In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Daisy is revealed as a character corrupted by wealth in a power struggle against her husband, Tom Buchanan, in a marriage which she is perfectly content to be a part of. While the marriage between Daisy and Tom is corrupt as whole, Daisy is by far the greatest contributor of the corruption, even as it remains a secret to the characters until the novel’s end. During the first half of the story, the average reader will begin to hate Tom for his bigotry and arrogance and hope for Daisy to leave Tom, and when Gatsby appears in Daisy’s life again to regain her love, everything seems to set in place for a happy ending between Daisy and Gatsby. However, Daisy goes on to demonstrate throughout later chapters
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The characters within the story and even the average reader become convinced that Daisy should flee the scene. Indeed Nick describes Daisy’s situation at the end of the first chapter as “It seemed to me that the thing for Daisy to do was to rush out of the house, child in arms ...” (Fitzgerald 23). From Tom’s racism on page 16, to his mistress calling during dinner on page 17, both the reader and characters have plenty of reason to dislike Tom, but Daisy remains with him regardless. Unfortunately for Tom, this mistreatment of Daisy eventually sets the scene for Gatsby’s return into Daisy’s life. As explained in J. S. Lawry’s “Green Light or Square of Light in The Great Gatsby.,” Daisy while trying to show how miserable she is in chapter 1, seems insincere about her miserableness. Lawry claims that Fitzgerald’s line about how Daisy and Tom "stood side by side in a cheerful frame of light,” characterizes how content Daisy actually is with her “miserable” marriage. Lawry’s claim is far from a stretch, as Daisy shows her contentedness with Tom towards the end of the story in Chapter 7 after the death of Myrtle. “They weren’t happy, and neither of them had touched the chicken or the ale—and yet they weren’t unhappy either. There was an unmistakable air of natural intimacy about the picture and anybody would …show more content…
She is, then, the color of money but also the color of the ‘absence of all desire.’ The white palace is remote and inaccessible, Millgate says, and Daisy 's white innocence is life-denying (111).”
Milgate’s note clearly represents Daisy’s corruption. While in the beginning the characters see Daisy as a miserable, innocent housewife and mother, she is secretly corrupted by wealth and social standing. More so, Fitzgerald’s portrayal of Daisy as corrupt continues in his description of Daisy with a powdered face on page 123. The white powder covering Daisy’s face disguises her corruption for wealth and power and instead makes her seem innocent and pure. To summarize, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s symbolism of Daisy as corrupt ties together with her use of Gatsby to obtain power over
The characters within the story and even the average reader become convinced that Daisy should flee the scene. Indeed Nick describes Daisy’s situation at the end of the first chapter as “It seemed to me that the thing for Daisy to do was to rush out of the house, child in arms ...” (Fitzgerald 23). From Tom’s racism on page 16, to his mistress calling during dinner on page 17, both the reader and characters have plenty of reason to dislike Tom, but Daisy remains with him regardless. Unfortunately for Tom, this mistreatment of Daisy eventually sets the scene for Gatsby’s return into Daisy’s life. As explained in J. S. Lawry’s “Green Light or Square of Light in The Great Gatsby.,” Daisy while trying to show how miserable she is in chapter 1, seems insincere about her miserableness. Lawry claims that Fitzgerald’s line about how Daisy and Tom "stood side by side in a cheerful frame of light,” characterizes how content Daisy actually is with her “miserable” marriage. Lawry’s claim is far from a stretch, as Daisy shows her contentedness with Tom towards the end of the story in Chapter 7 after the death of Myrtle. “They weren’t happy, and neither of them had touched the chicken or the ale—and yet they weren’t unhappy either. There was an unmistakable air of natural intimacy about the picture and anybody would …show more content…
She is, then, the color of money but also the color of the ‘absence of all desire.’ The white palace is remote and inaccessible, Millgate says, and Daisy 's white innocence is life-denying (111).”
Milgate’s note clearly represents Daisy’s corruption. While in the beginning the characters see Daisy as a miserable, innocent housewife and mother, she is secretly corrupted by wealth and social standing. More so, Fitzgerald’s portrayal of Daisy as corrupt continues in his description of Daisy with a powdered face on page 123. The white powder covering Daisy’s face disguises her corruption for wealth and power and instead makes her seem innocent and pure. To summarize, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s symbolism of Daisy as corrupt ties together with her use of Gatsby to obtain power over