Daisy's Wealth In The Great Gatsby

Jay Gatsby started out as a poor boy from Minnesota; now he is a man who is synonymous with wealth. Daisy Buchanan, Gatsby’s former flame was pressured into marrying a rich, but unreliable man, Tom Buchanan. Tom is extremely wealthy, but he cheats on his wife and is an arrogant man who uses his wealth as power over people below him. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic American novel The Great Gatsby, we are shown through the three principal characters that wealth can buy a good time, but it cannot buy true love and happiness.

Gatsby has spent the past five years of his life accumulating enough wealth to impress Daisy when in reality, she is married to a man even wealthier and has no plan to divorce him and get re-involved with Gatsby. The infamous

Gatsby is known for throwing gigantic parties, where “Sometimes [partygoers] [come] and [go] without [meeting] Gatsby at all, [they] came for the party with a simplicity of heart that was its own ticket of admission”(45). None of these partygoers really know Gatsby when they attend, and because the parties are so large and extravagant, nobody really even sees him or knows who they’re looking for. The narrator, Nick Carraway, is a neighbor of Gatsby’s and attends one of his parties. When Nick shows up, he doesn’t even know which man is Gatsby. As Nick sits down he begins to talk to a man about how “ …this man Gatsby sent over his chauffeur with an invitation.’…[the man] looked at [Nick] as if he failed to understand.[The man says] ’I’m Gatsby,’…’What!… ’Oh, I beg your pardon.’…’I thought you knew, old sport…I’m not a very good host.’(53-54). Gatsby is reserved and not really involved in his own party. Throughout this chapter, we read about theories that his guests have about why he is so mysterious. One guest claims that somebody told her ” they thought he killed a man once’…“ (48), while another guest responds that they don’t think ’ it’s so much THAT,’…’it’s more that he was a German spy during the war.’..”(48). Gatsby throws these parties in order to show off his relatively newly acquired wealth, but what no one knows is that he is throwing these parties in hopes to attract Daisy Buchanan.

Gatsby and Daisy had a brief love affair that ended when Gatsby went overseas during World War One. Although they loved each other then, five years have passed, and Daisy now has a husband, and a daughter. Gatsby has waited for Daisy “Almost five years! There must have been moments…when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams… because of the colossal vitality of his illusion. It had gone beyond her, beyond everything.” (103). Gatsby has been holding onto the idea of Daisy and having a life with her for so long that reality is no longer viable and he wants to just pretend that the time they spent apart never happened, which is obviously unrealistic because she has moved so far on. Gatsby is truly removed from the reality of the situation. He went as far as to buying a mansion on West Egg, just across the bay from East Egg, where Daisy and Tom live. Gatsby purposefully decided to live in West Egg so that he could see Daisy’s house. When “[Gatsby] stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way… I could have sworn he was trembling…[I] distinguished nothing except a single

green light” (24). The green light is coming from Daisy’s house and is a symbol of the American Dream. In one way, Gatsby has wealth in the sense of having money that he earned, therefore he lives the American dream. Although Gatsby is rich, he never truly achieves the American Dream, because the woman he loves, the one he essentially became rich for can’t love him. Daisy can’t just take off because Tom brings her security, financially. Tom can guarantee security because he comes from old money, and he will likely always be rich. Gatsby might not be able to guarantee this because he is new money. Gatsby’s dream to repeat the past and be reunited with Daisy is unattainable because she has moved on. Gatsby cannot buy back the time they spent apart, and he cannot buy back the love that Daisy had an abundance of for him. But as it turns out, Daisy isn’t happy with her predominately materialistic life.
Daisy has a plethora of material wealth, and although she may be happy with that, she is not happy with her life and relationship with Tom. Prior to her marriage to Tom, Daisy meets a soldier who “looked at [her] while she was speaking, in a way that every young girl wants to be looked at some time…it seemed romantic… His name was Jay Gatsby.” (81). Daisy was infatuated with Gatsby, and he seemed to love her. But the fact of the matter was that she fell for a man who wasn’t who she really wanted. Gatsby didn’t come from a wealthy family, and at the time of meeting Daisy, he was not yet rich. He was also preparing to go to war, so she would have to had let him go anyway. Not long after Daisy and Gatsby’s demise “…she married Tom Buchanan of Chicago…he came down with a hundred people in four private cars and hired a whole floor of the Seelbach Hotel, and the day before the wedding he gave her a string of pearls valued at three hundred and fifty thousand dollars.”(82). Daisy marries into the wealth she dreamed of but she isn’t really in love. Prior to the ceremony, Daisy, who is not a drinker, gets drunk and says she changed her mind about marrying Tom. The day before her wedding “[Jordan] [went]…into her room and found her.. drunk as a monkey.” (82). When she asked “’What’s the matter, Daisy?’… [Daisy] groped around in a waste-basket…and pulled out the string of pearls…[and told Jordan to]’Take ’em downstairs and give ’em back to whoever they belong to. Tell ’em all Daisy’s change’ her mine…[Daisy] began to cry” (83). We see that Daisy is so distressed that she gets drunk, and attempted to give back the pearl necklace that Tom gifted her. It is clear that Daisy doesn’t want to go through with the marriage, but we know that she and Tom get married, and her ultimate drive to do so is his wealth. Here we see the promise of wealth take over what she really wants; to be with the man she loves, Gatsby. In chapter one, Nick visits his cousin Daisy in East Egg. The two have a conversation about Daisy and Tom’s young daughter, Pammy. Nick begins to question Daisy “ ’I suppose she talks…eats, and everything. ’Oh, yes.’ [Daisy] looked at [Nick] absently…’I’m glad [she’s ] a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool — that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.” (3) . Here we can understand that Daisy is implying that the life of a woman is a happier one in ignorance. If Pammy is a “fool” then she won’t have to deal with the realities of the real world. This scene is important because it shows how Daisy is unhappy and was oblivious to the reality of marrying for wealth rather than love. When they return from their honeymoon that summer, Jordan sees Tom and Daisy at a party, and she “… thought [she’d] never seen a girl so mad about her husband. If he left the room for a minute [Daisy would] look around uneasily and say ’Where’s Tom gone?’…It was touching to see them together… That was in August” (83) It appears that Daisy falls in love with Tom during their honeymoon. Their love seemed genuine to Jordan, and they looked happy. Jordan ends her statement with ’that was in August’, implying that there was an event to break the honeymoon stage of Daisy and Tom’s new relationship. Tom and Daisy’s relationship is an example of wealth not being able to buy true love and happiness because it is clear that Daisy is not happy with Tom, despite the immense wealth she has thanks to him.
Tom Buchanan uses his wealth to become a figure of power above those below him, but we never see him truly satisfied. When we are first introduced to Tom, we see how egotistical he is. When Nick arrives on the evening he visits Tom and Daisy, he thinks that Tom’s voice ’…seemed to say…I’m stronger and more of a man than you are.’ (10). when the two spoke. Tom uses his wealth as power. People won’t question his morals because he is socially above most. One moral that is forgone by most is cheating on Daisy. Following their honeymoon, “ Tom… ran into a wagon … and ripped a front wheel off his car. The girl who was with him got into the papers too… she was one of the chambermaids in the Santa Barbara Hotel…”(83). Tom’s affair is on public display because of the injuries his chambermaid mistress sustained in the car crash, therefore anyone who read the paper knew about the affair. It is very likely that Daisy knows about this affair because of the publicity, but she stays with Tom. He makes terrible choices and gets caught, but no one scolds or punishes him because of his social status. In chapter two, we discover that Tom is having yet another affair. This time, he is with George Wilson, the mechanic’s wife, Myrtle Wilson. When Tom, Myrtle, and Nick go to New York City for the night, ’Tom…and Mrs. Wilson stood face to face discussing… whether [she] had any right to mention Daisy’s name. ’Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!’ shouted Mrs. Wilson. ’I’ll say it whenever I want to!… Making a short deft movement Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand. (41). Tom hit Myrtle because he did not think she was worthy of saying Daisy’s name, because she was not of their high-class, and he wanted to remind her of that. Tom is not satisfied with his marriage to Daisy, so he cheats on her. He uses his power to do so, but we never really see Tom happy. Not with Daisy, the chambermaid, or Myrtle. He may be able to buy people’s homage to him but he can’t buy the love and happiness he seems to be missing in his relationships.
The Great Gatsby is a timeless story of wealth being a facade masking true emotion. This is displayed through the three main characters, Gatsby, Daisy, and Tom. Gatsby accumulated enough wealth to satisfy Daisy, but it was too late, she had moved on, and his dream of being with her was not a feasible one. Daisy and Tom had all the materialized wealth they wanted, but they never truly felt love, or contentment with each other. This notion of money not being able to buy love is a prominent one in today’s society and will remain one for as long as there is love.