Jay Gatsby, the protagonist of “The Great Gatsby” is the archetype and represents the tragic hero. This archetype is the one the audience sympathizes with and whose luck changes throughout the story from best to worst. In most cases the tragic hero dies and it happens because there is a flaw in his character. Jay Gatsby is fortunate at the beginning of the film when he meets Daisy and falls in love with her. However, his poverty prevents him from marrying her, so he goes away and returns as a wealthy man, but only to see the love of his life married and to lose his life in a succession of bad circumstances. Romeo, from Romeo and Juliette is the representative of another tragic hero whose luck also changes from good to bad and who eventually dies as a result of tragic events and interpersonal misunderstandings. These two characters are similar because both of them become misfortunate and eventually die as a result of falling in love with women whose love becomes fatal for them and all of that happens due to bad life circumstances and the people who want to do them harm for selfish reasons. To conclude with, a tragic hero usually has a flaw in his character, which is in this case, being too emotional and susceptible for the interference of people who want to hurt them and prevent them from enjoying life.
Works cited
The Great Gatsby. Dir. Baz Luhrmann. Warner Bros., 2013. Film.
