Daisy Buchanan is The Great Gatsby’s most troubling and perhaps most disagreeable character. The Great Gatsby, written by American Author F. Scott Fitzgerald is a 1925 novel that chronicles the lives of characters living in the fictional town of West Egg. The novel mainly concerns the young millionaire Jay Gatsby, and his desire for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan. Some describe Daisy as self-absorbed and selfish, yet she’s also labeled as attractive and effervescent. One of the central conflicts throughout the novel is Daisy’s choice between Gatsby or her recent husband, Tom. As the story progresses, more of Daisy’s real character is revealed and slowly she becomes less than ideal. By the end of the novel, Daisy shows her true colors and proves …show more content…
Rightfully so, he is admired by all in New York. Residing in an elegant mansion in West Egg, Gatsby is extremely wealthy, with a huge swimming pool, a fancy car and dozens of servants. However, all the luxuries in the world couldn’t satisfy his desire for the one that got away, Daisy Buchanan. Gatsby is infatuated with Daisy and the thought that he may someday reconnect with her. When Gatsby first met Daisy in Louisville, he had to lie about his wealth and social status in order for him to win Daisy’s heart. After Gatsby left for the war he knew that he must be rich upon his return if he were to marry Daisy. So Gatsby dedicated his life to making a fortune through unlawful ways in order to buy Daisy’s love. She has been dealing with her husband’s continuous infidelity, which is always lingering at the back of her mind. After five years, Daisy and Gatsby reconnect at Nick’s tea party, which proves to be very awkward in the beginning, but by the end, the two are talking as if they had never been apart. After meeting Daisy at the tea party, Nick states, “there was a change in Gatsby that was simply confounding. He literally glowed; without a word or a gesture of exultation a new well-being radiated from him and filled the little room” (Fitzgerald 71). Gatsby longs for the day that they can be together again and share their lives with one another. Throughout most of the novel, Gatsby views Daisy as a striking, …show more content…
Nick more or less sees her as a lighthearted friend, while Gatsby remains infatuated with her from start to finish. He is blinded by her extravagance and manipulative behavior, so much so that he is not able to see her for who she truly is. E. Ray Canterbery explains, “Gatsby lacks the maturity to realize that Daisy cannot be obtained by money alone and in a vulgar display of conspicuous consumption, he flaunts his nouveau wealth” (300). Although Daisy initially treats Nick and Gatsby with respect, she proves that once again, money and social status come first. At Gatsby’s funeral, Nick remembers, “without resentment, that Daisy hadn’t send a message or a flower” (Fitzgerald 174). By the end of the novel, Nick gains a full understanding of who Daisy has become, an inconsiderate, selfish woman. In a few instances, Gatsby and Nicks opinions of Daisy correlate, for example when Gatsby remarks “her voice in full of money” (Fitzgerald 96). Nick finally understands. He new there was something about her that he was missing and Gatsby’s remark was exactly what he was searching for. All things considered, Gatsby and Nick don’t view Daisy the same. Gatsby is blinded by his love for her and is unable to see her true colors while Nick gets a front seat to Daisy’s deceitful
“ Its attitude is one of disillusionment and detachment; Fitzgerald is still able to evoke the glitter of the 1920s but he is no longer dazzled by it; he sees its underlying emptiness and impoverishment” (Trendell 23)The story is narrated from the point of view of Nick, one of Gatsby’s friends. The problematic and hopeless romantic, Gatsby, sets out to fulfill his dream in acquiring Daisy, his lifelong love, through his many tactics and ideas. Gatsby is introduced extending his arms mysteriously toward a green light in the direction of the water. Later, Gatsby is shown to be the host of many parties for the rich and Nick is invited to one of these parties where Gatsby and Nick meet. When Gatsby later confesses his love for Daisy he explains she was a loved one who was separated from him and hopes to get her again explained when he says, “I hope she'll be a fool -- that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool”(Fitzgerald 56). There are several obstacles that Gatsby must overcome and the biggest one that is Daisy’s current fiancé but that still does not get in the way of him trying to recover Daisy’s old feelings. His attempts are made through money and wealth because he tries to buy her love back instead of letting it happen naturally.
The character of Jay Gatsby was a wealthy business man, who the author developed as arrogant and tasteless. Gatsby's love interest, Daisy Buchanan, was a subdued socialite who was married to the dim witted Tom Buchanan. She is the perfect example of how women of her level of society were supposed to act in her day. The circumstances surrounding Gatsby and Daisy's relationship kept them eternally apart. For Daisy to have been with Gatsby would have been forbidden, due to the fact that she was married. That very concept of their love being forbidden, also made it all the more intense, for the idea of having a prohibited love, like William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, made it all the more desirable. Gatsby was remembering back five years to when Daisy was not married and they were together:
Daisy broke the promise she made to Gatsby when she told him she would wait for him. She ended up marrying Tom Buchanan, which also became the father of her child. She refers to her daughter as beautiful and gullible. She thinks women are just a pretty pawn in a man’s world (Fitzgerald). Gatsby set a goal that he would win Daisy back and would not give up on it until he achieved it. The attraction between Gatsby and Daisy is what causes her to be the one that allows him to fall into the love of his vision. There is not much detail that there is romance is this book but Fitzgerald allows us to see that she is not really what Gatsby sees her to be (Pidgeon).
He wants to marry her,but because of this problem to reach her standards. Once he reaches his goal of gaining the appropriate amount of wealth,he buys a house which is close to hers “Gatsby bought that house so Daisy would be just across the bay(p83).”He throws huge,extravagant parties,in hope that she might happen to show up at one of them. Gatsby does not actually even attend these parties,as he is not much of a socializer,instead he only watches them from a distance,inside his house. After a while Carraway,the narrator of the novel,who is a cousin of Daisy. After some discussion Nick agrees to set up a meeting between Gatsby and Daisy.
When he first meets Daisy, Gatsby becomes infatuated with his idea of her, or rather, the false persona that she creates of herself. In fact, Gatsby reveals that “she was the first ‘nice’ girl he had ever known” (155). Gatsby was so impressed with Daisy mainly because of her wealth and her status; it is what he wants. However, Daisy chooses Tom Buchanan over Gatsby, solely because of his social status. As a result, Gatsby revolves his whole life around her: he becomes wealthy, creates a new image of himself, and buys a house across the bay from Daisy. For instance, he fabricates lies about how “ [he is] the son of some wealthy people in the middle-west” (69) and how “ [he] was brought up in America but educated at Oxford” (69) in order to impress her. These lies end up altering others’ perspectives of him - not necessarily in a positive way - and impacting his life as a whole. Daisy unwittingly transforms Gatsby into a picture-perfect image of the 1920s: lavish parties, showy cars, and a false illusion of the attainment of the American Dream. Despite Gatsby’s newfound wealth and success, he never fully accomplishes his dream: to get Daisy. Gatsby’s final act for the sake of Daisy has no impact on her feelings towards him. When Gatsby claims that he crashed into Myrtle and killed her, Daisy carelessly lets him do so, which ultimately results in his death. To make
In The Great Gatsby, James Gatz is a poor boy who falls in love with a beautiful, eccentric millionaire named Daisy Fay. In an attempt to gain her affection, he quickly recreates himself to mimic her wants in a man. He finds ways to be near her, even after she is married, and moves into the West Egg of Long Island. When Daisy and Gatsby finally meet again, the romanticism is short lived. After many nights together, Daisy prepares herself to tell her husband, Tom, that she is leaving him for Jay Gatsby. In the end, she panics and plans on dropping the topic, but a quick glance with Gatsby gives her feelings away. Daisy wants to ignore her feelings, but she fails to move past her relationship with Gatsby, which becomes evident to her friends. In the end, she chooses to stay with her husband despite her feelings; she does this because she believes that change would only cause more problems. Gatsby is crushed by her actions, but fails to realize the true extent of them. He continues to pester her with hopes of rekindling a relationship that ended years ago, but she refuses, and immediately moves away with Tom. This action drives Gatsby mad, and his utter devotion for Daisy is the last thought on his mind when Wilson kills him. Sara Teasdale, a poet in the 1900s, is scared of this kind of commitment; she knows that love for another will only bring about her own demise. Faced with depression and an illness that leaves her bed-ridden for much of her life, she is heavily dependent on others to survive. She becomes close with few friends because she does not want to burden them. When she must choose between two lovers, she picks Ernst Filsinger, despite her affection for another, just as Daisy does. These actions leave not only herself hur...
To begin with, Gatsby’s love for wealth and aristocracy that he has seen as an essential part of his life even during his childhood is what drives Gatsby to pursue Daisy. This is largely due to the fact that Daisy typifies everything that Gatsby desires; the aura around Daisy is one of social grace and opulence that is prevalent among the socially elite. In a specific scenario Nick reflects on a conversation he had with Gatsby concerning Daisy’s voice alone. He states that her “inexha...
Her sequence of lies leads George Wilson to believe, senselessly, that this was all Gatsby’s fault. The shame of the affair eventually compels Wilson to shoot Gatsby and then commit suicide. Daisy, could have owned up to her mistakes and saved Gatsby’s life, but for Daisy Fay Buchanan, self-preservation is far more valuable than personal merit. This in fact proves “the greatest villain in the Great Gatsby is in fact Daisy herself, for her wanton lifestyle and selfish desires eventually lead to Gatsby’s death, and she has no regards for the lives she destroys” (Rosk 47). Nevertheless, Nick Carraway sees right through her disturbing ways and reflects upon the Buchanan’s. After Nick ponders a thought he muttered “They are careless people Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they made” (Fitzgerald 170). Many people see Daisy Buchanan as a poised, pure, and elegant woman who is happily married; however, few like her cousin, Nick Carraway, suffer from knowing her true self: careless, deceptive, and selfish. Daisy is able to use money to get her out of every situation she runs
Apparently being wealthy is not all Gatsby wants, but also wants love from Daisy. He loves her so much he wants her to break Tom’s heart and come with him. This man is clever and cold hearted like Lord Voldemort and Sauron. Jordan glanced at Nick and told him in a calm tone, “Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay” (Fitzgerald 78). Gatsby’s way of being in love with Daisy is to be a creepy stalker, never giving her space and always spying on her.
Daisy Buchanan, in reality, is unable to live up the illusory Daisy that Gatsby has invented in his fantasy. After Daisy and Tom Buchanan leave another one of Gatsby’s splendid parties, Fitzgerald gives the reader a glimpse into what Gatsby’s expectations are. Fitzgerald claims that “he wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and say: ‘I never loved you.’” (109). Here it is revealed that Gatsby’s one main desire is for Daisy to go willingly...
At the end of the book, it is revealed that all of Tom, Daisy, and Nick are extremely careless. Nick’s carelessness detriments his reliability as a narrator. Because of Nick’s deep and familiar connection with Gatsby, Gatsby is “the exception” and Nick cannot be a reliable narrator towards him. Nick really admires and appreciates Gatsby as a friend, although it seems that Gatsby may not feel nth same way ads Nick. Gatsby may have befriended Nick solely because of his connection with Daisy. Nicks obsession with Gatsby and Gatsby’s obsession with
Daisy’s original impression of Gatsby is evident in her early letters to him, “...he had deliberately given Daisy a sense of security; he let her believe that he was a person from much the same stratum as herself- that he was fully able to take care of her” (149). Daisy loved Gatsby under the false hope that they belonged to the same social class. She grew up surrounded by riches, never working a day in her life, and she could not comprehend the struggles of a man who must work for the food he eats each day. Daisy knew that she must marry when she is beautiful, for being a beautiful rich girl of good social standing was her highest commodity and most valuable chip in marrying well. In order to live a secure life, she had to find someone the had the means to provide for her extravagant lifestyle, and the deep care for her that would allow Daisy to do as she pleased. The only definition of love Daisy knew was one of disillusioned power and commitments under false pretenses in order to keep the wealthy continually rich. Daisy acknowledges the false pretenses of marriage for the wealthy in how she describes her daughter’s future. She tells Nick, “‘And I hope she’ll be a fool- that’s the best thing a girl can be in this
Daisy Buchanan seems ethereal in The Great Gatsby. For Jay Gatsby, she is the reason he made his fortune. However, Daisy is not as pure or as innocent as Gatsby makes her out to be. About five years prior to the setting of the novel, Gatsby and Daisy fell in love with each other. Gatsby had then been sent off to war, but now he returns to win back his love, Daisy. Unfortunately for Gatsby this is an impossible task because while Gatsby was away, Daisy married Tom Buchanan, an arrogant aristocrat. Daisy successfully wields power in her society through marriage and attains higher social status. Daisy will never leave T...
Gatsby downfall came when he sacrificed his morality to attain wealth. Gatsby realises that the illusion of his dream with Daisy, demands wealth to become priority, and thus wealth becomes the desire overriding his need for her [Daisy’s] love. Gatsby claims to others that he has inherited his wealth, but Nick discovers "[h]is parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people" (Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, pg 104) and that Gatsby has lied about his past. In a society that relies on luxuries, Gatsby throws parties to attract Daisy’s attention. Also, Gatsby expresses that same need to keep busy, just as Daisy does, in a society of the elite. Nick describes Gatsby as "never quite still, there was always a tapping foot somewhere or the impatient opening and closing of a hand" (Fitzgerald, pg 68). Gatsby fills his house "full of interesting people...who do interesting things" (Fitzgerald, pg 96). Gatsby's dream is doomed to failure in that he has lost the fundamental necessities to experience love, such as honesty and moral integrity.
“Guided only by Nick’s limited view of her, readers often judge Daisy solely on the basis of her superficial qualities” (Fryer 43). What the reader sees through the eyes of Nick only appears as a woman whose impatience and desire for wealth and luxury cost her the love of her life, Gatsby. Nick’s narrow perception does not allow one to see that “. [Daisy’s] silly manner conceals a woman of feeling or that her final ‘irresponsibility’ towards Gatsby stems from an acute sense of responsibility towards herself” and that Nick “.clearly does not understand what motivates her” (Fryer 43).