She finds the West Egg nouveaux riches to be tedious and vulgar, an affront to her "old money" mentality.
In addition, when she attends one of Gatsby's parties, aside from the half-hour she spends with Gatsby, she has an unpleasant time. Given that she is fully aware of her husband's infidelities, 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 deal with the affairs. Given Gatsby's obsession with Daisy and the lengths to which he has gone to win her, she seems a worthy paramour.Īs the story continues, however, more of Daisy is revealed, and bit-by-bit she becomes less of an ideal. She appears pure in a world of cheats and liars. She is routinely linked with the color white (a white dress, white flowers, white car, and so on), always at the height of fashion and addressing people with only the most endearing terms. rippling and fluttering as if had just been blown back in after a short flight around the house." From this moment, Daisy becomes like an angel on earth. buoyed up as though upon an anchored balloon. Nick calls on her at her house and initially finds her (and Jordan Baker, who is in many ways an unmarried version of Daisy) dressed all in white, sitting on an "enormous couch. Although Fitzgerald carefully builds Daisy's character with associations of light, purity, and innocence, when all is said and done, she is the opposite from what she presents herself to be.įrom Nick's first visit, Daisy is associated with otherworldliness. Gatsby loves her (or at least the idea of her) with such vitality and determination that readers would like, in many senses, to see her be worthy of his devotion. Despite her beauty and charm, Daisy is merely a selfish, shallow, and in fact, hurtful, woman. Although Fitzgerald does much to make her a character worthy of Gatsby's unlimited devotion, in the end she reveals herself for what she really is. Daisy is The Great Gatsby's most enigmatic, and perhaps most disappointing, character.