The Great Gatsby
Tom Buchanan
Daisy’s husband
A rich, powerfully built former football star who is used to getting his own way, and who has a mistress in New York.
Tom is a sturdy, straw-haired man of thirty with a hard mouth and a confident, superior manner. He knew Nick in college and now lives in East Egg on old money, with polo ponies and strong opinions about civilization. He lectures dinner guests on a book about race and takes calls from his mistress during meals.
Tom is a hypocrite. He expects Daisy’s loyalty while carrying on with Myrtle Wilson, and he treats everyone beneath him as a tool. He is also more observant than he lets on. He senses at once that Daisy and Gatsby are in love, and he sets out to protect what he thinks is his.
“You’re crazy! Daisy loved me when she married me and she loves me now!”
In the story
Contains spoilers.
Tom takes Nick to meet Myrtle and, in a fit of anger at her mention of Daisy, breaks her nose. When he sees Gatsby with Daisy at a party he calls Gatsby a bootlegger. At the Plaza he questions Gatsby’s Oxford story, then reveals his ties to Meyer Wolfsheim, which frightens Daisy back toward him.
After Myrtle dies, Tom tells Wilson that the yellow car was not his. He later admits to Nick that he told Wilson who owned it. Nick sees him on Fifth Avenue months later and concludes that Tom and Daisy are careless people who retreat into their money.
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