby's far their peers a younger more innocent Gatsby is depicted one who was self-organized self-sacrificing who his father faithfully believed was bound to get ahead when this contrib when we contrast this purity to the unsavory Tom Buchanan who had every opportunity Gatsby didn't have and yet still chooses to dabble in dubious business activities to make his money Gatsby's mistreatment becomes all the more unjust so I hope you found this video useful let me just say that this is an example of how a level analysis is a big step up from GCSE let me recommend that you pick up Mr brough sky2 The Great Gatsby I won't be making videos of all of its content so do pick up a copy today and thanks for watching