Nick Carraway

• narrates the story which is mainly shaped through his thoughts and perceptions
• hails from Minnesota, graduated at Yale, fought in WW I
• moves to New York City (to a small house in West Egg) in order to learn the bond business
• due to his honesty, tolerance and the ability to hold back judgement, a lot of people confide in him
• helps Gatsby reuniting with Daisy who is Nick‘s cousin
• Nick is highly influenced by his Midwestern sensibility and thus, he considers the East a rather unsettling place with its fast-paced lifestyle; Nick also becomes disillusioned with the lifestyle of wealthy socialites such as the Buchanans

Jay Gatsby

• title character and protagonist of the novel
• wealthy young man that lives in a great mansion in West Egg throwing lavish parties on weekends
• although thousands of people attend his parties, no one really knows who he is, where he comes from, or how he attained his fortune
• Jay Gatsby was born as James Gatz on a farm in North Dakota
• Gatsby fell in love with Daisy when he was training to be an officer in Louisville
• because he wanted to impress and win over Daisy with a fortune, he decided to dedicate his life to the achievement of wealth (also through the influence of millionaire Dan Cody)
• Gatsby made his fortune through criminal activity - he is willing to do just about anything in order to gain the social status that he thought was necessary to attract Daisy
• Nick considers Gatsby as deeply flawed, dishonest and vulgar, but still, Nick is impressed by him due to his optimism and his power to transform his dreams into reality

Daisy Buchanan

• Nick‘s cousin, married to Tom Buchanan, lover of Gatsby
• used to live in Louisville before the war, relatively popular with a lot of officers, including Gatsby
• fell in love with Gatsby, promised to wait for him until he came back from war
• yet Daisy constantly feels the deep need to be loved which is why she agreed to marry Tom Buchanan and thus neglecting Gatsby
• lives in East Egg with Tom and their daughter Pammy; she is a beautiful socialite
• sardonic, cynical, superficial in order to hide her pain from Tom‘s infidelity
• represents women of the elite social class

Tom Buchanan

• husband of Daisy, wealthy, used to be a member of Nick‘s social club at Yale
• comes from an aristocratic Chicagoan family; his power is also expressed through his stature
• arrogant, brutal, hypocritical, racist, sexist
• lives a life of double-standards: has an affair with Myrtle but is outraged when he finds out about Daisy‘s affair with Gatsby

Jordan Baker

• Daisy‘s friend, a competitive golfer, Nick‘s lover
• represents one of the "new women" of the 1920s: cynical, boyish, and self-centered
• beautiful, yet somehow androgynous, savvy, shallow
• questionable integrity: cheats at golf tournament, continually lies

Myrtle Wilson

• Tom‘s lover, married to George Wilson
• fiercely vital, tries to escape her poverty through her affair with Tom, exhibiting all the power and dominance she finds lacking in her everyday life
• however, she is only treated as an object of desire by Tom
• representative of the lower class
• suffers a tragic end at the hands of her lover‘s wife

George Wilson

• Myrtle‘s husband, owner of a run-down garage and gas station in the Valley of Ashes
• loves and idealizes Myrtle, ignores the fact that his wife is having an affair with Tom
• George is devastated by Myrtle‘s death; the only way out of his misery is taking revenge and suicide
• expresses the despair prevalent in the seemingly trapped lower-middle class

Owl Eyes

• eccentric drunk that attends Gatsby‘s parties
• is astonished about the fact that Gatsby‘s books are real
• shows a genuine interest in Gatsby

Klipspringer

• seems to live at Gatsby‘s house and takes advantage of his generosity without having any real feelings for him
• takes advantage of Gatsby‘s money
• when Gatsby dies, Klipspringer disappears and does not attend his funeral
• representative of the people who frequented Gatsby‘s partys

Meyer Wolfsheim

• a friend of Gatsby‘s, known to participate in organized crime, professional gambler, is said to having fixed the World Series 1919
• Wolfsheim helped Gatsby making his fortune with bootlegging illegal alcohol
• because they still meet in the city, one can assume that Gatsby is still involved in illegal business