Daisy Buchanan: Victim or Villain?

Tom cheats on daisy with george’s wife myrtle. Tom tries to be something he isn’t because he cheats on daisy. Daisy tries to be something she isn’t because daisy married tom and she is really in love with gatsby. Daisy and gatsby have a mysterious relationship and nick finds out about it in chapter four from jordan baker. Daisy is trying to be something else by marrying tom when she is inlove with gatsby. I think daisy is in it for the money, that’s my opinion.

Although Daisy may seem sweet, it is difficult not to over think her actions throughout the book. If Daisy was always in love with Gatsby as she proclaimed she had been, then how did she move on so quickly? It is tempting to jump to the conclusion that she had only married Tom for his money. Additionally, it is evident that Daisy is aware of Tom having an affair with Myrtle Wilson. Knowing this, was Daisy truly in love with Gatsby after he returned, or was she only acting this way in retaliation to Tom’s affair? If both of these theories are true, that qualifies Daisy as the most selfish person in the novel. These actions cause us to question Daisy’s character throughout the novel; however, there is one incident that is unmistakably an act of selfishness. While Daisy was driving Gatsby and herself home, she ran over Myrtle Wilson, Tom’s mistress. Some believed it was an accident, but Daisy never stopped driving. “The ‘death car,’ as the newspapers called it, didn’t stop; it came out of the gathering darkness, wavered tragically for a moment and then disappeared around the next bend.”(Fitzgerald 144) Because she was in Gatsby’s car, he inadvertently took the blame and eventually got himself killed. The author merely discloses that Daisy and Tom had gone away never to return. Was Gatsby’s death a result of Daisy’s selfishness? Daisy’s selfish desires destroyed relationships and

Throughout the novel The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the character of Daisy Buchanan undergoes many noticeable changes. Daisy is a symbol of wealth and of promises broken. She is a character we grow to feel sorry for but probably should not.

One of the main characters in the Great Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan was a charming woman who was visually pleasing to men. She was married to Tom, a rich and powerful man, for his money. Tom and Gatsby are at Tom's house, when they both express a certain feeling that her voice brings upon them.

Daisy is one of the socially eccentric characters who is most responsible for Gatsby's death even though she did not pull the trigger largely because of her carelessness with the people around her. There are many points in

     Daisy falls for the same shallowness that Gatsby does. She doesn’t love Gatsby for who he is—she does like him for his personality, partly, but it’s mostly because he has the money now, and is therefore much more qualified to be with her. Daisy really doesn’t want to be with Tom, for example, “I’d never seen a girl so mad about her husband” (p. 76) Jordan says, on how Daisy felt after marrying Tom. She wanted Gatsby. Or rather, she wanted to have a nice husband that would be a caring, rich gentleman. And Gatsby fills that idea up perfectly.

To add with Tom, Daisy is the most immoral person in the novel. In the beginning of this novel, she is portrayed as a sweet and innocent girl from Louisville. Throughout the story, she develops into the character that is needed in order to convey the meaning of moral decline. Daisy is immoral because she runs over and kills Myrtle, and she is careless about her crime. The “Death Car”, as the newspapers called it, didn’t stop; it came out of the gathering darkness, wavered around the next bend” (139). She is losing her values because she is using Gatsby to get back at Tom for cheating on her. At the end of the novel, she goes as far as leaving town with Tom; she doesn’t even attend Gatsby’s funeral nor leave any flowers. Daisy is just a complete immoral character all-around.

Daisy grew up spoiled due to the vast wealth she obtained from being ‘old money’, which caused her to become selfish and self-centred. Daisy had become selfish to the point that she has an expensive and materialistic desire or want. When Gatsby shows Daisy his mansion, she gazed in awe as “she admired […] the gardens, the sparkling odor of jonquils […] and the pale gold odor of kiss-me-at-the-gate.”(Fitzgerald,97) Daisy, all along, does not have feelings for Gatsby, but more for his money and expensive possessions, as she revealed her true self during Tom and Gatsby’s argument. Daisy is selfish even if money was not involved, as she does not feel grateful for Gatsby taking the blame for her killing Myrtle Wilson. For instance, when Nick tells Gatsby about Mrytle dying, Gatsby replies “’Yes,’ he said after the moment, ‘but of course I’ll say I was.’” (Fitzgerald, 154) When Daisy cried in Gatsby’s mansion, she was crying about her actions in killing Myrtle, meanwhile she does not care about Gatsby’s act of chivalry. Furthermore, Daisy takes advantage of Gatsby by taking Tom along to Gatsby’s party, when Daisy was personally invited to essentially go alone. When Gatsby saw Tom appearing to his party, Gastby with a light temper has a conversation with Tom. He says “I know your wife’, continued Gatsby, almost aggressively.”

Daisy Buchanan has a similar lifestyle to Tom, she’s wealthy ‘voice is full of money’ and always wore ‘white’ symbolising her purity and wealth. However as a woman of a higher class, there not much she can do in her ‘shallow life’, as she has the money but doesn’t know how to plan events ‘what do people plan?’. This shows that she is not content with her knowledge and understanding of life therefore even with money she isn’t ‘happy’. This leads her to ‘have an affair’ with an ex-lover whom she so adored before she married Tom ‘I did love him once – But I loved you too’. In the novel, Daisy only every seeks true love when she’s with Gatsby but ‘a rich girls don’t marry poor boys’, so due to this social difference between them, she knows the only place she will ever have security is with Tom. Tom describes their affair as a ‘presumptuous little flirtation’ because to Daisy, she knew she was never going to marry Gatsby but to Gatsby it was just never

Daisy’s reactions to certain events show how she makes decisions based off of what will give her the most money, rather than what will be the best option for her. Daisy was in love with Gatsby, but he was poor and he had to go to war, so she decided to wait for him. However, it took too long for him to return, so Daisy got impatient, and she married Tom instead. Tom was rich, and Daisy knew he would bring her an old money status. When Gatsby finally meets with Daisy again, she sees how rich he is and she regrets her decison to marry Tom. Gatsby shows her his house, and his fancy shirts, which makes Daisy say that “They’re such beautiful shirts… It makes me sad because

​In The Great Gatsby the character Daisy Buchanan was one of the characters that due to her decisions in the past her present is not what she wanted. This affects the story from the beginning to the end. Daisy was from Louisville, Kentucky before the war, many military officers chased her. In those many officers Gatsby included he lies to her about his past and tells her that he is wealthy, soon after she falls in love with Gatsby and promises that she will wait for him. But during the war she marries a man named Tom Buchanan, who promised her a wealthy lifestyle. Later, Nick her cousin helps her and Gatsby reunite after so many years, they have at first an awkward meeting, but after Nick leaves them alone and comes back they seem to be happy.

On the day of her wedding, she received a letter from Gatsby confessing his love for her. Although she knew Gatsby was the man of her dreams, she ended up choosing Tom who had money and power over true love. This decision haunted her throughout her life because she knew Tom was not a loyal husband as he cheated on her multiple times, however Daisy just didn’t have the courage and independency to stand up for herself and make the right choice. Daisy says “I hope she’ll be a fool—that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool” (Gatsby 19). Due to having this mentality, it shows her dependency on men and how she believes that being beautiful is most important for women. Having this personally trait and the drive for wealth, resulted in harming loved ones around her and was the main reason towards the actions that led to the downfall of the novel and Gatsby’s

Throughout the novel Fitzgerald shows that Daisy is self-centered and careless at heart; she is a dreamer who fails to face reality. Continuing an affair with Gatsby with no real intentions of leaving her husband eventually leads to the death of Gatsby. In return she shows little to no concerns over the death of her “love” Gatsby and returns into the arms of her corrupt husband. Tom, who is also unfaithful in their relationship has a mistress of his own who is killed in a car accident while Daisy was driving. Tom as well shows no remorse in her death and moves on like nothing ever happened. Daisy and Tom are the prime example of corruption in both material success and with what wealth can bring; “They instinctively seek out each other because each recognizes the other’s strength in the corrupt

Daisy, like her husband, is a girl of material and class at heart, and Gatsby being her escape from a hierarchist world. Daisy has just grown up knowing wealth, so in her greedy pursuit of happiness and the “American Dream” Myrtle Wilson died, Gatsby's heart and life were compromised, without claiming responsibility on her part. Daisy was “by far the most popular of all the young girls in Louisville...” (116) Jordan says, describing early affections between Daisy and Gatsby. She goes on to say, “...all day long the telephone rang in her house and excited young officers from Camp Taylor demanded the privilege of monopolizing her that night.” (116) . Daisy was a fancied girl who has Gatsby tied around her finger, Jordan explains that he was looking at Daisy “...in a way that every young girl wants to be looked at some time...” (117). Daisy, abusing Gatsby’s love for her uses it to create security and protection, greedily and selfishly allowing him to take the fault. While Daisy’s beautiful, alluring traits turn her into an innocent, naive flower, she plays the ultimate villain.

The Great Gatsby is considered to be a great American novel full of hope, deceit, wealth, and love. Daisy Buchanan is a beautiful and charming young woman who can steal a man’s attention through a mere glance. Throughout the novel, she is placed on a pedestal, as if her every wish were Gatsby’s command. Her inner beauty and grace are short-lived, however, as Scott Fitzgerald reveals her materialistic character. Her reprehensible activities lead to devastating consequences that affect the lives of every character. I intend to show that Daisy, careless and self-absorbed, was never worthy of Jay Gatsby’s love, for she was the very cause of his death.