Rendon 1

Chloe Rendon

Mr. Horton

English 11

06 February 2019

Daisy Character Analysis

The biggest difference between love and social status is to whether to care about what

other people thinks or not. For the character, Daisy Buchanan, it was a huge decision for her to

choose. Daisy is a married woman to Tom Buchanan who is seeing a mistress named Myrtle

Wilson. Her old love, Jay Gatsby, is trying to get back together with her and leave Tom for him

but her decision will either to choose love or have a perfect record.

In the beginning of the novel, we see Daisy being married to Tom and having a daughter

with a perfect, rich life but it wasn’t the picture of a perfect, rich life when Tom decided to cheat

on Daisy with Myrtle. She told her cousin, Nick Carraway, that she hopes her daughter would be

a fool because she thinks that “everything’s terrible” since she has “been everywhere and seen

everything” (Fitzgerald 17). Daisy doesn’t want her daughter to end up like her from Tom

having a mistress and not feeling happy when she gets older and gets married. We see that Daisy

is concerned and worried about her daughter’s future and her marriage with Tom if he’s gonna

continue having an affair. Later, we learned more about Daisy’s past with Gatsby before she got

married with Tom and they were reunited again at Nick’s house before they went over to

Gatsby’s and Daisy cried over shirts because she have “never seen such beautiful shirts before”

(Fitzgerald 92). The shirts symbolize Gatsby’s wealth that brought Daisy to tears on if only he
 Rendon 2

was rich five years ago, then, they would’ve got married. We see that Daisy is overwhelmed and

upset about the way Gatsby’s is treating her differently than Tom to have second thoughts on

their marriage if she wants to be with Gatsby again. After her reunion with Gatsby, it lead to

some character development for Daisy.

Gatsby then invited Daisy, Tom, and Nick over to his party just so he could see Daisy again.

When Tom asked Daisy if he could eat with other people, Daisy gave him her gold pencil for

him “to take down any addresses” (Fitzgerald 105). Daisy knew that Tom could fool around with

other women but she didn’t care all because she had Gatsby with her. We see development in

Daisy’s character because in the beginning, she wanted to know who called Tom on the phone to

giving her pencil to him. Next, Gatsby, Jordan, and Nick went over to the Buchanan’s and Daisy

told Gatsby that he “always looked cool,” leaving her husband to figure out they’re seeing each

other (Fitzgerald 119). Daisy didn’t care if Tom was in the room, all she cared about was Gatsby.

We see that Daisy is still in love with Gatsby after five years even though she’s married to Tom.

Although she still loves Gatsby, but unfortunately, her love for Tom didn’t prepare her to choose

between social status or love.

When the Buchanan’s, Gatsby, Jordan, and Nick left to stay at a room, Daisy was supposed to

tell Tom that she never loved him and leave with Gatsby until it didn’t go according to plan.

After Tom’s denial that Daisy is leaving him and Gatsby argument with Tom, Daisy couldn’t

take it and want to leave, crying: “I won’t stand this! Oh, please let’s get out” (Fitzgerald 133).

Daisy’s love for both Tom and Gatsby didn’t help her to think this through whether she wants to

stay with Tom or leave with Gatsby. We see that Daisy could be worried about her social status

on what happens if she leaves Tom for Gatsby and people will think she left him because Gatsby
 Rendon 3

has more money. After Gatsby took the blame that he ran over Myrtle that led him to be killed by

her husband, George Wilson, Daisy didn’t attend to Gatsby’s funeral when she decided her “and

Tom had gone away” to leave their hometown (Fitzgerald 164). Daisy decided to choose Tom

over Gatsby despite them seeing another significant other behind their backs. We see that Daisy

is more concerned in her social status rather than being with Gatsby and letting him take the

blame he killed Myrtle so Daisy wouldn’t be in trouble. After all that Gatsby did to be with

Daisy again, it sadly had to end.

The character development of Daisy is that her carelessness and lack of thought resulted

to have consequences for her actions on what happens to Gatsby. Her actions “smashed up

things...and let other people clean up the mess” (Fitzgerald 179). Her actions made a huge mess

involving murder and lying for only Gatsby’s love for her clean up her mess. Even when her and

Tom left town, will the affair ever happen again or will their love for each other could start a new

life for them? The social status of Daisy’s life was a decision that she choose whether she really

love Tom or was to scared to love Gatsby.