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Many critics of The Great Gatsby believe, as John Chambers (1989) does, that Jay Gatsby “has a vitality and potential for intense happiness” (p. 115). A few critics, of whom Bettina (1963) is typical, believe that the best than can be said of Gatsby is that he is “a self-made phony” (p. 141). Obviously, those who admire Gatsby find Nick Carroway to be a reliable narrator, and those who deplore Gatsby's character believe Nick to be so morally obtuse that his ideas about Gatsby cannot be trusted. Critics who admire Gatsby, as well as those who do not, adduce a great deal of evidence to support their views. There is probably not a single image, act, or statement in this short novel that has not been subjected to extensive analysis in support of both the admiring and the denigrating view of Gatsby. There is at least one item lacking, however, in criticism of the novel, and that is a clincial profile of Gatsby's personality. My thesis is that the novel contains insuperable evidence that Gatsby is a pathological narcissist who by the end of the novel has lost the will to live. I do not delude myself with the belief that Fitzgerald critics the world over will welcome a psychoanalytic study of Gatsby. Nevertheless, the analysis that I propose to do provides an original context for examining Gatsby's death by comparing it with the death of the classical Narcissus. I will not deal with arguments that exonerate and praise Gatsby except, as noted above, to acknowledge their existence.
I realize that Gatsby is not merely a sick character who can be dismissed after diagnosis. The complexity and richness of The Great Gatsby resists any one approach. The analysis presented here is intended to analyze Gatsby in clinical terms only. It does not attempt to describe his entire personhood.
Although The Great Gatsby has been so widely read that its plot is virtually common knowledge, I will supply the following brief summary. With Nick's help, Gatsby arranges a reunion with Daisy Buchanan,