THE GREATNESS OF GATSBY:

‘You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together

‘The Great Gatsby' is often regarded as the Great American Novel. It has been prescribed reading for generations of high school students in the USA. An investigation of its greatness inevitably leads to an investigation of its main character.

In what way is Gatsby great? Obviously, in the first instance, as the focal point of Fitzgerald's satirical portrait of the Jazz Age. There is a clue in Nick's single reference to him as Trimalchio. The latter is an ancient Roman fictional character, a former slave who became enormously wealthy and threw parties that were orgies of feasting and revelry. Gatsby seems to fit the bill as his modern counterpart, though his own account of his past is patently fictitious.

“'My family all died and I came into a good deal of money.' His voice was solemn, as if the memory of that extinction of a clan still haunted him. For a moment I suspected he was pulling my leg, but a glance at him convinced me otherwise. 'After that I lived like a young rajah in all the capitals of Europe – Paris, Venice, Rome – collecting jewels, chiefly rubies, hunting big game, painting a little, things for myself only, trying to forget something very sad that happened to me a long time ago.'

With an effort I managed to restrain my incredulous laughter. The very phrases were worn so threadbare that they evoked no image except that of a turbaned “character' leaking sawdust at every pore as he pursued a tiger through the Bois de Boulogne.”

This early chapter contains some of the most comical passages to be found in satirical fiction. The meeting with the gambler Wolfshiem is particularly hilarious and, in these days of match-fixing revelations, very topical: “'Meyer Wolfshiem? No, he's a gambler.' Gatsby hesitated, then added coolly: 'He's the man who fixed the World's Series back in 1919.' 'Fixed the World's Series?'

Ben Jonson

I repeated. The idea staggered me. I remembered, of course, that the World's Series had been fixed in 1919, but if I had thought of it at all I would have thought of it as something that merely happened, the end of some inevitable chain. It never occurred to me that one man could start to play with the faith of fifty million people – with the single-mindedness of a burglar blowing a safe.'”

This passage is more telling than it seems. Gatsby tries to mitigate his admission of Wolfshiem's profession by presenting the latter's most notorious exploit in a somehow impressive light. In so doing he unwittingly betrays his own front of respectably acquired wealth. The comparison of Wolfshiem's masterpiece of deception to the act of a burglar enables us to see him for the common crook he is and Gatsby himself as being suspect.

But the satirical portrayal of Gatsby is far from condemnatory as in the case of his beloved Daisy. Nick recalls what were to prove his parting words to Gatsby: “'They're a rotten crowd,' I shouted across the lawn. 'You're worth the whole damn bunch put together.' I've always been glad I said that.'”

Why indeed did Nick say that? What was it that made Gatsby seem superior to the rest of the affluent society despite the dubious source of his wealth? A variety of factors contributes to Nick's final impression of Gatsby. In the first place he is a living example of the American Dream. In a country whose most famous president's story is “from log cabin to White House”, the story of an impoverished clam-digger in the Mid-West who becomes the most sought-after host in the Eastern seaboard's most exclusive residential district must surely generate comparable interest.

In fact Gatsby's early endeavours at self-development are implicitly compared to those of Benjamin Franklin, that other famous example of the passage from obscurity to fame. After Gatsby's death his father shows Nick the back of an old cowboy story-book on which his son had written out a programme of self-improvement.

This specified times as well as activities from rising at 6 am through pre-workday exercise and study to post-workday recreation, speech-training and further study upto 9 pm. Underneath this schedule was a list of resolutions including regular bathing, saving, reading a book a week and treating his parents better.

This actually echoes the self-development regimen that Franklin had prescribed for himself. Yes, Gatsby is the only genuine achiever among “that whole bunch.”' But beyond this we see Gatsby as a modern type of the Overreacher.

This type came to the fore in Elizabethan/Jacobean times when the rise of capitalism and laissez faire promised untold wealth, fame and power to those who dared to aspire beyond the usual limits of individual endeavour. The Overreacher made his first literary appearance with Marlowe's 'Tamburlaine the Great', and it may not be idle to speculate whether Fitzgerald had this title in mind when he finally settled on the title of his novel.

For Gatsby is very much the type of the Overreacher who believes that his extraordinary resources entitle him to extraordinary achievement, in the pursuit of which he is at liberty to disregard the usual restraints of society and morality and to resort to extremes of cunning in 'conning' others.

The Overreacher eventually comes to grief because of his presumption of godlike powers of control over people and circumstances. The type was developed in comically satirical terms by Ben Jonson in 'Volpone the Fox' and other plays. Gatsby himself finds that despite his enormous resources he cannot convince Daisy of his acceptability and stability, and he has to loses her to her immoral but socially and financially established husband Tom.

“'She's not leaving me!' Tom's words suddenly leaned down over Gatsby. 'Certainly not for a common swindler who'd have to steal the ring he put on her finger.'...That unfamiliar yet recognizable look was back again in Gatsby's face...he began to talk excitedly to Daisy, denying everything, defending his name against accusations that had not been made.

But with every word she was drawing further and further into herself, so he gave that up, and only the dead dream fought on as the afternoon slipped away, trying to touch what was no longer tangible, struggling unhappily, undespairingly, toward that lost voice across the room.''

Gatsby's American Dream is over. His great romantic adventure has come to an end. His belief in his powers of acquisition and control through deception have been shattered.

There is an undeniable pathos in the situation, he even seems to be tragically flawed. In our final article on 'Gatsby' we hope to examine how this aspect contributes to the greatness of Gatsby the character and Gatsby the novel.