The Great Gatsby v. Death of a Salesman Analytical Essay Cards – Flashcards

Gatsby and Willy are examples of such modern tragic hero because of their tragic flaws which then results in their downfall, and ultimate tragic death.

Willy and Gatsby's disillusioned vision of happiness represents their tragic flaw because in their pursuit of it, they lose track of their happiness, confusing it with greed.

"The man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead. Be liked and you will never want."

"Afterwards, he kept looking at the child with surprise. I don't think he had ever really believed in its existence before." P74

Both Willy and Gatsby's downfalls truly come about because they make critical errors in their lives, which they attempt to fix in the future.

"She's nothing to me Biff. I was lonely, terribly lonely."

"Can't repeat the past?...Why of course you can!"

The insignificance of Gatsby and Willy's lives is illustrated through their lack of accomplishment and sense of reality in the times and societies they lived in. Gatsby had justified his need for wealth by believing that it would bring Daisy back to him.

"I've got to get some seeds. I've got to get some seeds, right away. Nothing's planted. I don't have a thing in the ground."

"Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy's dock....his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him."

Despite coming from two distinct walks of life, both Gatsby and Willy fell prey to their own desires to achieve something that had already been lost to the past. Their fates allow one to conclude that living in the past can never help a person that must live for the future. But, because they have tied their happiness to the past, they could never be happy in the future, and unless they would be willing to let go.