Tom Buchanan
Tom Buchanan is the principal antagonist of The Great Gatsby, a figure of immense inherited wealth and physical power whose casual cruelty and rigid class prejudice embody the moral emptiness of the old-money elite. As the husband of Daisy Buchanan and the lover of Myrtle Wilson, Tom's actions—from his public affair to his brutal confrontation with Gatsby and his final, deliberate act of misdirection—set in motion the chain of events that culminate in tragedy. He represents the careless, destructive force of entrenched privilege, a man who smashes up lives and retreats into his money.
Identity and Background
Tom Buchanan is introduced as a man of formidable physical presence and enormous inherited wealth. A former football star at Yale University, where he was "one of the most powerful ends that ever played football" and a "national figure in a way," he reached an "acute limited excellence at twenty-one that everything afterward savors of anti-climax." His family was "enormously wealthy—even in college his freedom with money was a matter for reproach." Now thirty, he has a "sturdy straw-haired" appearance, a "rather hard mouth and a supercilious manner," and "two shining arrogant eyes" that give him the look of "always leaning aggressively forward." His body is described as "capable of enormous leverage—a cruel body." He and Daisy have moved from Chicago to East Egg, bringing with them a string of polo ponies, and he has installed a mistress, Myrtle Wilson, in an apartment in New York City. His restless, drifting nature is suggested by the observation that he would "drift on forever seeking, a little wistfully, for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game."
Brutality and Infidelity
Tom's affair with Myrtle Wilson is conducted with a flagrant disregard for social discretion. He appears with her in popular restaurants, leaving her at a table while he saunters about chatting with acquaintances. He forces Nick Carraway to meet her, literally pulling him off a train at the Valley of Ashes. The relationship is marked by Tom's physical violence: during a drunken party at their New York apartment, when Myrtle repeatedly shouts Daisy's name, Tom makes "a short deft movement" and breaks her nose with his open hand. The scene leaves Myrtle on the couch, "bleeding fluently," while bloody towels litter the bathroom floor. Tom's control over Myrtle is absolute, and he treats her husband, George Wilson, with contempt, calling him "so dumb he doesn't know he's alive." He lies to Wilson, claiming Myrtle visits her sister in New York, and strings him along with promises of selling him a car.
Racist Ideology and Class Prejudice
Tom is an adherent of racist pseudo-scientific theories, which he uses to justify his own sense of superiority. At dinner at his mansion, he erupts into a tirade about "The Rise of the Colored Empires," declaring that "the white race will be—will be utterly submerged" unless they "look out." He insists these ideas are "all scientific stuff; it's been proved," and proclaims himself a "Nordic." This intellectual posturing is exposed as hollow by Daisy's mocking asides. His class prejudice is equally pronounced. He sneers at Gatsby as a "Mr. Nobody from Nowhere" and a "common swindler," and when he and Daisy attend one of Gatsby's parties, he is openly contemptuous, asking, "Who is this Gatsby anyhow? Some big bootlegger?" He later tells Nick, "A lot of these newly rich people are just big bootleggers, you know." His disdain for Gatsby's world is palpable; he finds the entire spectacle of West Egg vulgar and threatening.
Confrontation with Gatsby and the Unraveling
The central crisis of the novel occurs when Tom confronts Gatsby at the Plaza Hotel. Having already sensed the connection between Daisy and Gatsby, Tom is "astounded" when Daisy tells Gatsby she loves him. He launches a vicious attack, exposing Gatsby's criminal background: "You're one of that bunch that hangs around with Meyer Wolfsheim... He and this Wolfsheim bought up a lot of side-street drug-stores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter." He calls Gatsby a "common swindler who'd have to steal the ring he put on her finger." The confrontation breaks Daisy's resolve; she admits she loved Tom once, and Tom, sensing victory, dismissively sends her home with Gatsby, declaring, "I think he realizes that his presumptuous little flirtation is over." After the confrontation, Tom drives Nick and Jordan back to Long Island, exultant and laughing, but his mood shifts when they encounter the scene of Myrtle's death.
Culpability and the Final Act
Tom is directly responsible for the deaths that conclude the novel. After Myrtle Wilson is killed by Gatsby's car (driven by Daisy), Tom, at the garage, tells George Wilson that the yellow car belongs to Gatsby. Nick later confronts Tom on Fifth Avenue, asking, "What did you say to Wilson that afternoon?" Tom admits, "I told him the truth... He came to the door while we were getting ready to leave... He was crazy enough to kill me if I hadn't told him who owned the car." This act of deliberate misdirection sends Wilson to Gatsby's house, where he murders Gatsby and then kills himself. Tom shows no remorse for his role, insisting, "That fellow had it coming to him. He threw dust into your eyes just like he did in Daisy's, but he was a tough one. He ran over Myrtle like you'd run over a dog and never even stopped his car." Nick's final judgment is damning: "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."
