Prompt #2003

2003. According to critic Northrop Frye, "Tragic heroes are so much the highest points in their human landscape that they seem the inevitable conductors of the power about them, great trees more likely to be struck by lightning than a clump of grass. Conductors may of course be instruments as well as victims of the divisive lightning." Select a novel or play in which a tragic figure functions as an instrument of the suffering of others. Then write an essay in which you explain how the suffering brought upon others by that figure contributes to the tragic vision of the work as a whole.

      In the book The Great Gatsby, the main character Jay Gatsby, can be considered a tragic hero because he is killed at the end of the novel for a crime he took the blame for. Nick, the narrator, shows the most grief over this death. He mourns not only the loss of someone he cared for, but also the loss of the American Dream. Gatsby chased an idealistic dream and was killed very early in life because of it. This tragedy makes the theme of the novel , that the American Dream is dead because Americans only care about wealth and status, clear with Gatsby's graphic death.
      Gatsby serves to show how people obsessed over an impossible dream will never be able to enjoy their fantasies in real life. His dream was to be with the love of his life, Daisy, even after she was married for years. He throws big parties in his new home in hopes of drawing her in and meeting again, but when he finally does get to meet her, her love isn't what he dreamed it to be. Daisy doesn't love Gatsby as much as he loves her, and she is still unsure if she wants to leave Tom, her husband,  for Gatsby. The only reason she even has these conflicted feelings is because she is deciding between who is better off financially. But, the most tragic part of their romance is that even if Daisy really did love Gatsby, his imagined romance could never live up to any real one. In Nick's words, "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . ." The dream could never be real because Gatsby's dream was too unrealistic.
      The circumstances of Gatsby's death make his situation even more tragic. Myrtle, Tom's lover, was run over with Gatsby's car when Daisy was driving it. She was killed, which drives her husband Wilson to madness, because he grieves her yet he also knew she was cheating on him. Tom tells Wilson that it was Gatsby who ran over Myrtle, and Wilson in his grief thinks that Gatsby must have also been Myrtle's lover. Gatsby is murdered in his pool shortly after by Wilson, who then proceeds to kill himself. After this horrendous series of events, it seems as though Daisy and Tom, who were basically responsible for Gatsby's death would come to the funeral. But, they skip town in order to save their own skins. The only people who come are Nick, some servants, a man with owl eye glasses, and Gatsby's father. Nick's sorrow is amplified to the audiance when Gatsby's father shows Nick a journal of Gatsby's steps for self improvement. He had to work hard in order to gain a fortune, but the only reason he kept trying was in order to have Daisy, who didn't even bother to show up at Gatsby's funeral. The anger Nick is feeling rubs off on the audience the most when Nick sees Tom years after the funeral, and Tom tells him that Gatsby deserved to die. Tom is described as a cold, hard man so the readers never feel any sympathy for him, unlike Gatsby, who Nick believes is kind and clever, as well as a little mysterious at first. Nick's perception of these events makes it more tragic for the reader.
      The Great Gatsby is a tragic love story that has a greater meaning than it seems at first. Gatsby never is able to be with the one he loves because she is corrupted by the materialism of America, and he is too immersed in his dream to enjoy reality. Nick, the narrator and Gatsby's friend, adds his high opinion of Gatsby into the mix to amplify the things we feel for Gatsby. Gatsby's story warns readers not to rely on dreams anymore to obtain happiness in life. The new American lifestyle only aims to gain wealth and status, not the things that really matter.