Meyer Wolfsheim

Meyer Wolfsheim is a small, flat-nosed Jewish gambler with luxuriant nostril hair and tiny eyes, a denizen of Broadway who fixed the 1919 World Series. He is Gatsby's business partner and the man who "made" Gatsby, raising him "up out of nothing, right out of the gutter." Wolfsheim represents the criminal underworld that Gatsby cannot escape, and his refusal to attend Gatsby's funeral reveals the cold pragmatism of that world.

Identity and Appearance

Wolfsheim is introduced at lunch in a Forty-second Street cellar, where Nick Carraway meets him as "a small, flat-nosed Jew" who raises "his large head" and regards Nick with "two fine growths of hair which luxuriated in either nostril." His tiny eyes are barely visible in the half-darkness. He wears cuff buttons made of "finest specimens of human molars," which he proudly displays. He speaks with a distinctive accent, referring to a "business gonnegtion" and to Gatsby as an "Oggsford man." He is fifty years old and becomes "very sentimental sometimes," with a "tragic nose" that trembles when he is moved.

Criminal Career and Partnership with Gatsby

Wolfsheim is the man who fixed the 1919 World Series, an act that staggered Nick when he learned of it: "It never occurred to me that one man could start to play with the faith of fifty million people—with the single-mindedness of a burglar blowing a safe." Gatsby explains that Wolfsheim "just saw the opportunity" and that "they can't get him, old sport. He's a smart man." Wolfsheim himself recounts the night they shot Rosy Rosenthal at the old Metropole, a story that reveals his deep involvement in organized crime. He describes how he tried to keep Rosenthal inside, but Rosenthal went out onto the sidewalk and "they shot him three times in his full belly and drove away." Wolfsheim's business is conducted through the Swastika Holding Company, and he employs a hostile secretary named Stella who guards his office. He took Gatsby in when Gatsby was a young major just out of the army, "so hard up he had to keep on wearing his uniform because he couldn't buy some regular clothes." Gatsby hadn't eaten for two days, and Wolfsheim took him to lunch, where Gatsby "ate more than four dollars' worth of food in half an hour." Wolfsheim claims, "I made him," and describes their partnership as being "so thick like that in everything—always together." He got Gatsby to join the American Legion, where Gatsby "used to stand high there." Wolfsheim's influence extends to Gatsby's household: when Gatsby fires his servants to prevent gossip about Daisy's visits, he replaces them with "some people Wolfsheim wanted to do something for," who are "all brothers and sisters" who "used to run a small hotel." The chauffeur who hears the shots that kill Gatsby is "one of Wolfsheim's proteges."

Relationship with Gatsby and Nick

Wolfsheim regards Gatsby with genuine admiration, calling him a "fine fellow" who is "handsome to look at and a perfect gentleman." He notes that Gatsby is "very careful about women" and "would never so much as look at a friend's wife." When Nick first meets Wolfsheim, Wolfsheim mistakes him for a potential business connection, but Gatsby quickly corrects him: "this isn't the man." Wolfsheim seems disappointed. At lunch, Wolfsheim drinks his coffee "with a jerk" and leaves, saying he belongs to "another generation" and won't impose himself. After Gatsby's death, Nick calls Wolfsheim's office repeatedly but gets no answer. He sends a letter urging Wolfsheim to come to the funeral, but Wolfsheim replies with a note expressing shock—"This has been one of the most terrible shocks of my life to me"—but stating he "cannot get mixed up in this thing now." He adds a hasty postscript: "Let me know about the funeral etc. do not know his family at all." When Nick visits the Swastika Holding Company in person, Wolfsheim initially hides behind a partition, then emerges solemnly, holding out both hands. He reminisces about meeting Gatsby and claims, "I raised him up out of nothing, right out of the gutter." But when Nick asks him to attend the funeral, Wolfsheim refuses: "When a man gets killed I never like to get mixed up in it in any way. I keep out." He explains his rule: "Let us learn to show our friendship for a man when he is alive and not after he is dead. After that my own rule is to let everything alone." His eyes fill with tears as he shakes his head, but he is determined not to come.

Thematic Significance

Wolfsheim embodies the criminal foundation of Gatsby's wealth and the moral corruption of the Jazz Age. He is the hidden hand behind Gatsby's fortune, the man who fixed the World's Series and who operates through a network of drugstores and illegal enterprises. His refusal to attend Gatsby's funeral—despite his sentimental memories and tears—reveals the cold pragmatism of the criminal world, where self-preservation trumps loyalty. Wolfsheim's presence in the novel underscores the impossibility of Gatsby's dream: the wealth that Gatsby uses to pursue Daisy is tainted from its source, and the man who made Gatsby cannot be separated from the man Gatsby became. Wolfsheim's final absence from Gatsby's grave is as telling as his presence at Gatsby's rise.