The Great Gatsby & This Side of Paradise characters

Appears from the start

A young Midwesterner who comes east after the First World War to work in the bond business. Nick rents a modest house in West Egg beside Gatsby's mansion and narrates what he observes. He is Daisy Buchanan's cousin and initially prides himself on withholding judgment.

Appears from the start

Nick's cousin, living in wealthy East Egg with her husband Tom and their young daughter. Daisy is charming, restless, and skilled at turning unhappiness into light social performance, though tension in her marriage is apparent when Nick visits.

Appears from the start

Daisy's immensely wealthy husband, a former college football player whose physical confidence has hardened into aggression. Tom is domineering, contemptuous of people outside his class, and eager to assert his authority over every room he enters.

Appears from the start

A professional golfer and Daisy's friend, coolly self-possessed and socially observant. Jordan meets Nick at the Buchanans' home and becomes his guide to some of the relationships and rumors circulating through their wealthy circle.

First appears in chapter 2

The wife of garage owner George Wilson and Tom Buchanan's lover. Myrtle longs to escape the ash-covered industrial district where she lives and treats her connection with Tom as entry into a richer, more sophisticated identity.

First appears in chapter 2

An exhausted garage owner in the valley of ashes, married to Myrtle. George is financially dependent on Tom's promised business and initially unaware of the true nature of Tom's connection to his wife.

First appears in chapter 3

Nick's mysterious neighbor, famous for the lavish parties held at his West Egg mansion. Guests invent stories about Gatsby because few know him personally. When Nick finally meets him, Gatsby is courteous, controlled, and unexpectedly separate from the spectacle arranged around him.

First appears in chapter 4

A gambler and businessman who lunches with Gatsby and Nick in New York. Wolfsheim hints at the criminal network behind Gatsby's unexplained prosperity and boasts of influence extending into professional sports.

First appears in chapter 10

A privileged and intensely self-conscious young man whose development from childhood through Princeton and the years after the First World War forms the second novel. Amory is intelligent, vain, romantic, and determined to turn his life into evidence of his own importance.

First appears in chapter 10

Amory's cultivated, unconventional mother. Beatrice raises him amid travel, wealth, and adult conversation, encouraging his sense of distinction while leaving him poorly prepared for ordinary discipline and compromise.

First appears in chapter 10

A Catholic priest and longtime friend of Beatrice who becomes Amory's spiritual adviser. Monsignor Darcy recognizes both Amory's gifts and his vanity, corresponding with him in a language of personal ideals and moral development.

First appears in chapter 11

A young woman Amory courts during his Princeton years. Their attraction is fueled by romantic self-dramatization, but the relationship falters when an awkward encounter punctures the image each has built of the other.

First appears in chapter 11

Amory's close Princeton friend and later his roommate in New York. Alec moves easily within the social world Amory wants to master and remains part of his life as college confidence gives way to adult uncertainty.

First appears in chapter 12

A charismatic Princeton student whose intellectual independence impresses Amory. Burne questions campus conventions and status hierarchies, offering Amory a model of conviction that is less dependent on popularity.

First appears in chapter 15

Alec's younger sister, whom Amory meets in New York after returning from military service. Rosalind is witty, beautiful, and as conscious of her social power as Amory is of his personality. Their immediate attraction develops into a serious love affair.

First appears in chapter 17

An intelligent and imaginative young woman Amory meets during a summer in Maryland. Eleanor shares his taste for intense conversation and romantic performance, and their relationship becomes a test of whether either can turn emotional affinity into a durable bond.