The Great Gatsby

Jay Gatsby is shot and killed in his swimming pool by George Wilson, who then turns the gun on himself and takes his own life.

Gatsby’s death grows out of a chain of misunderstandings and misplaced blame. After Myrtle Wilson is killed by a car, her husband George becomes convinced that the driver was both her lover and her murderer. The car involved belongs to Gatsby, and Tom Buchanan deliberately tells Wilson that Gatsby was the one driving it. In reality, Tom’s wife Daisy was behind the wheel, but Gatsby chooses to take responsibility and protect her.

Still clinging to the hope that Daisy will leave Tom, Gatsby refuses to leave town, even when it becomes clear he could be in danger. He waits for a call from her that never comes, holding onto “some last hope” rather than facing the truth.

Meanwhile, Wilson—grief-stricken and unstable—tracks Gatsby down. Mistakenly believing Gatsby to be both Myrtle’s lover and killer, he shoots him while Gatsby is floating in his pool. Wilson then kills himself nearby.

Gatsby’s death exposes the moral emptiness around him. He dies protecting Daisy, who retreats back into her life with Tom, untouched by consequences. The guests who frequented his house vanish, and almost no one attends his funeral. His end turns his dream into a kind of tragedy: he built his life around acquiring wealth to win back Daisy’s love, but he’s destroyed by the careless world he tried to join.