After reading The Great Gatsby, I started to compare Gatsby with Jane in the book Jane Eyre for their similarities. Both books are telling a love story happening between two young men. The Great Gatsby is a story about a young and poor man falling in love with a girl named Daisy. However, after he gets back from the war, he finds the girl already married to a wealthy man. He thinks it is because of his poverty. In order to get back his girl’s heart, he makes money in illegal ways and dies because of his infatuation in the end. Jane Eyre tells a story about an orphan who has a miserable childhood fighting for equality and finally harvesting happiness and love. Their stories are similar in some ways. One of their similarities is that they do bear serious, deep, and sincere love and passion to their lovers. But the two stories have different endings.

The first huge difference is the two men’s concept of wealth. Both have a huge gap of wealth and social status with their lovers. For Jane, she does not care about this gap. Jane thinks no matter how much money and how high status a person has, everyone is equal, and should be treated equally. The words Jane says show this: Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! - I have as much soul as you, - and full as much heart! (Brontë Charlotte 239) Therefore, she does not care about the gap between her and her lover. She uses her virtues, not her wealth or appearance to attract Rochester. By contrast, Gatsby considers wealth the most important part in his relationship with Daisy. He contributes to the fact that Daisy marries with others due to his poverty, so he makes money through illegal trades and tries to get Daisy’s heart back with his wealth.

Their second difference is their personality. Jane’s personality is easy to understand. Jane has a miserable childhood, so she is strong-willed and kind. However, Gatsby’s characteristics are more complicated. A sentence in the book shows this: He was a son of god - a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that - and he must be about His Father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. (Francis 64) Gatsby regards himself as the son of the god, however, at the same time he is self-abased. He tells a lie about his family - he says he comes from a rich family whose members have died and is well educated at Oxford University, and tries to hide the fact that he comes from a poor family and makes illegal trades. He is afraid that people will find out the truth of his family.

The third difference is the two characters’ concept about love. Jane pursues true love. She wants to marry a person whom she loves and who loves her, too. Therefore, she refuses her cousin’s and Rochester’s proposal at first, because her cousin does not love her and just thinks she would be a good wife for a pastor and Rochester already has a wife. By contrast, Gatsby only wants to get Daisy’s heart back no matter she loves him, or she loves his money. He is so besotted with Daisy that though he has found out that Daisy does not love him, he still loves her and finally dies because of his love.

Jane is kind, strong-willed, and always fights against equalities. Though she is not wealthy, nor is she good-looking, she gets true love and happiness in the end. Gatsby is wealthy and has an aristocratic feature, but he is infatuated with a wrong person and puts money in a too high place. Therefore, he finally dies because of his obsession. Gatsby’s tragedy is unfortune but fated. These differences lead the two stories to have a totally different ending.