The Great Gatsby (Original 1925 Edition) characters

Appears from the start

A young Midwesterner and Yale graduate who moves to West Egg in 1922 to work in the bond business. He rents a modest house between mansions and narrates what he observes, trying to balance his habit of withholding judgment with a growing awareness of the carelessness around him.

Appears from the start

Nick's wealthy next-door neighbor in West Egg, known initially by reputation and by the enormous mansion where he lives. At the close of Nick's first evening in the East, Nick sees him alone outside, reaching across the bay toward a distant green light.

Appears from the start

Nick's cousin, now married to Tom Buchanan and living across the bay in East Egg. Charming, restless, and alert to the constraints of her privileged marriage, she masks dissatisfaction with playful conversation and carefully managed emotion.

Appears from the start

Daisy's immensely wealthy husband, a former college football star with an imposing physique and an aggressive manner. He expects his social position to protect his authority and openly promotes racist ideas. During Nick's first visit, an interrupted telephone call makes his infidelity evident.

Appears from the start

A competitive golfer and friend of Daisy's whom Nick meets at the Buchanans' house. Cool, self-contained, and socially observant, she becomes Nick's guide to the private tensions behind the family's polished surroundings.

First appears in chapter 2

George Wilson's energetic and dissatisfied wife, who is conducting an affair with Tom Buchanan. She treats Tom as a route out of the bleak garage and cramped life she shares with George in the industrial wasteland between Long Island and New York.

First appears in chapter 2

The worn, struggling owner of a garage in the valley of ashes. He hopes to buy and resell Tom's car and does not recognize that Tom's visits are really for Myrtle, his wife.

First appears in chapter 2

Myrtle Wilson's sister, who joins Myrtle, Tom, and Nick at their Manhattan apartment. She encourages the affair and confidently circulates a false explanation that existing spouses prevent Tom and Myrtle from marrying.

First appears in chapter 3

A bespectacled guest whom Nick finds examining the books in Gatsby's library. Surprised that the volumes are real rather than decorative imitations, he is one of the few partygoers who pauses to consider the construction behind his host's public image.

Also known as Meyer Wolfshiem

First appears in chapter 4

A gambler and underworld associate whom Gatsby introduces to Nick over lunch in Manhattan. Gatsby says Wolfsheim arranged the fixed 1919 World Series, presenting him as a powerful criminal connection rather than merely a social acquaintance.

First appears in chapter 4

A frequent guest who has settled so comfortably into Gatsby's mansion that other people call him the boarder. He is one of the many people drawn into Gatsby's hospitality without becoming a close friend.

First appears in chapter 7

A Greek coffee-shop owner near Wilson's garage. After Myrtle's death he stays with the devastated George, listens to him, and tries unsuccessfully to keep him from acting while grief and suspicion distort his thinking.

First appears in chapter 9

Gatsby's elderly father, who comes from Minnesota after reading of his son's death. Grieving but proud, he preserves a childhood schedule that shows his son's early determination to remake himself and is awed by the scale of the life Gatsby built.