Trimalchio in West Egg - Wealth, Death, and the Theater of Decadence in The Great Gatsby and the Satyricon

This paper explores the thematic parallels between F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Petronius’s Satyricon, focusing on their depictions of class anxiety, performative wealth, and the decadence of societies in decline. Through the mirrored figures of Jay Gatsby and Trimalchio, both works illustrate the existential instability of new money figures who strive for legitimacy in civilizations marked by moral decay and aesthetic excess. The paper situates these texts in their respective cultural contexts—the reign of Nero in imperial Rome and the Roaring Twenties in post-war America—arguing that both narratives critique the hollowness of inherited status, the cruelty of aristocratic indifference, and the tragic futility of material transcendence. Symbols of music, wine, gold, and death become shared languages of spectacle across centuries. Ultimately, both Gatsby and Trimalchio emerge not as cautionary figures, but as mournful icons of longing—men undone by the very opulence they orchestrate.