Tragic Flaw of Great Gatsby

Tragic Flaw of Great Gatsby

The novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald follows the story of Gatsby, a man who’s desire to be one of the elite led him to acquire a great deal of money through illegal activities and led him to lose everything even his life. Gatsby is considered a tragic hero due to his tragic flaw, his errors in judgment, and finally because his tragic flaw leads to his tragic fall.
In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby’s tragic flaw was the fact that he was very naïve and trusting of all those around him. For example, in the hotel when Tom confronted Gatsby about his love to Daisy, Gatsby insisted that Daisy say that she never loved Tom. This shows that Gatsby was extremely naïve to believe that Daisy would love him to a certain extent as to say that she never loved her own husband. Second example of Gatsby’s tragic flaw is when he admitted to Nick that he could easily be with Daisy by saying to Nick “‘can’t repeat the past?’…. ‘Why of course you can!’” This specific quote showed that although Gatsby has not seen Daisy for a very long time, he still believes that he is able to win her back simply by showing up with his money. Through out the novel, Gatsby proved to be a very naïve and trusting character whose desire to be a specific person clouded his judgment.
In addition to his tragic flaw, the errors in Gatsby’s judgment also made him a tragic hero. First of all, his desire to be a rich and upper class man has lead him to commit illegal activities in order to become rich and win Daisy over. The fact that Gatsby was willing to evade the law for his own personal gain shows that his desire and his trustiness lead him in the end to lose Daisy because she was afraid of the kind of man he was. Additionally, when Daisy ran over Myrtle with his car, he was not concerned with the wellbeing of Myrtle or about the crime that Daisy has committed, but he was more interested in covering up the crime to keep Daisy close. Gatsby’s actions and inaction reveal that...

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