Who are the villains and heroes in Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby?

This question is a little more complicated than it might seem. At first glance, the heroes and villains of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel seem pretty obvious: Gatsby is the protagonist and the hero, while Tom is the antagonist and villain. The novel, however, isn't as simple as that, and the characters are often a complex amalgamation of both heroism and villainy.

Gatsby, for example, is an unabashed materialist who's earned his money by illegal and...

This question is a little more complicated than it might seem. At first glance, the heroes and villains of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel seem pretty obvious: Gatsby is the protagonist and the hero, while Tom is the antagonist and villain. The novel, however, isn't as simple as that, and the characters are often a complex amalgamation of both heroism and villainy.

Gatsby, for example, is an unabashed materialist who's earned his money by illegal and dishonest means. Based on this characteristic, it would be easy to call him a villain. However, he's also quite the idealist, he genuinely loves Daisy, and he also selflessly takes the blame for a hit-and-run accident he had nothing to do with. By themselves, these qualities would be considered heroic, but it's hard to call them that when they're also combined with the aforementioned negative qualities.

It's obviously difficult to say anything positive about Tom, as he's pretty generally a bully and a misogynist. However, if we're going to condemn Tom for having an affair, shouldn't we also condemn Gatsby and Daisy? After all, they too have an extramarital affair, and it seems inconsistent to praise them while condemning Tom. Along the same lines, though Nick is often thought of as the moral compass in the novel, shouldn't we also condemn him for facilitating Gatsby and Daisy's affair? And don't forget that Daisy, the idealized love interest, selfishly allows Gatsby to take the blame for Myrtle Wilson's death. 

In short, the characters in the book are complicated. Though Gatsby could be considered the classic hero and Tom the classic villain, these classifications are a little too simple. Rather, it would be more accurate to say that all of the characters (excluding Tom, of course) exhibit both heroic and villainous qualities, and so they can be either heroes or villains, depending on the moment.