The Character of Daisy Buchanan in the novel – The Great Gatsby – byF.Scott Fitzgerald
Daisy is The Great Gatsby’s most enigmatic, and perhaps mostdisappointing, character. Although Fitzgerald does much to make her acharacter worthy of Gatsby’s unlimited devotion, in the end shereveals herself for what she really is. Despite her beauty and charm,Daisy is merely a selfish, shallow, and in fact, hurtful, woman.Gatsby loves her (or at least the idea of her) with such vitality anddetermination that readers would like, in many senses, to see her beworthy of his devotion. Although Fitzgerald carefully builds Daisy’scharacter with associations of light, purity, and innocence, when allis said and done, she is the opposite from what she presents herselfto be.
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From Nick’s first visit, Daisy is associated with otherworldliness.Nick calls on her at her house and initially finds her (and JordanBaker, who is in many ways an unmarried version of Daisy) dressed allin white, sitting on an “enormous couch . . . buoyed up as though uponan anchored balloon . . . [her dress] rippling and fluttering as it[she] had just been blown back in after a short flight around thehouse.” From this moment, Daisy becomes like an angel on earth. She isroutinely linked with the color white (a white dress, white flowers,white car, and so on) always at the height of fashion and addressingpeople with only the most endearing terms. She appears pure in a worldof cheats and liars. Given Gatsby’s obsession with Daisy and thelengths to which he has gone to win her, she seems a worthy paramour.
As the story continues, however, more of Daisy is revealed, andbit-by-bit she becomes less of an ideal. Given that she is fully aw…
…kills Myrtle Wilson, and then leaves thescene, readers know (as poor Gatsby still does not) that she is voidof a conscience. Perhaps all that white that has surrounded her isn’tso much purity (although Gatsby, of course, would see it as such), butperhaps the white represents a void, a lack (as in a lack ofintellectualism and a lack of conscience). To Daisy, Myrtle isexpendable. She is not of the social elite, so what difference doesher death make? To add insult to injury, as if she hadn’t betrayedGatsby enough already, she abandons Gatsby in his death. After killingMyrtle, Daisy returns home. She and Tom resolve their differences andleave soon thereafter, moving presumably to another city where theywill remain utterly unchanged and life will continue as it alwaysdoes. Daisy, although ethereal in some qualities, is decidedlydevilish in others.
