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The Great Gatsby Daisy's Downfall

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“Toxic relationships not only make us unhappy; they corrupt our attitudes and dispositions in ways that undermine healthier relationships and prevent us from seeing how much better things can be” - Michael Josephson. Manipulative, impulsive, chaotic; all are characteristics of a toxic individual. The majority of these people can cause disaster and dysfunction in society and relationships ultimately ending in despair. Comparatively, in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan is the living embodiment of despair. Daisy is reckless, irresponsible, and causes horror by her failure as a mother to her daughter, as a wife to her husband, Tom, and her affair with Jay Gatsby. Moreover, Daisy leads chaotic relationships and refuses …show more content…

First, Daisy betrays Gatsby by ditching him to marry a more rich Tom Buchanan. Gatsby himself shows this when he tells Tom, “She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me” (Fitzgerald 83). After dating Gatsby, Daisy betrays him by being impatient and unloyal. Daisy should not have let herself fallen in love with Gatsby to begin with as this will lead to Gatsby’s decision to earn money as a bootlegger in a dangerous gang. Secondly, Daisy is careless with love which is why she was easily capable of falling in love with Tom, money, and not Gatsby. This is easily described with, “Daisy was a loose cannon that was young and careless and was in love with a soldier. After the soldier leaves, as Jordan describes, Daisy picks herself up, moves on and comes to a realization; she needs to marry someone with money”(Snyder 10). This idea not only shows Daisy's poor dating habits but it also reinforces the fact that she abandoned Gatsby. She couldn’t decide between loving Gatsby or living with old money which unfortunately won Daisy love due to her greedy personality. Next, Daisy decides that ruining her own on life wasn't good enough for her, so she takes her anger out on Myrtle Wilson and leaves Gatsby to pick up the pieces. This is seen perfectly with, “Another instance of Daisy´s childish position is the fact that she is willing to let Gatsby take the blame for the murder of Tom's mistress.”(Velasco 40). Daisy hits and kills Myrtle Wilson and without owning up to its leads, leaves her grieving husband, George, to believe that Gatsby was the driver and it was Gatsby who needed to be reprehended. This not only destroyed Myrtle directly and eventually Gatsby as well, but it also, consequently, led to George's own shooting himself. Lastly, Daisy decides to deny any associations with Gatsby after his murder. This is seen with, “Daisy

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