Affairs, lies and destruction are all Tom and Daisy leave with people when they run away back to their money and perfect lives. The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, a widely known novel, tells the lives of Tom and Daisy through the eyes of Nick and the wreck they leave behind everywhere they go. Tom and Daisy consequences of their choices casts a dark shadow of distrust over the lives of those around them. Tom and Daisy, careless people, they leave behind smashed up things and creatures, then retreat back into their money and let other people clean up the mess they have made. Daisy parades into other people's lives to smash up things and creatures. Daisy, Tom, Gatsby, Jordan and Nick head into town to a Plaza Hotel and Gatsby …show more content…
Tom has an affair with a married woman, Myrtle, while coming back home everyday to live his flawless life with Daisy and their daughter. A small dinner party was held at Daisy’s house so she could catch up with her cousin Nick but he discovers Tom is having an affair, “The telephone rang inside, startlingly, and as Daisy shook her head decisively at Tom the subject, in fact all subjects, vanished into the air” (Fitzgerald 15). Tom had gotten a second telephone call from his mistress during a dinner party and Daisy gave him a threatening look signaling that he better not answer the call. Daisy knows Tom is having an affair, but she is furious that the subject is revealed to Nick right after she meets him after years. On the contrary to Daisy’s knowledge of the affair, Myrtle’s husband is clueless on the matter while it is going on and Tom comments to Nick’s question “‘Doesn’t her husband object?’ ‘Wilson? He thinks she goes to see her sister in New York .He’s so dumb he doesn’t know he’s alive’” (Fitzgerald 26). Tom steals Wilson’s wife, Myrtle, and calls him dumb for not have discovered their affair. Myrtle runs away with Tom to live a double life together then Tom leaves every night right back to his money. The affairs of Tom and Daisy leave a mess
Tom tries to show to the Nick his mistress with the proud. Myrtle appears as the total opposite character to the Daisy. She is ‘thicklish, faintly stout” (Fitzgerald 29), but “sensuously” and “immediately perceptible vitality about her” (Fitzgerald 29). She is the woman from “the bottom” who wants to be acceptable as a lady from upper class. She is terribly vulgar, but she is more alive and natural than Daisy is. The unpleasant scene in their apartments, where Carraway appeared because of Myrtle’s invitation, is full of the philistine contentment and boasting. It is finished with even more disgusting event: Tom broke Myrtle’s nose because she dared to mention many time his wife’s name. Tom lets himself to be brutal and free from conventionalities of the upper class; thus, he behaves also more natural, but he does not want to lose Daisy and all what she
At a cursory glance, Daisy may seem like the quintessential socialite, with a happy marriage and a life of luxury. With her wealthy lifestyle, Daisy has the independence to travel anywhere and whenever she wants, oftentimes without Tom, as seen when Nick invited her to “come for tea … and don't bring Tom” [88]. This small act of independent is offset by Tom’s eventual “perturbation at Daisy’s running around alone”[110]. In this scene, Tom’s grasp on Daisy’s life is tightened once more as if she was an expensive piece of jewelry, with the miniscule possibility of being stolen. However, on the other hand, much of Daisy’s wealth does come from Tom, giving a great deal of control to him in their relationship to the point where Tom does not hide the fact he has a mistress. “You mean to say you don’t know? … I thought everybody knew”[19]. With the way Jordan says this, one can infer that even Daisy knew and she basically had no say in the matter. Furthermore, when Tom’s mistress continues to call during tea and Jordan whispers, “The rumor is that that’s Tom’s girl on the telephone”, it shows the amount of control that Tom has over Daisy and Myrtle [122]. This part also shows the impact of societal norms, which had made it seem acceptable for Tom to have a mistress while if Daisy was having an affair it would be more looked down upon.
What about your little affairs? How many times have you gone on one of your sprees? I saw Tom as a hypocrite. Even though he was off having a shameless affair with Myrtle, he still condemns Daisy for having an affair with Gatsby. Daisy turned from Tom and began to sob, “did it ever come to your mind Tom that I need a little some love too?”
Tom knew Myrtle better than any of the main characters. He had met her on a train headed for New York. When the train reached the city, she went with him in a taxi, and their affair began. Tom never made much of an effort to keep their relationship secret. In fact, he almost paraded her around in the presence of his acquaintances. They made frequent trips into New York so that they could be together. Myrtle was Tom's escape from his own life in East Egg. While Daisy provided him with a wealthy, acceptable social image, she was not much more to him than a mere possession. His affair with Myrtle offered him a chance to defy his social expectations. Their relationship was important to him because of this opportunity to escape. When Myrtle died, it shook him deeply, especially because he believed Gatsby had been driving the yellow car. After leaving George Wilson's garage the night of the accident, he managed to drive slowly until he and Nick were out of sight. Then he slammed his foot down on the accelerator, driving much faster. He began quietly sobbing, privately mourning her death. He immediately blamed Gatsby for bringing their relationship to an abrupt halt. "That God damned coward!" he cried. "He didn't even stop his car." His feelings of anger and hurt were greatly intensified by the day spent in New York....
At first glance the story is about love but once you get a bit deeper the truth shines through. It’s about the fantasy of fulfilling unachievable dreams, the selfishness money invokes, and the violence associated with power. Gatsby, Daisy, and Tom never fulfill their potentials in life. They are either trying to achieve their unachievable dream, or they are to wrapped up in themselves and their money and power.
At Wilson’s garage, Tom tells Myrtle “I want to see you . . . Get on the next train” (Fitzgerald 26). At this point in the novel, Myrtle’s presence serves as an irresistible necessity to Tom. Her presence regresses him to act as though he never grew up. Myrtle recalls how Tom and she met by explaining “When we came into the station he was next to me, and his white shirt-front pressed against my arm, and so I told him I’d have to call a policeman, but he knew I lied” (Fitzgerald 36). Myrtle’s young and flirtatious behavior compels Tom to take advantage of her in a way that helps him escape from reality; but by doing so, he cheats on his wife. On their way to New York, Myrtle tells Nick “Come on . . . I’ll telephone my sister Catherine. She’s said to be very beautiful by people who ought to know” (Fitzgerald 28). In her persuasive tone, Myrtle entices Nick to join in on her and Tom’s festivities, with some hesitation he eventually succumbs to the pressure, just like Tom gives in to her desires. Myrtle manages to get her way by ignoring the adult morals and makes that act appealing to others, therefore persuading them to join
She became used to him being unfaithful to her that she suggests to him after leaving him during Gatsby wild party “ and if you want to take down any addresses here’s my little gold pencil” (105). Tom and Myrtle relationship caused problems more in Myrtle life rather than Tom’s because unlike Tom’s wide, Wilson was unaware about her unfaithfulness and reacted way differently by becoming sick. In Nick’s perspective, he explains, “He had discovered that Myrtle had some sort of life apart from him in another world, and the shock had made him physically sick” (124). Wilson behaves in way by having her locked in a room until he gets the car to move away but soon enough for jealousy to strike among Myrtle about Tom and his wife which later causes her death. Her death occurred because of the greatly amount of envy she has towards Daisy and her lifestyle with Tom. The feelings that she felt showed upon her by having “…one emotion after another crept into her face like objects into a slowly developing picture” (124). This single small affair between Tom and Myrtle became something bigger than expected by a heart broken husband, dishonesty, and death among a mistress. This crime is much relatable to many affairs in the world that ends really bad divorces and trust issues from the dishonesty from their significant
Tom and Daisy Buchanan, the rich couple, seem to have everything they could possibly want. Though their lives are full of anything you could imagine, they are unhappy and seek to change, Tom drifts on "forever seeking a little wistfully for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game"(pg. 10) and reads "deep books with long words in them"(pg. 17) just so he has something to talk about. Even though Tom is married to Daisy he has an affair with Myrtle Wilson and has apartment with her in New York.. Daisy is an empty character, someone with hardly any convictions or desires. Even before her relationships with Tom or, Gatsby are seen, Daisy does nothing but sit around all day and wonder what to do with herself and her friend Jordan. She knows that Tom is having an affair, yet she doesn't leave him even when she hears about Gatsby loving her. Daisy lets Gatsby know that she too is in love with him but cant bring herself to tell Tom goodbye except when Gatsby forces her too. Even then, once Tom begs her to stay, even then Daisy forever leaves Gatsby for her old life of comfort. Daisy and Tom are perfect examples of wealth and prosperity, and the American Dream. Yet their lives are empty, and without purpose.
During that conversation, Nick brings up how mysterious Gatsby is his neighbor. Daisy is interested to hear about her loving Gatsby. Daisy did not hint that she and Gatsby had an extremely intimate relationship back in the day. Tom suddenly receives a phone from his mistress who lives a
“He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it; he did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in the vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night.” (Fitzgerald, 180). This novel, The Great Gatsby, was written by an insightfully amorous man names F. Scott Fitzgerald. The story was, loosely, based off of his life of love, trouble, parties, and death. The Great Gatsby is a story about an observant unbiased man named Nick Carraway who helps out young proscribed love. But he fails to perceive the foreshadowed future of the two estranged couple that is Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby. Throughout the entire novel, all the way till the end, Gatsby never gives up on his hope to win Daisy over from Tom. Whenever Gatsby feels that he has won, something happens that brings everyone, including him, disappointment.
Throughout the novel, one of Tom 's biggest careless acts was when he cheated on Daisy. Tom is a cocky, confident man shown many times throughout the novel like when Nick arrived at his house and "Tom Buchanan in riding clothes was standing with his legs apart on the front porch" (Fitzgerald 6). His stance showed his arrogance, and how highly he thought of himself because of his wealth. Tom was a man who often acted without thinking things through, like having an affair with Myrtle. Despite both Tom and Myrtle being married, they both had affairs. Tom doesn 't hide his affair from Nick and introduces him to his mistress Myrtle at Wilson 's garage. Tom doesn 't seem to care if anyone finds out because he feels as though nothing would change due to his wealth. While at Myrtle 's husbands garage, Tom tells Myrtle to meet him at the train station. They end up going to their apartment in New York City that they keep for their affair. While at the Morningside Height 's apartment Myrtle starts to talk about Tom 's wife Daisy, ""Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!" shouted Mrs. Wilson. "I 'll say it whenever I want to! Daisy! Dai-"" (Fitzgerald 37). Tom didn 't like Myrtle overstepping her boundaries and to show
The novel The Great Gatsby displays deceitfulness in many of its characters. The deceit brings many of the characters to their downfall. Gatsby had the greatest downfall of them all due to the fact it took his life. In The Great Gatsby , “ Gatsby goes to spectacular lengths to try to achieve what Nick calls ‘his incorruptible dream’ to recapture the past by getting Daisy Buchannan love” (Sutton). Gatsby always had an infatuation with Daisy, Jordan Baker said,”Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay” (Fitzgerald 83). Gatsby and Daisy did have a past together. While Jordan was golfing, “The Officer looked at Daisy while she was speaking in a way that every young girl wants to be looked at sometime[…]His name was Jay Gatsby and I didn’t lay eyes on him for over four years-even after I’d met him in long island I didn’t realize it was the same man” (Fitzgerald 80). Daisy is now in an abusive relationship with Tom Buchannan, “Nick Carraway attends a small publicly blames Tom for the bruise on her knuckle” (Sutton). When they meet again Gatsby showers Daisy with love and affection, wanting her to leave her husband Tom, but she does not want to in their society. Tom and Gatsby get into an argument and tom tells Daisy about Gatsby’s bootlegging that brought him to his riches. Tom yelled, “He a...
...s with all of the parties and the pursuit of wealth, power, and pleasure in an era of change. The novel shows the relationship of Gatsby and Daisy as a symbol of this pursuit of wealth, power, and pleasure. The reader sees the pursuit of wealth through Daisy wanting Gatsby and Tom, both of whom have money. The pursuit of power is shown through Daisy’s decision of Tom over Gatsby as Gatsby is seen as a lower social status with little power compared to Tom who has tremendous power. Pleasure is seen through the extramarital affairs of Tom and Myrtle as well as Daisy and Gatsby. The Great Gatsby, through Tom and Daisy, reveals the human condition of the pursuit of wealth, power, and pleasure through these examples and shows that the “American Dream” is not possible in a life where one’s surroundings are pushing him/her towards a life of wealth, power, and pleasure.
Nick is astonished at this information. He finds it hard to believe that Tom, with a beautiful wife and child, would be having an affair with some woman in the city. Miss Baker thinks “everybody knew” about the affair, yet Daisy is still with Tom. Being too ignorant to make herself believe it’s true, Daisy is willing to stay in the marriage, even when she is presented with an opportunity from Gatsby to escape. Daisy is willing to stay with Tom just because he has “old money,” and that shows how important it is to her. Everyone else’s morals are just as bad as Tom’s because they know about what’s going on and know that it’s wrong, but they don’t say anything about it. Later in the story, when Wilson is looking for the driver of the yellow car that killed Myrtle, he also suspects that person of having an affair with...
In the next chapter, the reader is introduced the bleak stretch of land between New York City and West Egg. It was there that Nick first met Tom’s mistress. Nick and Tom were taking the train into New York City one Saturday when Tom signaled to Nick that they were going to get off the train halfway to their destination in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere. Tom walked into an auto garage where he talked with a man named George Wilson, who asked about a car Tom was supposed to sell him. Wilson’s wife, Myrtle, emerged from the upstairs of the garage. When Wilson went off to his office for a moment, Tom quickly told Myrtle that he wanted to see her and to take the next train into New York. They arranged where they would meet quickly and moved away f...