Daisy Buchanan is Nick’s cousin and Toms married woman. She lives with the rich old-money population of New York on East Egg. From Nick’s first visit. Daisy is associated with spirituality. For illustration. the first image we have of Daisy in Chapter One is as one of a brace of adult females. lying on a couch and surrounded by fliting. traveling material – from the drapes to their white frocks. nil is safe from the zephyr blowing through the room.
This sense of stability in a sea of motion – indicated by her being sat on “the merely wholly stationary object in the room… an tremendous couch” – and the intimations of pureness or artlessness attached to her – her white frock. “buoyed up” as though “though they had merely been blown back in after a short flight around the house” . like an angel or faery – combine to make an image of delicate beauty. This is furthered when Daisy makes “an effort to rise” . but contents herself with expressing “an absurd. capturing small laugh” . and the declaration that she is “p-paralysed with felicity. ”
All of these things make her seem childlike and therefore add to her visual aspect of pureness. She speaks in a “low. thrilling voice” . a voice that holds an “excitement” that is “difficult to forget” : “a singing irresistible impulse. a whispered ‘Listen’ . a promise that she had done homosexual. exciting things a piece since and that there were homosexuals. exciting things vibrating in the following hr. ” She is routinely linked with the color white ( a white frock. white flowers. white auto. and so on ) . ever at the tallness of manner and turn toing people with merely the most adorable footings. She appears pure in a universe of darnels and prevaricators.
As the narrative continues. nevertheless. more of Daisy is revealed. and in small stages she becomes less of an ideal. Given that she is to the full cognizant of her husband’s unfaithfulnesss. why doesn’t she do anything about it? Because he has money and power and she enjoys the benefits she receives from these things. she is willing to cover with the personal businesss. Another incident that calls Daisy’s character into inquiry is the manner she speaks of her girl.
“I hope she’ll be a sap. ” she says. “that’s the best thing a miss can be in this universe. a beautiful small sap. ” Clearly. she has some experience in this country and implies that the universe is no topographic point for a adult female ; the best she can make is trust to last and the best manner to make that is through beauty instead than encephalons. Daisy. nevertheless much described and elaborated on by Nick. is invariably non who she is described as and therefore creates a feeling that the more she tells Nick about herself or the more Nick describes her the lupus erythematosus wecognize go forthing us unsure of where she stands.
Her homosexuality and complete and arrant satisfaction poetically described at the start of their brush is wholly wiped out by the terminal of the dark though the manner Daisy describes herself to Nick on the porch outside her house: “Well. I’ve had a really bad clip. Nick. and I’m reasonably misanthropic about everything. ” Although we are about certain that Daisy is non ever misanthropic and more disillusioned than she thinks she is. we are unsure on who she really is and where her topographic point is.
Her pureness is our chief facet established in this brush except we find it difficult to understand the pureness when she is exposed to a really rough and barbarous life due to Toms matter and intervention of her. Overall. we can see much of Nick’s position of Daisy summed up simply in the manner that he speaks about her ; he uses many affectional adjectives to excite a feeling within the reader so as to do Daisy’s energy about touchable ( “thrilling” . “glowing” . “singing” ) and oxymoronic phrasing to develop some of the tenseness underlying her character. e. g. “tense gaiety” .
The chief point we achieve in the apparently drawn-out meeting although seemingly short thing that we gain from analyzing Daisy’s character is the first intimations of one of the major subjects of the book: that riches do non seal felicity.
