Student Question
Why are Wilson and Gatsby from The Great Gatsby considered sympathetic? What differentiates them?
Quick answer:
Wilson and Gatsby are sympathetic because they are the victims of Tom and Daisy Buchanans' selfishness. Wilson simply wants to run a successful business and earn his wife's respect, and Gatsby works diligently (if not legally) to earn enough to "buy" Daisy's love and the respect of Old Money society.
Most readers sympathize with George Wilson and Jay Gatsby because for the most part they are the victims of Tom and Daisy Buchanans' reckless selfishness. George loses his wife, whom he truly loves, to Tom's fickle relationship with and false promises to her. Similarly, Gatsby loses Daisy--the embodiment of all that he wants in life--to Tom twice, once when he went off to war and again when the careless couple flees East Egg to rid themselves of the trouble that they created. Fitzgerald also evokes pity from his readers for the two men when he reveals their dreams and the annihilation of those dreams. Wilson simply wants to run a successful business and make something of himself to keep his wife happy and to earn her respect, and Gatsby works diligently (if not legally) to earn enough to "buy" Daisy's love and the respect of Old Money society. Of course,...
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neither man realizes his dream and dies violently instead.
While Wilson and Gatsby's similiarities appear in Fitzgerald's characterization of them as sympathetic characters, the two men are also grossly different. Wilson is a dreamer who does not seem to have enough ambition or business connections to be successful. In contrast, Gatsby sets goals for himself and sets out to accomplish them by any means necessary. Wilson's passive personality is juxtaposed against Gatsby's energetic, almost rabid ambition.
Ironically, in the end, Wilson takes Gatsby's life, but he is not solely responsible. Just as Daisy Buchanan takes all that is precious away from Wilson by smashing Myrtle with the car, she also drains all that she can from Gatsby before making her escape, leaving him with nothing.
How are Wilson and Gatsby similar and different? Who does Nick sympathize with more?
Concerning your question about Gatsby and Wilson in The Great Gatsby, the enotes Study Guide on the novel says this about Wilson:
George Wilson
George Wilson feels henpecked by his wife Myrtle. A victim of circumstance, he has a poor life and can only work to make a living and must ask the man who is having an affair with his wife, Tom Buchanan, for a car with which to move away. Full of anger and frustration about his wife's disloyalty, Wilson acts on his impulses and kills someone who is just as much a victim of the Buchanans as he. According to Nick, “he was a blonde, spiritless man, anemic, and faintly handsome. When he saw us … hope sprang into his light blue eyes.” He is a true product of the wasteland between the suburban world of wealth and New York City.
Comparing and contrasting Wilson with Gatsby is a bit tricky. One can logically compare Tom with Gatsby, but comparing Wilson to Gatsby is like "bringing a knife to a gunfight," as the cliche goes. Wilson is a minor character and Gatsby is the giant of the novel. And Wilson certainly can't be cited as a foil to Gatsby: he locks Myrtle away when he suspects her of seeing someone else, and resorts to murder and suicide when she is the victim of an accident.
Wilson is cuckolded by his wife, lives in a wasteland, eeks out a living, and seems somewhat ignorant.
Gatsby is a self-made millionaire, went to university, loves purely and loyally, is intelligent, and dominates the novel.
Perhaps both men are victims of women, as well as the Buchanans, but that's pretty much where any similarities end.
In The Great Gatsby, how are Wilson and Gatsby similar and different?
Wilson and Gatsby are both men of working-class roots. Tom Buchanan treats each one with contempt. He is having an affair with Wilson's wife, Myrtle, and is constantly jerking Wilson around—for instance, to have an excuse to come to the garage and make plans with Myrtle while Wilson is not looking, Tom pretends to have a car to sell him.
Although Gatsby is much wealthier than Wilson, Tom also treats him with contempt. He knows instantly that Gatsby is not born of his social class, and he is disdainful of Gatsby's lavish parties when he finally attends one with Daisy. When he finds out Gatsby is having an affair with Daisy, Tom characterizes him as a low-life, criminal grifter.
Both men have their lives wrecked by the Buchanans. Daisy thoughtlessly runs over and kills Myrtle and doesn't even stop the car. Tom tells Wilson that it was Gatsby's car that ran over Myrtle, implying that Gatsby was driving it. This causes Wilson to kill Gatsby and then himself. As Nick comments,
They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.
Nick is far more sympathetic to Gatsby, who captures his imagination by daring to dream big.
Jay Gatsby and George Wilson are similar in that both of them attempt to achieve the American Dream: the idea that a person can begin with little to nothing, and, through hard work and perseverance, that person can prosper and achieve financial and personal success. Both men try to achieve this dream honestly, and both fail. Wilson continues to try to pursue the dream by honest work, and he just cannot get ahead. Gatsby seems to have decided honest work didn't benefit him much, so he turned to bootlegging (the production, distribution, and sale of illegal liquor during the era of Prohibition). In this way, then, the men differ: they take different paths in their attempts to reach the American Dream; however, they are similar in the fact that neither of them successfully attains it.
Nick seems, in the end, more sympathetic to Gatsby, if for no reason other than that Wilson kills Gatsby for committing a crime he did not commit. Ironically, Gatsby committed a number of other crimes for which he went unpunished, but murdering Myrtle Wilson isn't one of them. Gatsby's fundamental ability to maintain hope that he would, one day, have everything he'd ever dreamed granted him a kind of innocence that Nick seems to admire.