The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald Characterising Gatsby Gatsby We see Gatsby through Nick’s perspective and this necessarily clouds our understanding of his character. You are going to work in groups to pull together various aspects of Gatsby’s character, with support for your ideas from the text, so that we can make some analysis of how Fitzgerald presents Gatsby through Nick’s eyes. • To begin with, how does Fitzgerald shape the narrative of the text to suggest to us that Gatsby is important? Think about the decisions made regarding the sequence of events in the story and the title. • Now think back over the ways in which an author can present a character to us and construct and complete a table like the one below. Technique Does it apply to the characterisation of Gatsby in The Great Gatsby? What does Fitzgerald suggest about Gatsby using this technique? How the character is named The character’s appearance The character’s speech habits The character’s actions The character’s motivation What the character thinks What others say about the character What others think about the character • Now think about Nick and how Fitzgerald uses his character to present Gatsby. Make notes on: a) what Nick admires about Gatsby b) what aspects of Gatsby’s character that Nick condemns. • Identify the places in the novel where we see other characters’ perspectives on Gatsby and make notes on what these other perspectives suggest to us about Gatsby. © 2009 www.teachit.co.uk 11903 Page 1 of 1