Who Was Responsible For Gatsby's Death

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Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, tells the story of a young man, Jay Gatsby, chasing the love of his life in hopes that they will rekindle their relationship. Due to the fact that this love of his, Daisy Buchanan, is already married, there are many bumps and bends along the way. Eventually their relationship is restored for a short period of time before Daisy admits that she loves her husband Tom Buchanan. This news angers Gatsby who yearned for a chance to be with his lost love. In the end, Jay Gatsby is wrongfully killed for a crime that he did not commit. Many factors contributed to the death of Gatsby, but Daisy holds the most responsibility for his death. Jay Gatsby died a man wrongfully accused: he did not kill Myrtle Wilson yet he paid the penalty for …show more content…
Daisy drove the car that killed Myrtle Wilson. She did not stop the car when she realized she collided with a person, instead she continued driving caring very little about the person she just hurt, “Daisy stepped on it. I tried to make her stop but she couldn’t” (Fitzgerald 144). Daisy knew that Gatsby would be blamed for Myrtle’s death because it was Gatsby’s car that hit her. No one knew that Daisy was responsible due to an earlier miscommunication in the story,which lead George Wilson, Myrtle’s husband, to believe that the car that hit his wife belonged to Tom Buchanan, Daisy’s husband and the man that Myrtle was having an affair with. This miscommunication placed the blame on Tom who quickly removes the blame from himself, “That yellow car I was driving this afternoon wasn’t mine— do you hear? I haven’t seen it all afternoon” (Fitzgerald 140). Later in the story, Tom learns the truth about who killed his mistress, but in order to protect his wife and, by association, his reputation, he reveals the owner of the car, Gatsby, who is then killed by George Wilson. Daisy allowed Gatsby to take the fall for her mistake which is the reason he