Characters in The Great Gatsby, Ranked by Intelligence
There are just some times when you’re laying in bed at, say, 11:30 at night, and you just have the thought:
Who is the “smartest” character in The Great Gatsby?
I guess when I say “you,” I really mean “me", and now I feel like I need to conclusively determine who the sharpest tool in the shed is. This list is both entirely subjective and completely correct. Let’s do this.
7. Tom Buchanan
Is anyone actually surprised by this? If you write a character that’s supposed to represent everything wrong with upper-class society, of course you’d end up with this jerk. Many of the characters in this list have some level of complexity, but Tom is really an outlier in that he’s so consistently unlikable. He’s the kind of person that you can’t really get comfortable around — you’re always quietly wondering when he’ll drop the next epithet and praying for any merciful being to smite you out of existence. Next, please?
6. Nick Carraway
Well, we’re at least out of the realm of evil people.
I have a feeling that me putting Nick this low is sort of a hot take, so let me explain. My problem with Nick isn’t that he’s dumb, per se, but that he isn’t really anything at all. For so much of The Great Gatsby, it can feel like Nick is just the walking pair of eyes that we see the world through. Perhaps more than any other character, Nick is the one who has the plot “happen to” him.
When you exist as a commoner in a world full of multi-millionaires, it’s hard to stand out, and Nick really…just doesn’t. In the grand scheme of things, he’s sitting on neutral.
5. Myrtle Wilson
One of the main marks of “intelligence” for me in The Great Gatsby are characters’ ambitions. Do they have a goal? Do they work toward achieving it? Do they get what they want in the end?
Okay, that last one was a joke. No one in this book gets what they want. But as far as the first two criteria, Myrtle is a top-notch contender. Her entire story arc revolves around her desires to live an upper-class lifestyle, but she is continually thwarted and eventually killed for them. As the book’s only poor woman, she gets thrown into a lot of bad situations, which really sets her back in the plot and down on this list. Nothing against her — the book just doesn’t give her the means to realize her own ambition.
4. George Wilson
In a lot of ways, George is sort of sitting in the same boat as his wife here. Thanks to the book’s realistic depiction of class struggles, he doesn’t get the opportunity to advance himself very often. Still, though, he should be commended for the work he does do to earn a living. He owns an auto shop and seemingly makes decent enough money.
Another credit toward George, however macabre, is that he’s the one who eventually shoots and kills Gatsby. THE Gatsby! Admittedly, it’s an entirely unjustified killing, but you’ve got to recognize that level of commitment. You go, George!
3. Jay Gatsby
Gatsby is indisputably the most upwardly mobile character in this entire book. He starts as a poor soldier, and works his way up, making money, and eventually arrives at the top of society. He hosts weekly parties at his mansion. He desperately wants to earn the love of Daisy Buchanan, and very nearly does! Why is he number 3?
Two problems: 1) he earns millions of dollars via illegal bootlegging, and 2) he gets capped by the end of the book. So that’s not great. If either of those statements weren’t true, I’d be happy to put him in the top spot, but F. Scott Fitzgerald just had to write a tragically flawed protagonist.
By the way, bonus ranking: if you’re looking for somewhere to put Meyer Wolfsheim, Gatsby’s partner in crime, I’d recommend placing him right here.
2. Daisy Buchanan
Here she is, the primary love interest of the novel! At first glance, Daisy seems like a complete airhead, but throughout The Great Gatsby she demonstrates a level of emotional complexity unparalleled by her fellow characters.
I have in mind, specifically, her dialogue regarding the birth of her daughter. To paraphrase, upon hearing that the child she gave birth to was a girl, Daisy wept. She says that she hopes her daughter will be a beautiful, stupid fool. That’s powerful, and it demonstrates the intense awareness Daisy has of her own situation.
1. Jordan Baker
Jordan is the epitome of the classic “flapper” woman — liberated, sexual, smokes and drinks, everything. What really makes her this book’s “smartest character” is her career as a golfer. By her own admission, she cheats at the game and gets away with it! If this were a ranking of morality, she’d be bottom-of-the-barrel, but Jordan knows what she wants and knows how to get it.
It also helps that Jordan is one of the less important main characters. Because she doesn’t just show up all the time, we don’t typically see her flaws. But still, above all the other main characters, she exhibits extreme drive to succeed and backs it up with success, making her quite likely the smartest character in The Great Gatsby.
image credit: “Gatsby” by Larry Yeiser is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.
