Examples Of Daisy Buchanan In The Great Gatsby

Through the eyes of the men around her, Daisy Buchanan is always seen in several different perspectives based on the way the man around her wants her to be seen. Nick paints a mask of Daisy as his charming “old yellowy hair” cousin, yet her “absolute smirk” makes him feel insecure about the things she tells him (106, 31). Gatsby’s mask for Daisy is created from being in love with the idea of Daisy and the way she was when they were young and in love, which is just what he needs to fulfill his dream. Tom’s mask for Daisy is her as his trophy wife he’s obligated to have and can just throw to the side while he has his affairs. Not only do these men place their own masks they’ve created for Daisy on her, but also dehumanize and victimize her in

Let’s start with Daisy’s name: Daisy Fay Buchanan; a daisy is a beautiful white flower with a golden center and fay is a fairy. Daisy Fay Buchanan is a flower in a way, she is white and delicate and she does have a golden center, which she conceals. Daisy Fay can be seen as a fairy because she is small in the way that she doesn’t get to express the way she feels in comparison to the other characters in The Great Gatsby. But Daisy isn’t just a fairy that you can idealize in your head or an object that you can buy to decorate your home with and can just throw away when you have the need for a myrtle; she is a person. Though she [Daisy] is not dehumanized or victimized in extreme ways like scenes in Douglass’ novel where Frederick watches Aunt Hester get beaten or where children are separated from their families; Daisy is left alone while Tom goes to New York to cheat and though Tom doesn’t beat on Daisy we have a scene where Daisy blames him for her bruised finger and even a scene where Gatsby waits outside of the Buchanan house all night just in case Tom tries to pick a fight with Daisy. There are only a few scenes in the entire novel where I believe Fitzgerald allows readers can see glimpses of Daisy not being victimized or dehumanized, but Daisy in her true element and as her true self, which happens in a flashback that Jordan provides to Nick about Daisy the night before she married Tom, the shirt scene in Gatsby’s house, and the hotel scene where

Tom views Daisy as his trophy wife, a woman he can have to make things look good at home and while he’s out on business while he secretly travels to New York to have an affair with Myrtle, thus making her a victim of Tom’s infidelities. The way Tom dehumanizes her is by making her seem small, almost fairy-like and by not allowing her to express herself. Though, he’s not physically putting his hands on Daisy, he still has a violent side and is doing a violent act of not allowing Daisy to be herself. Daisy accuses Tom for her bruised finger and later in the novel, Tom “strikes Myrtle’s nose” (). In a way Daisy’s just Tom’s “beautiful little fool” (), because she continues to put up with his cheating because she is scared to leave his possession of security and stability because that’s something Gatsby can’t offer