Daisy's Death In The Great Gatsby

The Roaring Twenties centers around jazz music, women getting jobs and taking on new roles, and theater. Theater is most prevalent in The Great Gatsby throughout Daisy’s personality and society as she is known to take on several roles. Daisy takes on the independent woman role when she invites Nick over for dinner, but shows the helpless little girl when she thinks of herself as a cynic and hopes her daughter will be a fool. For example, at the apartment in New York, Daisy “hesitated. Her eyes fell on Jordan and me with a sort of appeal, as though she realized at last what she was doing—and as though she had never, all along, intended doing anything at all” (Fitzgerald 132). Daisy finally realizes that she is caught between Tom and Gatsby,
Whether this destruction is mental, emotional, or the ultimate destruction, death, Daisy contributes to it. Daisy only comes in contact with Myrtle Wilson once in the novel, which is the last time due to the car accident when Daisy hits and kills Myrtle. Although Myrtle’s death is tragic for her husband, George, the man she has an affair with, Tom, and other people who knew her, her death itself is not what brings about the controversy of Daisy’s character. Rather, it is the fact that Daisy is at fault because she is driving; however, she lets Gatsby take the fall for her mistake. In the novel, Nick sums up his disgust for Daisy and Tom, which has been building throughout the novel, by saying, “They were 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 had made” (Fitzgerald 179). It is this depiction of Myrtle’s death that creates controversy over Daisy, who lacks the courtesy to turn the car around. This causes Nick to be disgusted by Daisy, but Gatsby to become even more protective over her. According to Person, shortly after the car accident, Daisy retreats back into her money in which “Nick and Gatsby progressively devitalize Daisy 's symbolic meaning until she
However, for Gatsby the ultimate destruction is the loss of faith for Daisy and his platonic ideal of her. This idea of Daisy is the most important thing that Gatsby has that keeps him alive and motivated to live; therefore, death for Gatsby is a way out of the miserable life that he would have without Daisy. By the end of the novel, Gatsby “knew that Daisy was extraordinary, but he didn’t realize just how extraordinary a “nice” girl could be. She vanished into her rich house, into her rich, full life, leaving Gatsby—nothing” (Fitzgerald 149). Daisy walks out of Gatsby’s life just as fast as she walks into it with no remorse for any damage that she causes. This lack of care is what leads to Gatsby’s mental and emotional destruction, despite his actual murder by George Wilson. On the other hand, Witkoski argues that it is “this willful blindness [that] helps lead to his destruction” (Witkoski). It is not Gatsby’s blindness and idealism for Daisy that causes his destruction, but rather Daisy taking advantage of this dream he has of her. Whether Daisy does not fully understand Gatsby’s infatuation with her or neglects to take it seriously, it causes tremendous damage. It is this attitude and influence from society that creates controversy over Daisy’s character in pondering her real motives throughout the