Daisy's Character in a Novel The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby is a novel written by the American author F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1925. He was desiring to produce something new, extraordinary, beautiful, simple, and intricately patterned as he said, but it received mixed reviews and poorly sold. However, the novel experienced a revival during World War II, and became a part of American high school curricula and numerous stage and film adaptations in the following decades. Today, The Great Gatsby is widely considered to be a literary classic and a contender for the title "Great American Novel" (en.

wikipedia.org).The novel tells the story that happens in the summer of 1922. It is narrated by Nick Carraway, who moves to gain money from Minnesota to New York, West Egg, which is a fictional place, where new rich people live to be Jay Gatsby's neighbor.

The last lives in gigantic gothic mansion and throws extravagant parties every Saturday night. On the other hand we have East Egg where old money people live.

Get quality help now

Writer Lyla

Verified writer

Proficient in: Free Essays

5 (876)

“ Have been using her for a while and please believe when I tell you, she never fail. Thanks Writer Lyla you are indeed awesome ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

Daisy Buchanan and her husband Tom are living there in there luxury house with their three-old daughter. Daisy is Nick's cousin but they are not really close to each other. One day he goes to have a meal with them. He mentions by chance that he is Gatsby's neighbor which surprises Daisy. After that Tom take him to meet Myrtle "his mistress-. After a while Gatsby starts to be closer to Nick by inviting him to one of his parties, and then he discovers that Gatsby was in love with Daisy in the past and Gatsby wants to get her back that she left him for money and he has money now.

Again By Miss Jordan Baker's help, he convinces Nick to help him and calls Daisy to tea. The plan works. She comes, meets Gatsby, sees his house, gets their memories back, and the spend time together. Gatsby then starts to stress her to leave Tom and stay with him, but things go unlike he wants until they meet each other face to face, Gatsby, Daisy, Nick, Tom, and Jordan.

When Daisy refuses to tell Tom that she never loves him, Gatsby turns angry and asks Daisy to leave with him in his car. In the way, an accident happens and the mistress is killed by Gatsby's car which was driven by Daisy. Tom goes back home and set with Daisy. After that they decide to leave the town while Gatsby is waiting for her call. Gatsby tells Nick about the whole story between him and Daisy. Tom tells Wilson "Myrtle's husband- that the yellow car that causes his wife's death is Gatsby's, so he goes to his mansion and kills him. Nick and jay's father are the only people who attend Jay's Funeral. Wolfsheim who is Gatsby's partner in the illegal works empties the house. At the end Nick decides to return home.Daisy in The Great Gatsby is partially based on Fitzgerald's wife, Zelda, Daisy is a beautiful rich young woman from Louisville. She was described as she has a good voice when Nick says " I looked back at my cousin, who began to ask me questions in her low, thrilling voice. It was the kind of voice that the ear follows up and down, as if each speech is an arrangement of notes that will never be played again" (Fitzgerald, 1925).

There's a "singing compulsion," an "arrangement of notes" that makes men wild. It's full of promises, hints that wonderful things are on the horizon. her magnetic voice is a central point about her more than her physical appearance that Nick talks about it much later in the novel, " Now and then she moved and he changed his arm a little and once he kissed her dark shining hair" (Fitzgerald, 1925). Like Zelda Fitzgerald, Daisy is in love with money, ease, and material luxury. She is capable of affection, but not of sustained loyalty or care. She is indifferent even to her own infant daughter, never discussing her and treating her as an afterthought when she is introduced in Chapter 7. In Fitzgerald's conception of America in the 1920s, Daisy represents the amoral values of the aristocratic East Egg set. Daisy has many traits in the novel. In somehow, she is the center of the novel but we don't know quite a lot about her inner thoughts, feelings, and desire's. She is considering as the most disappointing and frustrating character in the novel. She is manipulative, freeloader, confused, and money lover. Daisy shows, on numerous occasions, that she only has one thing on her mind which is herself. She wants things her way and she wants people in her favor. She doesn't know how to get what she wants in the right way and doesn't care when she hurts people in the wrong way.

Daisy only cares about Daisy and proves how manipulative, selfish, and confused she is about not only her life but the people involved in her life. Daisy is disappointing character. We as readers expect very much from her. One situation can be very representative that when Gatsby dies I was shocked that Daisy never called, sent flowers, or went to the funeral since she "loved" Gatsby. We do not know why she didn't go or called, but I think if she really wanted to, she could have. Not going to the funeral shows how Daisy was primarily attracted to the money, not Gatsby, and that she did not actually love him. If Daisy truly loved Gatsby for himself, she would have been so distraught over his death that she would have tried to reach out to Nick in some way, but she doesn't. This final scene shows Daisy's new colors, not of white, but of selfishness, egotism, and obsession with money.

Another situation that when she couldn't give a clear answer about the person that she wants to stay with in the hotel scene. She answered "Oh, you want too much!" she cried to Gatsby. "I love you now " isn't that enough? I can't help what's past." She began to sob helplessly. "I did love him once " but I loved you too." (Fitzgerald, 1925)Also she is selfish character. Daisy shows her confusion of life when she say that the best thing a woman can be is a beautiful fool because it allows them to get what they want without truly trying to see what's right in front of their eyes. Daisy set a standard for how she would live her life and followed it, although it wasn't necessarily the best decision to make. " I'm glad it's a girl. And I hope she'll be a fool”that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool." (Fitzgerald, 1925). This deeply pessimistic comment is from the first time we meet Daisy in Chapter 1. Next to that, when she left the hotel, she was driving Gatsby's car, she hits Myrtle and kills her, but she doesn't care or go back to ask about her. Gatsby took the blame for it without being told too.

Daisy didn't say anything and went back to Tom. Daisy doesn't care about Gatsby anymore; she just keeps leading him on, in the hopes of getting back at Tom for his infidelity.She is manipulative. Many senses in the novel show Daisy as such. Daisy shows her manipulative side to Tom in this quote when Nick invites her to tea. She speaks as if she is being playful, but there is some resentment behind her tone. "Don't bring Tom" Nick said. Who is Tom'?' she asked innocently." (Fitzgerald, 1925). Another one in which Daisy Buchanan shows her manipulative side is when she is in the same room as Tom and Gatsby and refuses to choose a side. She is aware of both of their affection towards her yet plays games by not choosing a direct side by allowing Gatsby to believe she wants to be with him but not telling Tom her feelings for Gatsby.She is a money lover and materialistic. Daisy, in the past, left Gatsby when he went to fight in the war for a money reason. Daisy married Tom because she saw him as an 'achievement'. Tom showered Daisy with gifts, and the only reason she married him was because of what he represented. She loves Tom because Tom gives her security in everything she enjoys and wants.

Despite loving Gatsby, and attempting to call off her wedding to Tom, Daisy finally marries him because she knows that she won't have to live sparingly', as Tom can provide her with every materialistic thing she could ever want, and will be able to protect her from the harsh world with his money. Whereas Gatsby, a poor soldier, couldn't give her any of these things. "In June she married Tom Buchanan of Chicago, with more pomp and circumstance than Louisville ever knew before. He came down with a hundred people in four private cars, and hired a whole floor of the Seelbach Hotel and the day before the wedding he gave her a string of pearls valued at three hundred and fifty thousand dollars." (Fitzgerald, 1925). Another example: "It makes me sad because I've never seen such -such beautiful shirts before." This quote proves Daisy's materialism. It is not the abuse she sees which makes her sad. Instead, a simple shirt makes her sad.

The beauty of the shirt should not impact her the way it does. Again, Daisy brings up the fact that she had seen and done everything. The idea is that she had not seen a specific shirt before illuminates her materialistic nature.(enotes.com, 2019). Furthermore, Gatsby explicitly ties Daisy and her magnetic voice to wealth. This particular line is really crucial, since it ties Gatsby's love for Daisy to his pursuit of wealth and status. It also allows Daisy herself to become a stand-in for the idea of the American Dream. We'll discuss even more about the implications of Daisy's voice below. Gatsby: "Her voice is full of money," (Fitzgerald, 1925).Rather than take initiative, Daisy relies on others to make decisions for her. She lacks self-direction. At the novel's climax, the love triangle between Daisy, Tom and Gatsby explodes when Gatsby demands that she renounce her love for Tom. Daisy becomes quickly overwhelmed and retreats inward, unable to speak for herself. Alcohol allows Daisy to take control before her wedding when she breaks the pearls Tom gives her and refuses to marry him, according to Linda C. Pelzer. Once the influence has passed, though, she gives in to her family's demands and is the ceremony's "radiant guest of honor." (Pen and the pad.com, 2019).

Daisy may be a married woman with a child, but she doesn't seem like she's managed to grow up very much. She can't live with the consequences of her actions, trying to change her mind on the night before her wedding, and then being unable to make up her mind between Tom and Gatsby: "I did love him once," she says, "but I loved you too"(Fitzgeraled, 1925). Also when she kills Myrtle by hitting her with the car, she couldn't take the responsibility of this, and could be a good example of this.Daisy has a role in the flow of the events. She has a number of functions in the novel. She represents a form of symbolic capital and also represents a certain insincerity of the upper classes. An object of romantic interest, she is also a person with her own romantic ideals and aspirations. On a symbolic level, Daisy represents wealth. Her voice is "full of money" and she is the person that Gatsby and Tom each desire to attain (and/or keep) as a sign of their own achievement and wealth. She is, then, a symbolic property; a suggested sign of material prosperity. We can see this aspect of Daisy's character in a number of instances in the text, but none more telling than in Gatsby's specific ambition.

Daisy is more than just an object of desire, however. She is expressive of the basic insincerity and haughtiness of the rich. She cries over Gatsby's shirts in a scene that suggests she could have been happy with Gatsby and regrets marrying Tom. Gatsby has turned out to be, by example of these shirts, rich enough for her. She is the love interest of Jay Gatsby, who builds his mansion for her, and views her East Egg home from the point of its green light.The Evaluation of the importance of Daisy's character as a woman can take many ways. Daisy Buchanan objectified by several men and is not resistant to the objectification. With her lack of personality and beautiful looks, she has lost all identity through the desire for the veneer of glamour and wealth.

The character of Daisy is made up of this image that everyone else has of her exists only as a fragile veneer, a shinning radiance of Gatsby's construction. The centerpiece of Tom's wealth " ( Ivan Strba ) she is constantly being refereed to objects rather than a person , a center piece ' is the idle way to describe her, as they are pretty to look at, but there is nothing to them, they are simply there to look good, Daisy has no identity and tends to hide behind the men, especially Gatsby and Tom. Daisy's love for Gatsby is uncertain, this makes her a dislikable character as it creates frustration for us the reader, as she doesn't have nerve or the sprit to pursue it , You could say that Daisy is scared to be with Gatsby as he is from West Egg , which was seen as the place of new money this could bring her doubt as she wouldn't want to risk the life style she has now as Gatsby's money is new, whereas Fast Egg was almost like certain money from inheritance etc. Also Tom places doubt in her head about Gatsby's money certainly not for a common swindler who'd have to steal the ring he out on her finger" , this could most definitely influence Daisy's hesitance towards the life with Gatsby as she just wants life for herself. (phdessay.com, 2010)