"Tragedy or Justice: Jay Gatsby vs. Willy Loman"

The traditional definition of a tragic character is a person that is basically good and in fact someone that could be viewed as admirable but because they have a significant flaw in their personality (called the tragic flaw) they bring themselves down and often those around them as well. When you apply this definition to the main character of the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925) you realize that Jay Gatsby is a tragic character. However, whenever this same definition is applied to Willy Loman, the main character of Arthur Miller’s 1954 play The Death of a Salesman it’s clear that Willy Loman is far from being a tragic character. Here is the difference between them.

Jay Gatsby’s   personality flaw was his inability to see reality when it came to the love of his life Daisy Buchanan.  Daisy is materialistic, shallow, child-like (when it suits her) but also calloused and calculating when she feels she needs to be. The characters around Daisy see this in her, but Gatsby is blinded by the fact that his “Golden Girl” (Daisy) loved him once and Gatsby believes true love lasts forever. There are important reasons why things are different now between them from seven years ago. Daisy is married to rich man Tom Buchanan and together they have a daughter. She mostly has forgotten Jay, the poor Army officer she was had a brief love with. He has never forgotten her.

 For most people if a relationship doesn't work out you move on. However,Gatsby is stuck in the past as far as Daisy in concerned. His friend, and the books narrator, Nick Carraway tried to warn him about this flawed thinking when he told him two things: 1. I wouldn't expect too much of Daisy and 2. You can’t repeat the past. Gatsby’s reaction was, “Can’t repeat the past? Of course you can…” The reader wonders how this is ever going work out well for Gatsby.  Of course it doesn't!  Gatsby is betrayed by Daisy and then later is shot in the back and killed by a man he never even knew George Wilson.  Some would say he was stabbed in the back before he was shot in the back.

 It's true that Gatsby used people to pursue his goal of getting back to Daisy but not in a way that hurt the people he used and he is otherwise generous with people. He befriends Nick, and stays loyal to several people thorough out the book. He lets a left-over party guest stay at his place; he was very generous with his father and despite the strong hint that he made his fortune with the mob, we never see or know of him hurting anyone other than himself. Nick, a man of integrity and moral values, summed it up when he said to Gatsby “You’re worth more than the whole damn bunch put together”. Nick admires Gatsby as does the reader and we want to save him from his own naivete but of course we can’t.  Jay Gatsby's tragic flaw, his inability to let go of his romantic ideal with Daisy brings about his downfall but only his. He is a tragic character.

Willy Loman is a traveling salesman in the 1940’s or so he says. In the play Death of a Salesman Willy Loman says a lot of things and that’s the problem. Most of what he says is untrue. He lies to his sons, he lies to his wife, and he lies to his next door neighbor Charley and most importantly lies to himself.  He often doesn't do well on any of his sales trips; instead he goes to his neighbor and friend Charley and borrows the money that he brings home. His lying is one thing but that’s not the worst. He has affairs on the road.  His older son Biff found out about this when he was in high school and he has never forgiven his father. At one point Biff tells his mother, “he never had an ounce of respect  for you, he always, always wiped the floor with you”.  Linda, not privy to the cheating, defends her husband.  Biff is right though because Willy besides being a liar, cheater, and all around loudmouth also constantly berates Linda throughout the play. He yells at Biff, yells at Charley, belittles Charlie’s son Bernard by calling him a pest, an anemic, and just not well-liked. Willy is obnoxious, and mean.

Willy doesn't have just one personality flaw either, he is filled with them and he takes his own unhappiness out on everyone around him. The final thing to consider is this, Willy commits suicide at the end of the play thinking that his death will get Biff his insurance money and then his son will go into business and will be on top again. On top like when Biff was the quarterback on the high school team. Willy is even foolish about this. He failed to realize something about this grand plan. He failed to investigate whether or not the insurance company would pay out for a suicide. They don't of course and his death is as meaningless and unfulfilled as his long, sad life. His family gets nothing. Do we feel sorry for Willy? probably, but  that doesn't make Will a tragic character. According to the definition above Willy Loman is not a tragic character.

If bad things happen to essentially good, admirable people we call it a tragedy. If bad things happen to essentially bad, unlikable people we call it justice.  The character Jay Gatsby was very much likable and there were things we could even say we admired about him. He didn't deserve what happened to him. Jay Gatsby is a tragic character.  On the other hand Willy Loman is an overly critical, corrupt, loudmouth, and a person hurtful to virtually everyone and especially him. When Willy kills himself we see him as being pathetic for sure but Willy Loman is not a tragic character.