The Great Gatsby, Fitsgerald

Forms of power are ubiquitous in The Great Gatsby. It's the ability to control others, resources or events. It might lead to a conflict between those who have power and those who don't.

In GG, violence is extremely important since it's ubiquitous and since it stands for a form of power.

Primarily, Tom is the most violent character of the whole novel as much as he is the most unlikable person. He tries to take the power and to control everyone by showing violence.

In the first extract of The Great Gatsby, Tom is the only one who speaks during the fifty five lines, although he just utters a few sentences. We can see it on line 31 ''I've got a nice place here”, on line 36 “It belonged to Demaine, the oil man” and on line 37 ''We'll go inside”. It emphasizes the fact that he tries really hard and deeply wants to be the leader of the game as the novel begins. We can underline that Tom perfectly fits to the definition of what power is, wince he wishes to control, to dominate every thing and every being such as his horse, his women, his clothes or even his friends. As a matter of fact, on lines 129 “paternal contempt” is evoked so it means that he tries to control his friends. Then, on line 22-23, “he seemed to fill those glistening boots until he strained the top lacing” puts to the fore the fact that he tries to control his clothes. He is symbolized by the red colour which puts to the fore his aggressiveness as we can see it on ll 6 “brick walks and burning gardens”, “bright vines” on ll 7.

His aspect and the impression that he conveys also emphasize the violence of this character.

Indeed, the portrait of Tom renders him pretty aggressive; “a rather hard mouth” on lines 16 - 17, “always leaning aggressively forwards” on lines 19-20 or even “it was a body capable of enormous leverage- a cruel body”.

The impression that he conveys put to the fore the fact that Tom is capable to show a lot of violence. Indeed, on line 17 “a supercilious manner”, on line 18 “arrogant eyes”and on lines 37-38 “some harsh wistfulness of his own”, the list is not exhaustive. It also accentuates the fact that he desires to use people like pawns on a chessboard and to dominate the whole world.

As a consequence, Tom is, in this extract, presented as the only violent person since Nick doesn't speak, its portrait is not described and same goes for his physical aspect. He stands for a threat towards the first person narrator in this excerpt.

However, in the second extract, Tom has a more double-edged role. First of all, the atmosphere is also more violent I quote “day was broiling, almost the last, certainly the warmest of the summer” on page 120 and the text evokes that it's the dog days. As a matter of fact, it straighten the fact that the atmosphere is sultry. Besides, the feeling of violence is emphasized since all those events take place on a whole Monday (from morning to night).

Secondarily, it's pretty obvious that Tom had carried out an investigation before talking to Gatsby so it reinforces the fact that he has an ambiguous role since he's more seen in this extract as a lawyer, as someone who wants to punish other people because they don't respect the law (at a first level of understanding at least). During this extract, he proceeds to a cross-examination. I quote on line 1 “By the way, Mr Gatsby, I understand you're an Oxford man.”, on line 15 “I'd like to know when” or on lines 31-32 “I want to ask Mr Gatsby one more question”.

In this excerpt, Tom is way more considered as a man who is able to experience human feelings such as hatred for his male rival or even jealousy towards Gatsby. He also suffers from an inferiority complex, I quote on lines 8-9 “Tom's voice incredulous and insulting” which explains why he's so obsessed to know the truth about Gatsby and Oxford. Moreover, all the negatives prefixes such as “incredulous” or “insulting” on lines 6-7 put to the fore the highly negative opinion that Tom has on Gatsby. As a consequence, his psychological side is way more stressed out in this excerpt and he's regarded as someone who has a brain, for once. I quote on lines 19-20 “ Tom glanced around to see if we mirrored his unbelief.” Those lines show that Tom have the ability to get hurt.

However, Tom is also very violent in the second excerpt. His violence is emphasized because Gatsby is present and they seem to involve themselves on a cock-fight since the beginning and especially on line 36 “they were out in the open” It seems like either Gatsby or Tom have to murder the other in order to gain Daisy's love, they're fighting for the same female. The crisis has reached such a pitch that the fight is uninterrupted by the waiter on ll 10.

Tom's violence increases when his wife, Daisy, tell him to “have a little self-control” (ll 40), it's the last straw that broke the camel's back. He then becomes very grotesque since he calls the eponymous hero “Mr Gatsby” (ll 1, 31 and 64), “Mister nobody from nowhere” on ll 42 & 43. As in the first excerpt, he monopolizes the conversation. Besides, he degrades Tom since he refers to him as a grocery man. (on ll 94-96)

Daisy is the contrary of Tom, she keeps her calm and never screams. Indeed, in this excerpt, she tries to hide the truth (that she had an affair with Gatsby) “smiling faintly” on ll 27 by making Tom drinks “open the whisky” on ll 28, “I'll make you a mint julep” on ll 27-28. She fails since Tom doesn't open the whisky on line 28 so she keeps silent during 45 lines, she gets more and more embarrassed “interrupted helplessly'' on ll 60, “why don't we all go home?” ll 61. She is manipulated by Tom and become a mere topic of conversation, a nonentity “sit down Daisy” on line 78, “paternal note” on line 69 puts to the fore the power that Tom has on Daisy.

Furthermore, Daisy is like a puppet manipulated by Nick and Tom and the latter makes a fool of herself. When Nick says that she only loved him on line 69 until 72, I quote “She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me. It was a terrible mistake, but in her heart she never loved anyone except me!” and “the trouble is that sometimes she gets foolish ideas in her head and doesn't know what she's doing” on lines 100 to 102.

Daisy (in this excerpt) is an ambiguous character since she never intended to do anything at all “her sort of appeal” shows us her lack of determination yet, as we have seen before, she's very embarrassed by those events I quote “-how could I love him- possibly?”

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