Daisy’s Character in The Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby chronicles the rise and fall of Jay Gatsby, a self-made millionaire. Gatsby's story is narrated by Nick Carraway, a bond salesman from the Midwest, who rents the bungalow next door to Gatsby's mansion in the summer of nineteen twenty-two. Gatsby is in love with Nick's cousin, Daisy, who lives directly across the bay with her wealthy but violent husband, Tom Buchanan. Gatsby and Daisy were lovers when they were young, but Gatsby was sent to war and Daisy married Tom during his absence. Now, Gatsby has built up a great fortune in hopes of winning Daisy back. It is a quest that proves fatal when the selfish Daisy reveals herself to be unworthy of his love.

Daisy loves Gatsby but she also loves the monetary lifestyle he represents. Her love for material possessions is evident in several places throughout the text, but is most telling in the part where she and Nick go on a tour of Gatsby's impressive mansion. Surrounded by Gatsby's dazzling wealth, Daisy responds with violent emotions to what she could have had, if only she had waited. When Gatsby shows her his expensive wardrobe of silk shirts, she sheds tears of regret. And, when she sees a picture of young Gatbsy aborad a yacht, she exclaims, "I adore it! . . .you never told me you had a pompadour---or a yacht!" (99). In other words, she would have chosen differently if only she had known the life he could have given her.

Because she admires his superficial qualities the most, Daisy is unable to match Gatsby's affection for her. The same self-serving nature that caused her to forsake him during their youth allows her to betray him once again at the end of the novel. This time, she allows him to make a terrible sacrifice, one that exposes him to serious danger. She lets him take the blame when she accidently runs down antother person with his car. The act itself was unintentional, but her decision to let Gatsby assume the responsibility shows just how incapable she is of returning his love. She returns to her life with Tom, leaving Gatsby alone to deal with the repurcussions of her terrible mistake. Nick summarizes the whole situation when he says, "They were careless people, Tom and Daisy---they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made" (184).