The Great Gatsby

Lucy Smoot 10/31/12

Period 1 Daisy

In the novel, The Great Gatsby, the author F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays the character of Daisy as a sophisticated woman of high class but with something to hide. Daisy is intelligent but is very sarcastic to her husband, Tom. She is unhappy with Tom and their marriage and very distant from their child. As the story progresses we see Daisy act as though there is something she is keeping a secret.

When Nick arrives at Tom and Daisy’s house it is absolutely beautiful and lavish. When Nick finally meets Daisy she is dressed in all white, which symbolizes youth, purity and something that is desirable. When Daisy speaks her voice is low and Nick has to lean in to listen like others have to do. Daisy’s voice is described like that of a “Sirens Song”, which is very seductive and causes people to become hypnotized by her sweet murmur of a voice. Her voice can make even the rudest comments seem sweet and interesting. Daisy uses this through the story to make even the saddest comments delightful, like how she wishes her daughter “to be a fool” when she grows up.

Daisy also likes to make her husband mad by being sarcastic and witty. She continues to describe Tom as “hulking”. Tom hates the word and doesn’t want Daisy to say it but again Daisy looks right at him and says, “hulking”. Daisy is clearly unhappy with her marriage and is very undermining towards Tom. Tom leaves the dinner table to take a call with his mistress and Daisy sits there for a while with her guests until she couldn’t take it anymore and went inside. This shows that Daisy is embarrassed and very bitter about Tom and his infidelity.

Finally, Daisy exhibits that there might be something going on between her and Gatsby. As soon as Jordan told Nick that he must know Gatsby....