Do we like them?

Do we like Jay Gatsby?

A character from The Great Gatsby (1925)

Our score: 6 out of 10. We'd back him, but warily. His loyalty and hope are huge, and so is his obsession. His shady money and blind spots keep him short of hero.

Jay Gatsby is the title character of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel, set in Jazz Age New York. He is a mysterious millionaire in West Egg, Long Island, whose mansion hosts extravagant parties. Nick Carraway, his neighbour and the narrator, gets to know him. Gatsby has one goal: to win back Daisy Buchanan, a wealthy young woman he loved in his youth.

Gatsby is a dreamer. He has rebuilt himself from nothing, and everything he owns is aimed at one hope. That makes him magnetic and easy to root for. It also makes him blind. He treats Daisy as a perfect ideal more than a real person, and he is sure the past can be repeated. Rumours about how he made his money add to the doubt, so we back his heart more than his methods.

Gatsby was born James Gatz, a poor farm boy from North Dakota, and he invented the polished Jay Gatsby persona. Daisy is married to Tom Buchanan when the story starts, and Tom later exposes Gatsby's bootlegging fortune. When a car accident kills Myrtle Wilson, Daisy is at the wheel, but Gatsby takes the blame. His loyalty ends up costing him his life, when George Wilson shoots him. That sacrifice is why he is more tragic than villainous, and why he scores above the middle.