Daisy

• Two men feel married to Daisy. 

  Daisy is both married to her past, in the form of Gatsby, and to the present in the character of Tom
• She is not the embodiment of charm, grace and sophistication she appears to be; instead, she is selfish, careless, fickle and shallow. Her perfect facade has, by the novel’s denouement, completely disintegrated.
• Forced to forfeit her autonomy to the wills of the male characters around her.
• The gender contradictions inherent in American society in the time the novel is set have their counterpart in Daisy’s outward submissiveness versus her inner cynicism
• Daisy’s maiden surname - Fay - evokes fairylike connotations, associating her with romantic supernaturalism, rising above the realistic. Gatsby also idealises her, projecting onto her and ignoring her true nature
• Daisy is placed on a pedestal as this beautiful, delicate and popular girl who is deserving of men’s love and

  attention.

  However, Daisy neither lives up to Gatsby’s idealised vision of her nor reciprocates his excessive love for her.

  While some readers may vilify Daisy for toying with Gatsby’s affection, others might argue Gatsby has created an idol of her and an illusion so vast she cannot help but buckle under it; it is Gatsby alone who sets himself up for a fall
• She wishes for her daughter to be a fool, too ignorant and simple-minded to realise the harshness of the reality she lives in.

  This is also a pointer towards how Daisy wishes herself to be as well - rather than face up to the fact of Tom’s infidelity, she prefers to live comfortably but in denial, partaking in the hollow extravagance both he and American 1920s society can offer a woman like her.
• Both Daisy and Myrtle are trapped in unhappy relationships. They escape this through engaging in extramarital affairs. Daisy is held captive by her traditions and status and Myrtle is held captive by her poverty
• Daisy is dependent on Tom, and she does not control her own finances. She performs a lifestyle of freedom but is ultimately a decorative persona without any real social role.
• Daisy is aware of the unequal power relations between men and women but has little desire to change them. Daisy is not an advocate for change but an advocate of tradition. She is unhappily married but accepts the union as security for her social class.
• The master stroke of Fitzgerald’s portrayal of Daisy is how little we know of her. We see her through the eyes of the narrator who hardly knows her, and he sees her through Gatsby’s eyes. Some say she isn’t a well fleshed-out character but that is exactly the point: it was irrelevant to Gatsby who she really was so we never find out who she really is either. He didn’t know her. To Gatsby, she was an idea — not a real person
• A victim of this unfair system where rich white men take whatever they want. Try to see her as who she was independent of Gatsby: imperfect, unhappy in love, tragically molded by loss and lack of freedom. She was not a ‘beautiful little fool’, as much as she may have wished she were. She was a complicated human with very few choices available to her
• Her story is wrapped up in the narrative these men created for her and she was just a piece in their game.