Character Analysis
Baby Warbucks
When Blue meets Gansey for the first time, she isn't impressed by his suave ways or taken in by his handsome features. Nope, she immediately thinks that he's a rich snob and can't imagine how she would ever fall in love with him. That's because Gansey is a rich private school boy who can be condescending and "stupid about money" (Adam's words) without meaning to be:
Fuel was leeching slowly into Gansey's expensive chinos, the second pair he'd ruined in a month. It wasn't that he meant to be careless—as Adam told him again and again, "Things cost money, Gansey,"—it was just that he never seemed to realize the consequences of his actions until too late. (2.38)
Gansey comes from an old-money family and it shows. He owns his own apartment, tries to pay people for their time (which gets him a scathing take-down from Blue), and thinks nothing of spending truck-loads of money. He spends a lot of time trying to separate himself from his money and his father in particular, but he can't help where he comes from… he's still a boy from a very wealthy, privileged background.
A True Blue Friend
He may seem like a rich snob, but arguably Gansey's most noble trait is his fierce loyalty to his friends. He's surrounded himself with a small group of friends that he would do anything for, and he didn't choose them because they were popular or rich like him:
This was why Adam could forgive that shallow, glossy version of Gansey he'd first met. Because of his money and his good family name, because of his handsome smile and his easy laugh, because he liked people (and despite his fears to the contrary) they liked him back, Gansey could've had any and all of the friends that he wanted. Instead, he had chosen the three of them, three guys who should've, for three different reasons, been friendless. (4.87)
Instead, he chooses his friends because he sees something valuable in each of them… even if they don't see it in themselves. And he'll go through anything in order to help his friends. He goes hunting for Ronan after he has an argument with Declan, bribes the school to not expel Ronan when he fails his classes, and continually offers to let Adam move in with him. He even remains friends with Noah after he finds out that he is a ghost. That's kind of a big deal.
Man on a Mission
Gansey is the kind of kid with a trust fund so big that he could coast along without doing anything for several lifetimes. But that's just not his style; Gansey has to do something with his life to make it meaningful. So ever since he received a vision that he was saved from death in order to find Glendower, he's been on a mission to do just that:
She asked, "And that's enough to make you spend your life looking for Glendower?"
Gansey replied, "Once Arthur knew the grail existed, how could he not look for it?"
Thunder growled beneath them again, the hungry snarl of an invisible beast.
Blue said, "That's not really an answer."
He didn't look at her. He replied, voice terrible, "I need to, Blue." (28.94-98)
Gansey knows that this quest is going to define his life, and so he's indefatigable when it comes to working toward this goal. He even chooses to move to Henrietta and attend Aglionby in order to further his search for the ley lines and for Glendower. He's not about to give up anytime soon, and his hard work pays off—at the end of the book, he learns that Glendower is indeed buried somewhere along the ley line that they discover in Henrietta. Boo ya.