Who Is The Antagonist In The Great Gatsby

To follow the blockbuster laws, there should be a strong contrast between the two main male characters and the characters who play a couple in the movie. Therefore, if Daisy is a bird in the cage, Tom is the true evil, owing to whom all the negative conflicts happen. Fitzgerald 's Tom is somewhat of a Betty Hutton 's song inspiration: “He 's a demon / He 's a devil / He 's a doll!” He cheats on his wife, drinks and, naturally, dislikes Gatsby. In the movie, Tom is the one who becomes actual Gatsby 's killer: he points fingers on Gatsby as if the latter killed Myrtle to her husband, who in his turn shoots the main character. This did not take place in the book, where Tom only told George Wilson that the car which hit his wife was yellow. Nevertheless, …show more content…
Fitzgerald created him as a man who wants to become a part of the better, brighter world with no mundane outlooks and a gripping lifestyle, however, decent enough not to get deceived by all the outer glitter and gold. As Nick Carraway states himself, he has only been drunk twice in his life – an important remark, which alongside all the other descriptions given by the author creates a positive, mature character. In the movie, however, Nick has to go through the typical transition of the Hollywood film: he cannot know what is right until he gets to experience the wrong. That is why he is involved in the mad parties scenes, where he gets excessively drunk and throws himself into the maelstrom of lechery. Through these actions, Nick gets to understand that in reality, the socialites of the East he was so eager to meet are shallow. In the book, however, the character is more of a quiet observant who captures and analyses every word, every glance and every gesture. Obviously, this character cannot become a patient of a rehabilitation sanatorium trying to get over his alcohol addiction, as Luhrmann had shown him in the movie.
Finally, Jay Gatsby himself, despite the undoubted impersonating talent of Leonardo DiCaprio, does not get the full incarnation in the movie. In the Luhrman 's picture the character is too much of a …show more content…
The illusion of moving mountains for the sake of a lady is an everlasting motivation of men, but the green light that seems so inviting to Gatsby is not Daisy, it is self-realization. Not in the meaning of getting even more opulence than he already has – Jay Gatsby is not a character to whom money matter most of all, - but in the sense of feeling himself complete and capable to reach the highest peak. Perhaps this is a theory, but the only 'lovestory ' covered in “The Great Gatsby” is the love – or rather the lack of it - of Jay Gatsby for himself. It is not just the society whom he wants to prove something, but he himself. The grand and unstoppable ambitions of Jay Gatsby is what Fitzgerald if not judgemental of, then at least cautious about. That is what the writer wanted to show: chasing the green light without looking around oneself at least for a while can kill a good