The Great Gatsby Characters

Here are the key characters in The Great Gatsby

Nick Carraway

…is the narrator and the story is told entirely from his viewpoint. He rents a house next door to Gatsby in Long Island, New York, and facilitates the love affair between Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan. The novel is not about him.

Jay Gatsby

…is the novel’s protagonist. He is one of the new rich who has been motivated to gain wealth in order to reunite with a wealthy young woman who rejected him because of his poverty.

Daisy Buchanan

…is a distant cousin of Nick Carraway and the object of Gatsby’s obsession. She is the beautiful and seductive daughter of a wealthy Mid West family.  Having rejected the penniless officer, Jay Gatsby, during the Second World War, and marrying the wealthy sports star, Tom Buchanan, she now lives with him in Long Island, New York.

Tom Buchanan

…is the son of an old, very rich Chicago family. He was a football star in college and is now a famous polo player. He is married to Daisy and they live in East Egg, Long Island. He is a philanderer and something of a bully.

Jordan Baker

…is a wealthy young woman. She is beautiful and single and attracts Nick. She is a professional golfer.

Myrtle Wilson

…is Tom Buchanan’s mistress. She is married to George Wilson who owns a car repair garage and gas station.

George Wilson

…owns a car repair garage and gas station. He is unaware of his wife’s affair with Tom Buchanan.

Meyer Wolfsheim

…is a minor character who is clearly a gangster, credited with being the man who fixed the 1919 World Series.

Henry Gatz

…is Gatsby’s father who appears only after Gatsby’s death, to bury his son. He is a humble, unsophisticated, poor man, representing the class and condition from which Gatsby rose to become very wealthy.