In The Great Gatsby, characters make false judgments of one another based on appearances, wealth, and love rather than the truth. Their misperceptions lead them to destruction. The document analyzes how characters like Gatsby, Daisy, Tom, and Nick are blinded by love and wealth and misunderstand each other. Appearances also mislead the characters, who put on false fronts that others believe. In the end, the characters' relationships are destroyed by their inability to see beyond surface-level qualities and perceptions.

1. By: F. Scott Fitzgerald

2. In The Great Gatsby characters are blinded and misled
by others through appearances, wealth, and love which
leads to false perceptions and the destruction of all
their relationships.
We are able to see how each character goes through
different judgments and accusations of one another. Each
false thought leads to their own demise. Not only can other
characters see that occurring…the readers can as well.

3. Love in The Great Gatsby
Some characters in the novel are blinded by love. When
people are blinded by love they cant see past what they want to see
in the other person. They see the person having good attributes
when in actual fact, they are most likely the complete opposite. In
The Great Gatsby, characters including Tom, Daisy, Jay Gatsby,
Jordan, Myrtle and Nick are all influenced by love. They can’t see
the other person they love for who they really are…only their
artificial act.

4. Love
1. Throughout the story, Gatsby believes that Daisy is
sophisticated, gorgeous and absolutely wonderful. Later on he realizes
that she is actually fake, artificial, and is a gold digger. She doesn’t even
care if there’s a man in her life or not. All she needs is money, even
though she has her own. Her character is one that we see in many
movies and 1920 era books. She’s a typical woman from that time
period. However Gatsby is fooled.
“for Daisy was young and her artificial world was redolent of orchids and
pleasant, cheerful snobbery and orchestras…” (Gatsby,158).
“he knew that Daisy was extraordinary but he didn’t realize just how
extraordinary a ‘nice’ girl could be. She vanished into her rich house, into
her rich full life, leaving Gatsby –nothing. He felt married to her, that was
all” (Gatsby, 156-57).

5. Love (2)
Nick is blinded by love. In the beginning he believes that
Jordan Baker is virtuous and is attracted to her. He is flattered to go
places with her, accompanies her to parties, and “[draws] her up…
closer… to [his] face” (Fitzgerald 85). Later on he realizes that she is
dishonest. She once “left a borrowed car out in the rain with the top
down, and then lied about it” (Fitzgerald 62). She also cheated on a
golf tournament. Nick realizes that this is why she avoids clever men
and instead goes for him. Near the end, Nick has had enough of Jordan
and no longer cares for her. He can’t talk to her anymore, even if it
meant “never talk[ing] to her again in this world” (Fitzgerald 163).

6. Myrtle also is very passionate about Tom not
realizing how crude and barbaric he is. In fact, she
adoringly tells her friends about how she and Tom first
met. She talks about how she was so excited when she
got into the cab with Tom (Fitzgerald 40). However,
later on in the novel Tom is abusive and breaks Myrtle’s
nose. Myrtle was clearly affectionate about Tom and
shows it although; Tom shows the opposite towards her.
Love (3)

7. Characters misinterpret others because of
their wealth. The best example can be seen with
Jay Gatsby and the amount of money he
possesses. This leads to his speculation and
eventually his demise. This can be seen with
other characters as well. Wealth can be just as
equally destructive as love because it leads
people to believe in accusations rather than truth.
Wealth in The Great Gatsby

8. Wealth
1. People in the story misinterpreted Gatsby because of his
wealth…the amount of money he possessed. They couldn’t
understand how he had so much, and where he could have gotten it
from…so they began to speculate. People made up so many stories
of him just to compensate for not actually knowing him at all.
When Nick is at the first party he hears a story about a woman
named Lucille who ripped her dress at a previous party and Gatsby
bought her a new one just to avoid conflict. It was “two hundred and
sixty-five dollars” (Gatsby,48). Another girl listening to the
conversation says that there’s “something funny about a fellow that’ll
do a thing like that” (Gatsby,48). After that remark, a few girls start
speculating. None of them truly knew the truth but they never cease
to misinterpret.

9. In the beginning, Nick believes that Daisy Buchanan is
civilized, polite and passionate. For example, “Daisy [had] a
conscientious expression…[and] a charming little laugh
[and] a bright passionate mouth” (Fitzgerald 13-14). In fact,
Nick even says that Daisy was as “cool as their white
dresses [and] polite” (Fitzgerald 17). When Nick first meets
Daisy he mentions how he feels “uncivilized” in Daisy’s
presence (Fitzgerald 17).
However, at the end of their first encounter, Nick begins to
realize that he had misinterpreted her. When Daisy was
talking to Nick , he felt the “basic insincerity of what she had
said” and made him feel “uneasy, as though the whole
evening had been a trick of some sort” (Fitzgerald 22).
Later on in the novel, Nick comes to the conclusion that

10. Wealth (3)- (This also ties into appearance)
Nick misinterprets Klipspringer as being Gatsby’s close friend
because he practically lives off of Gatsby’s wealth. He is often seen in
Gatsby’s house, using his utilities, “doing liver exercises on the
floor… [and] wandering hungrily about the beach” (Fitzgerald 96). In
fact, Nick calls him the “boarder.” However, at the time of Gatsby’s
death, Klipspringer doesn’t even go to his funeral despite appearing to
be his friend. When Nick asks if he will come to the funeral, he starts
making up excuses. Along with this, Klipspringer does not call to
inquire about Gatsby but wants to know about his pair of shoes he left
at the house. He asks “if it’d be too much trouble to have the butler
send them on… and [he] [is] sort of helpless without them”
(Fitzgerald 177).

11. Appearances in The Great Gatsby
Appearances are what we are all
judged by in our everyday lives. We get
judged based on the way we look, what we
believe, how we feel about different things,
who we love, and our religion. In The Great
Gatsby, characters miss see others based on
the aura they portray and their personalities.
The rich are looked at in a negative way, so
are the less fortunate. People put up a false
front in the novel to prove to others they are
this way when they really are not.

12. 1. Almost every Character is miss-led by appearances.
They think a certain person is one way when really its all an act.
Jay Gatsby holds many parties and by doing so and never
appearing as the Host people become weary of him. They
assume that he’s murdered someone or that “he was a German
spy during the war” (Gatsby,48). Jordan Baker claims that
Gatsby told her himself that “he was an Oxford man…however
[she] [doesn’t] believe it” (Gatsby,53). This was one of many
assumptions that guests create at Gatsby’s parties make about
him.
Appearances

13. Appearance s(2)
Throughout the story, Nick is miss-led by Gatsby’s
appearance. He alters his opinions about Gatsby constantly
and goes through phases of trusting and mistrusting him.
When Nick first meets Gatsby, he is shocked because he
“expect[s] that Mr. Gatsby would be a florid and corpulent
person in his middle years” (Fitzgerald 53). However, Gatsby
is actually a young, elegant man around the age of thirty. Also
around this time, Nick doesn’t really trust Gatsby because of
the rumours going around about him being a bootlegger and
killing a man. Later on, Nick changes his opinion of Gatsby
again, thinking of him “simply [as] the proprietor of an
elaborate roadhouse next door” rather than “a person of some
undefined consequence” (Fitzgerald 69). By the end, he is on
Gatsby’s side and trusts him.

14. Nick also believed that Meyer Wolfshiem would
be the opposite of what he really is. Nick has a polite
and mannered conversation with Mr. Wolfshiem and
then finds out about Mr. Wolfshiem’s past. Nick could
never imagine that “one man could start to play with the
faith of 50 million people” in fact, he was “staggered”
by the idea (Fitzgerald 78).
Appearances (3)

15. Conclusion
The Great Gatsby is a novel worth reading,
and taking the time to understand. Every
aspect in each character’s life is shown
throughout the novel as a misled assumption.
We can now see how people are constantly
misinterpreted throughout the story. This
sceptic view of people has destroyed them in
a way they don’t seem to understand.

16. Early Gatsby Sketches

18. By: Amanda Iliadis (Designed PowerPoint
Presentation, some Research)
Amina Mahmood (Research)
Ivanka D’mello (Research)

19. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaBVLhcHcc0
The Great Gatsby 2013 Trailer