Jay Gatsby is the protagonist of the novel The Great Gatsby. He is a very wealthy man living in a Gothic mansion in West Egg. As narrated by Nick Carraway, Gatsby is famous for the lavish parties he throws on Saturdays but no one really knew where he came from, what he did or how he got his wealth. As the novel progresses, we soon learn that he was born James Gatz in North Dakota. He acquired his wealth through the sheer determination and also through criminal activity, as he vowed to do anything to win Daisy. Tony Buchanan, on the other hand, is Daisy’s wealthy husband and was once a member of the Yale football club. Tony hailed from a very wealthy Midwestern family. He is portrayed as being arrogant and a bully. Tony is also a hypocrite given that he condemns the infidelity of his wife, Daisy, but has no qualms regarding his own affair. Jay Gatsby’s and Tony Buchanan’s love for Daisy is their greatest similarity and difference throughout the novel. Gatsby’s love for Daisy can be described as infatuation, which went to the extent of shaping him as an individual. Gatsby went to the extent of trying all means to try and win the love of Daisy. Tony Buchanan’s love for Daisy, on the other hand, is seen as being superfluous and being more about control than any other thing. He confronts Daisy on her affair with Gatsby and is extremely offended about it, and yet he had an affair with Myrtle. Daisy’s role in the novel is to choose between Gatsby and Tony.
Jay Gatsby and Tony Buchanan are seen as completely different individuals socially and romantically, but they are all in love with Daisy who likes them. The characters of Gatsby and Tony Buchanan are alike and different in a number of ways. The two characters had a mutual friendship with the narrator of the novel, Nick Carraway. Jay Gatsby was Nick’s friend and next-door neighbor while Tom was Nick’s fellow graduate at Yale. Nick clearly shows biasness towards Gatsby as he is interested in his life rather than that of Tony. Another way by which the two characters are similar is that both of them are wealthy. Nick Carraway describes Gatsby as a man who had amassed a lot of wealth and lived a lavish life. He had acquired his wealth through hard work and also through some criminal means. Tony Buchanan, on the other hand, is an ex-football star who had come from a wealthy family. Nick states that unlike Gatsby, Buchanan belonged to an older established world of inherited wealth. Nick recalls “his family was enormously wealthy (pg 8-9). Another similarity is that Daisy loved each one of them to some extent.
A number of differences can be observed between Gatsby and Tony Buchanan. First, with regards to their wealth, Gatsby is seen as a man who on the surface represented the story of the rags-to-riches story. Gatsby rose from an impoverished childhood in North Dakota to turn out to be one of the most fabulously rich men of that time. Although some of his wealth was acquired through illegal means such as distributing illegal alcohol and trading stolen securities, he despised poverty and longed for wealth. Tony, on the contrary, was an ex-footballer and came from a very wealthy family. Much of his wealth was acquired through inheritance from his parents rather than his own hard work, like in the case of Gatsby.
Another key difference between the Gatsby and Tony is their character. Gatsby has been portrayed as somewhat the protagonist in the novel while Tony is the antagonist. Gatsby is a fun-loving local celebrity who threw parties now and then despite his shady past. Nick Carraway greatly adores Gatsby as he sees him possessing an extraordinary quality of hope in his quest to achieve his goal. He is seen as a determined and motivated man who would stop at nothing to realize his dream of winning Daisy’s heart. Gatsby is willing do anything within his means or out of his means to win Daisy who he had lost when he went out to fight the war. His determination always led into confrontations with Tony. He is kinder and less tough as compared to Tony. Tony, on the contrary represented everything that was wrong with character. Tony is a bully, selfish, greedy, hypocritical and immature. He is hypocritical in the sense that he did not ‘practice what he preached.’ He was highly critical of the infidelity of Daisy to Gatsby, while he did not have problems with his on-going affair with Myrtle. He becomes extremely offended when he finds out about the on-going relationship. Tony confronted Gatsby in the plaza by asking “what kind of row are you trying to cause in my house”? Tony is also a man who used both his physical and financial superiority to get what he wanted in life.
Gatsby and Tony Buchanan’s love for Daisy is another point of difference between the two characters. Whereas Gatsby’s love for her had now turned out to be infatuation, Tony’s love for Daisy was based on the fact that she was his wife. Gatsby viewed that theirs was a perfect love that was destroyed simply because he went out to fight the war, and that Daisy only decided to marry Tony because she could not wait any longer. He went on to tell Tony that Daisy did not love her truly but was just there for his money. Gatsby’s dream was to win the love of Daisy and was prepared to dedicate his time and efforts to achieve that dream. The parties he threw at his West egg mansion were efforts to lure Daisy to her. Tony, on the contrary, was married to Daisy and showed love that is expected for a husband to her wife. Although he had an affair with Myrtle, he still loved Daisy to some extent. He was angry with the fact that Daisy had chosen to start a relationship with Gatsby and yet they were married.
Daisy opts to stay with Tony despite the negative light with which Tony has been portrayed within the novel. Her choice is mainly influenced by the fact that she still loved Tony despite his obvious flaws and controlling nature. Daisy is seen as a character capable of affection as she seems to have some loyalty to Tony Buchanan and also some devotion to Gatsby. Daisy was also in love with money and material luxury which Tony had the capabilities of providing. For her, it was better to be with someone whom she has been with for a while and have happiness there, rather than moving to Gatsby. To Daisy, Tony offered a sense of security that could not be found in Gatsby. Despite the fact that she loved Gatsby so much, she felt that there could be no concrete future with him. Gatsby met Daisy when he was training to be an officer in Louisville, but they separated when he went to fight the war. Daisy feared that Gatsby could leave her like he had previously done when he went out for war. Daisy felt that Gatsby left the relationship when it was at the peak of passion. Some of the love she had for Gatsby had left during the period he left. This feeling of insecurity with Gatsby played a key role in influencing her decision to remain with Tony Buchanan. Daisy viewed that Tony Buchanan offered a kind of stability that could not be found within Gatsby given his lavish lifestyle.
The location of the homes of Tony and Gatsby also played a part in influencing Daisy’s decision. East Egg and West Egg, as narrated by Nick, had similar characteristics and attributes. They were both residences for the wealthy at that time. Despite their obvious similarities, they had a fundamental difference. East Egg, as stated by Nick, was the home to the aristocracy in America, in what was referred to as “old money.” West Egg, on the other hand, supported people who had just realized wealth much sooner. As Nick narrated by Nick, “West Egg is the less fashionable of the two,” which meant that it consisted of people with “new money.” The perceived conflict between these two residences was partly the reason for Daisy choosing to remain with Tony as West egg offered much more stability than the East Egg.
Works Cited
Fitzgerald, F S, and Matthew J. Bruccoli. The Great Gatsby. New York, NY: Scribner, 1996. Print.
