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Aidan O. Wharton
Sean Bradley
English 10, Period 4
May 17, 2018
The Great Gatsby Final
Is Tom most responsible for Gatsby’s death? Daisy? Myrtle? Gatsby himself? Give reasons why or why not each
character is implicated in the murder/death of Gatsby
When looking at this question at first, we are forced to realize that the the death of
Gatsby has multiple killers. It’s interesting when it is first looked at, but we must understand
that there are Direct Influencers V.S. Indirect Influencers. The more Direct Influencers were
indeed Mr. Tom Buchannan, but there are also small contributors. Before we start pointing
fingers, we have to take a look at the bigger picture in order for us all to understand clearly just
who was responsible. Let’s start analyzing the characters, and how they affected the
unfortunate assassination of Jay Gatsby.
First and foremost, I want to touch on the idea that Tom Buchannan is responsible. On
the night when Jay Gatsby and Nick, as well as Tom, and Daisy were all in Toms apartment, Tom
began mocking Gatsby’s intelligence by asking Gatsby and calling him out on being a fraud.
When Tom began pouring himself a drink, he clinked his glass with Gatsby’s (who was
tremendously irritated for being called out by Tom for being a fraud) whom then lost his
patience with Tom, and nearly punched him. When Gatsby finally recovered from the bulling of
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Tom Buchannan, he and Daisy left to go back to Toms House. On their way, and while Daisy was
driving, Myrtle, who was evading her husband, she ran out in the middle of the road in order to
attempt to Flag down who she thinks is Tom Buchannan, and Daisy doesn’t stop, which she
proceeds to run Myrtle down. When Buchannan arrived to the scene later, and when the
police had the portion cut out, he there saw his mistress lying dead. When George Wilson
catches eye of Tom, he then suspects immediately that he was the person responsible for the
death of Myrtle. As Wilson ran to Tom to confirm his suspicions, Tom subdues Wilson in order
to clear his name for himself. He then says basically that Gatsby is responsible for the death. He
is able to convince Wilson of this because he mentions that the car that was identified as yellow
wasn’t his, it was Gatsby’s. He also adds that Myrtle may have been having an affair with
Gatsby, even though it was Tom who was having the affair. Sadly, and much to Jay Gatsby’s
demise, Wilson finds himself heartbroken, and vengeful. Wilson then finds his way to Gatsby’s
home, and while Gatsby was swimming, Wilson shot, and killed Gatsby. Shortly after words,
Wilson took his own life. When we look back to this tragic moment in the book, we are still led
to believe that Tom Buchannan was the more direct cause of Gatsby’s Death, and you are not
wrong. He did tell Wilson that Gatsby was driving the car, and then lied and told him that
Gatsby was also having an affair with Myrtle. This is a key reason as to why Tom is the most
responsible for Gatsby’s death. Not only did tom tell Wilson that is was all Gatsby, but he
basically told Wilson to avenge his wife! So, in Fact, Tom Buchannan is the main cause of
Wilsons sanity to break, forcing him to take drastic actions, and kill Gatsby and take his own.
This could’ve been all avoided if tom just told the truth, but he didn’t. And because of this, it
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costed Gatsby his life. The next person is also a noticeable culprit. Now we have to start reading
between the lines and identify who was the silent killer. Daisy.
Daisy Buchannan is hands down, one of the most deceptive characters of the book. Not
even Wolfshiere would be able to compare to what Daisy has to hide. She is the very “Other
Half” of Tom Buchannan. After Gatsby Perishes by the hands of Wilson, Daisy doesn’t attend
the funeral that was held for him. She basically disowns him and she leaves with Tom. Similarly,
Tom Buchannan denies any relationship with Myrtle and renounced her when she died. Daisy
did the same thing. Daisy cheated on Tom with Gatsby because she liked the thrill, but she
would never go through marrying him because of the amount of money Gatsby had. The same
reason Tom didn’t marry his mistress, Myrtle. They affairs were with that of different classes,
and they both disowned and went back with each other to do the same thing they had done in
Chicago. Leave their problems. Daisy had all loose ends tied. She knew Gatsby wouldn’t tell a
soul about her being the actual culprit for running over Myrtle. She knew that Gatsby would
take it to his grave in order to protect her. Gatsby dies, and so she could leave. Tom didn’t have
a mistress after the death of Myrtle, as well as Wilson being dead so he wouldn’t be suspected
still. They are both practically the same character, just different ways of concealing who they
really are. Daisy could have told Tom that she ran over Myrtle or she could have told Wilson,
but because she used Gatsby to kill Toms Mistress, we not only learn that daisy is just as
psychotic as Tom, but also that she is a very deceptive character, and the whole “beautiful girl
with marital issues” was a whole big façade and a sham in order to catch the reader off guard.
Daisy, while not necessarily being a direct candidate for Gatsby’s death, she could have
prevented it all from happening. But she didn’t, because she didn’t love Gatsby. There may
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have been a time in the past when she found herself falling for him, but 5 years have passed,
and she found herself wed to the rich Tom Buchannan. They had a daughter together. They
loved each other. To bring it back to the hotel, while things were intensifying, Daisy responded
to Gatsby’s request to tell Tom that she never loved him by saying ‘I did love him once? But I
loved you too.”(p.132). this is when Gatsby dies figuratively. His heart and his soul are left there
with those words. Her actions were defined after running over Myrtle and this led to Gatsby’s
demise. Later after the hit when Gatsby still lingers near the house of the Buchannan’s, he
reveals to Nick the truth of what happened. “Daisy stepped on it (the gas pedal). I tried to make
her stop, but she couldn’t.” (p.144). Daisy also mentions to the group eating initially over at
Gatsby’s’ that she wanted to go into town. She was the one who bring up going into town. Like
with incidences like Daisy’s, it’s easy to see how everyone could be the leading cause of
Gatsby’s death. But while everyone is either a suspect, or the direct cause, we must also figure
that the fault might be of his own.
Gatsby was in love. Ever since the day he met Daisy, he had been head over heels for
her. When Daisy meets Gatsby, he is a sergeant class in the military. Sadly, just as they began to
wonder of their future together, Gatsby was shipped off to war. Devastated, Daisy (like a child)
goes off on a fit and begins seeing other people until Tom Buchannan fell into her life. He was
the first wealthy man that she found, so they went ahead and got married; even though we
learn right afterwards tom gets into a wreck with one of the maids in his car. Whatever the
case, just before the wedding Daisy gets another one of Gatsby’s letters that tells her basically
that Gatsby will begin to make a name for himself so he and Daisy can get married. This is the
first major indicator that Gatsby is overly infatuated with Daisy. Even when he learns that she is
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married with Mr. Buchannan, he still persists and believes that they can have a future together.
I strongly believe that Gatsby was too blinded by love to be able to see what game Daisy was
playing with Gatsby. Daisy Framed Gatsby, and used the infatuation he felt for her to cover her
tracks. Gatsby was to blinded by love to be able to see that daisy was just using him the whole
time. So he was entirely responsible for his own passing. He could’ve discovered Daisy for who
she really was if he just caught on to her act. All of the followed events could’ve been
prevented if only Gatsby stopped seeing the girl he saw 5 years ago, and started seeing the girl
who wouldn’t want to marry him, or the girl who savagely ended the life of another.
All in all, there are a lot of things that could’ve gone differently, but its useless to say
that Gatsby, Nick, Daisy, and Tom could’ve done something to stop Gatsby from dying, because
it all happened. The leading cause of Gatsby’s death was Wilson. He is the killer. But of course
we have all of the factors that contributed to the cause of Wilson’s sanity to crack. We have
tom, who blamed Gatsby for the death of Myrtle to Wilson, Leading him to believe it was all
Gatsby’s fault, we have Daisy who used Gatsby in order to spite Tom and make herself look
better, and we have Gatsby himself, who allowed his person to be manipulated as he chased a
fantasy that he never got over. Who was so infatuated with someone, he couldn’t see what she
had become. And while we’re pointing fingers, I’m saying that the past killed Gatsby. That’s
what his motives were fueled by, right? That’s the whole reason that he was there in the first
place. After this and more, almost everyone is to blame for Gatsby’s death. But no one more
than Gatsby himself.