The character of Tom, in the novel The Great Gatsby ,is a very interesting character to analyze. He is a hypocrite, with out any doubt, but at the same time he is not such a bad guy. He does, however, have some good in him. Some of his actions can also be explained, if you take a close look into the novel, and compare him to everyday people.
Tom is not the devil, because he does not have a completely bad nature. When you read the story you can see that he really does love Daisy. He is not so willing to give her up when he and Gatsby argue over her in chapter seven. He knows that they have had a deep past together, but he did not really appreciate it until somebody else wanted her. He also defends Daisy's respect when Myrtle keeps repeating her name in chapter 2. You also have to respect him for not completely losing his temper and fighting Gatsby, or hitting Daisy, when he found out about the whole cheating incident, although it seemed kind of cowardly the way he did it.
For the most part, Tom is a pretty bad guy. He hits women and does serious damage when he does it. He broke Myrtle's nose intentionally, and that was supposed to be his "lover". He did not have any remorse when he did it either, and he was not concerned one bit about her. More importantly, he cheated on his wife, and that just shows total disrespect for her and the relationship. Furthermore, the woman he was sleeping with was his friends wife! Then he got mad at Daisy when he found out about her and Gatsby, which makes him the biggest hypocrite in the story. You just do not know what you have until it is gone, or until you think you are about to lose it. Adding even more to his heartlessness, Tom snitched on Gatsby to Wilson. It was not even Gatsby's fault but he was killed anyway, because of Tom. When Nick met him on the street after everything had blown over, Tom did not even feel sorry about being the cause of Gatsby"s death.
