Who Is Daisy A Fool In The Great Gatsby

The 1925 novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, takes place in the year of 1922, with the main characters residing in the fictional towns of the West Egg and the East Egg of Long Island. The story of the novel is told in the perspective of Nick Carraway, and revolves around the life of his new friend, Jay Gatsby, who is a young millionaire wishing to reunite with his now married ex lover, Daisy Buchanan, while incorporating a theme of the American Dream and its failure. Throughout the novel, the characters model masks around others, not showing their true colors. Predominantly, Gatsby, and the one desire of his life, Daisy, put up masks in front of others; Daisy wears a mask making her appear like a naive fool, while Gatsby …show more content…
Daisy Buchanan, the married love interest of Jay Gatsby, feels as if she must act as if she’s a fool to survive in this time when women were often viewed as inferior to men and did not have equal rights. She says of her daughter, “I hope she’ll be a fool-- that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool” (Fitzgerald 17). Daisy, along with many other women of the 20’s, is the result of the societal conditioning towards women, telling them that they cannot be as intelligent as men are, are too weak to be in the workplace, and considered to be the “property” of a man. Owing to this view society held against women, Daisy herself wears plays the role of a “beautiful little fool” and is quick to cover her true emotions with a mask, making her appear as if there is nothing wrong with her life. An example of this behavior is when Daisy receives a letter a day before her marriage to Tom Buchanan, from Jay Gatsby, whom she had no …show more content…
He believes his a persona of a wealthy man will bring her back to him, as Jordan had said to Nick of Gatsby, that “he wants her to see his house” (79), and “he half expected her to wander into one of his parties, some night” (79). Gatsby uses this mask to hide his realization that Daisy is a married woman, and to win her back to recreate the past. The people of Long Island know of Gatsby as a mysterious man who acquired his money from his dead family, a story which he uses to hide that in actuality, he earns his money by involving himself in illegal businesses and organized crime. In order to accomplish winning Daisy’s attention, however, he needed to accumulate a large sum of money to flaunt his wealth by throwing extravagant parties. Although Daisy is married to Tom, Gatsby does not let go of his dream to be with her easily. He believes that his riches will attract Daisy enough to come searching for him