Within F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, there are two infamous characters named Tom and Daisy, an extremely wealthy couple who reside in a luxurious mansion in East Egg. Although their lives may seem picture perfect from the outside, it is far the opposite on the inside. The narrator of the novel, Nick, describes Tom and Daisy as “careless people…they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together and let other people clean up the mess they had made…” (Fitzgerald 187-188). Nick makes this statement in response to all of the scandals they created and people they hurt throughout the novel. Tom and Daisy both prove their carelessness through …show more content…
Gatsby and Daisy had met years prior, but ended up going their separate ways. However, Gatsby remained in love with Daisy and longed for her affection. The two reconcile, and Daisy starts seeing Gatsby outside of her marriage with Tom. In this, Daisy is leading Gatsby on by making him believe he will attain his ultimate dream: a life with her. However, Daisy knows deep down she will not leave Tom for Gatsby. This is proven when a confrontation about the affair sparks between Tom and Gatsby, and Daisy attempts to defend Gatsby and stick up to Tom, but ultimately fails and retreats back to her husband. “Her frightened eyes told that whatever intentions, whatever courage she had had, were definitely gone” (Fitzgerald 135). Daisy’s carelessness shines through in leading Gatsby to believe she would abandon Tom for him, but fails to follow through. She recklessly broke the heart of the man who had been in love with her for many …show more content…
Another drastic situation created by Daisy arises. However, she does not have to deal with the consequences of it. Myrtle’s husband sees Gatsby in the car, and makes the assumption that he was the one having an affair with Myrtle, which is why she would run into the street to leave her husband and be with the man in the car. Instead of owning up to her mistake, Daisy allows Gatsby to willingly take the blame for Myrtle’s death. When Nick asks if Daisy was driving the car, he replies “‘Yes, but of course I’ll say I was’” (Fitzgerald 137). This causes George Wilson to kill Gatsby, an innocent man, because of the assumption that he was the one who killed Myrtle and had an affair with her. Through all this, Daisy never confessed to being the person behind the wheel of the car and Tom never confessed to being the man who Myrtle was a mistress to. After this incident, Daisy and Tom packed their bags and moved to the Midwest, avoiding the problems they created yet
Throughout the novel Fitzgerald shows that Daisy is self-centered and careless at heart; she is a dreamer who fails to face reality. Continuing an affair with Gatsby with no real intentions of leaving her husband eventually leads to the death of Gatsby. In return she shows little to no concerns over the death of her “love” Gatsby and returns into the arms of her corrupt husband. Tom, who is also unfaithful in their relationship has a mistress of his own who is killed in a car accident while Daisy was driving. Tom as well shows no remorse in her death and moves on like nothing ever happened. Daisy and Tom are the prime example of corruption in both material success and with what wealth can bring; “They instinctively seek out each other because each recognizes the other’s strength in the corrupt
The Great Gatsby is a novel written by author F. Scott Fitzgerald that tells the story of many characters through the eyes of one of the main characters, Nick Carraway. In chapter eight (pg.121), Nick states: "They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together and let other people clean up the mess they made." Throughout this novel, there were multiple events that took place that made Nick think this of them. There were also details about Tom and Daisy Buchanan in this novel that caused me to gain this "negative" opinion about them as well. By the end of this essay, you will know my interpretation of Nick's
She wanted to keep living her perfect, luxurious life, so she ran away from all of her problems. Daisy also has committed careless actions with her Daughter. Daisy brings her daughter, Pam, to a dangerous bootlegger and displays extremely selfish behavior to her on a daily basis. Daisy is also responsible for Nick’s disillusionment to society. In the beginning of the story, Nick feels bad for his cousin and eventually comes to have a strange idolization for her. However, as The Great Gatsby progresses, Nick begins to see that Daisy’s careless behavior ruins many things and lives, resulting in him describing Tom and Daisy as he does in this quote, “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.” The novel ends with Tom and Daisy using their wealth to move away from their troubles and maintain their place in society even with their destructive habits. F. Scott Fitzgerald uses Daisy to show that society is careless to live a seemingly perfect
“The only people you have to look out for in life are the people that don’t care about anything or anyone” (Alde). In The Great Gatsby by, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tom and Daisy are just those people that are not to be trusted. They have no regard for other’s feelings and live life without facing the consequences. Tom and Daisy show that they are careless people through their insensitive, thoughtless and selfish acts.
In the novel The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald wrote, “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they made…” (179) The relationship between Tom and Daisy was quite unstable. They were "careless people" because they were insensitive and thoughtless to others. If something goes wrong, they walk away, leaving the mess behind for others, like Nick, to deal with. Tom and Daisy always acted in a radical demeanor without ever thinking through the consequences of their actions. Early in the novel, Tom’s abuse of his relationship with Myrtle causes her to believe that they would have been married if it were not for Daisy. Daisy’s inattention led to the death of
In this way, Daisy rebels against Tom’s infidelity by using Gatsby to get back at him. However, Daisy has never considered leaving Tom, even though all this time she knows that Tom has been having an affair with another woman. The main reason why is because Daisy longs for the love, financial stability, and the practicality that Tom can provide for her, and she knows that Tom would never leave her for the simple reason that they complete each other, with Daisy giving Tom increased social status by being from the higher class and an attractive wife, while Tom gives Daisy the stability that she needs in her life.
A theme from Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, is that money cannot buy a person happiness. This theme applies to Gatsby himself. Gatsby spends about half of his life trying to satisfy Daisy. He obtained an enormous amount of wealth and threw house parties for five straight years. He did this to show off his wealth and to see if Daisy would attend one of his house parties. Daisy is married to Tom and has a child named Pammy. She has feelings for Gatsby but, she eventually stays married to Tom. Throughout the book, Gatsby has an obsession with Daisy that he cannot get over. Nick says that, “He [Gatsby] knew that Daisy was extraordinary, but he didn’t realize just how extraordinary a “nice” girl could be. She vanished into her rich house, in
Gatsby, Daisy, Tom, Nick and Jordan have gone out to the city for the day. Gatsby and Daisy are all over each other, when Gatsby finally reveals to Tom that him and Daisy have loved each other for five years. Tom responds to Gatsby stating, “And what’s more I love Daisy too. Once in a while I go off on a spree and make a fool of myself, but I always come back, and in my heart I love her all the time.’ ‘You’re revolting,’ said Daisy” (131). This shows that Tom thinks he can do whatever he would like, and Daisy will still love him after he goes on cheating sprees. Daisy proves him wrong. Tom says he loves Daisy, yet he continues to cheat on her because he knows from past experiences that she will just continue to stay with him, until now, he wants Daisy back because he realizes that she now loves another man. Tom thought that he could do as he pleased, and not stay faithful to Daisy and she would take that, but Daisy ended up finding another man, and loving him, and becomes further disgusted with Tom, something Tom never thought would happen. As Tom, Nick and Jordan are driving back home they realize that there has been a crash. Tom sees that Myrtle is dead and he overhears that she has been hit by what he believes is Gatsby’s car. Nick reveals Tom’s reaction as they drive home:“In a little while I heard a low husky sob, and saw that the tears were
Gatsby explains how he wants to rekindle his relationship with Daisy and he is desperate to repeat what they once had. He wants it to seem as if the past had not happened and that Daisy never married Tom. If he could go back he would but he cannot so he will do anything and everything it takes to get Daisy back and fulfil the perfect picture he has in his head. This shows Gatsby’s love for Daisy because he is willing to do anything to win her back.
Tom, Mr. Gatsby and even Daisy seem to be simultaneously blinded and driven by their greed, though much of it is in an unusual form. Tom’s lust for another woman causes him to cheat Daisy, the love of his life, and not only jeopardize his marriage, but also takes the chance of his child growing up with divorced parents. Mr. Gatsby and his desperate obsession with Daisy worms his way between the already unstable couple (though not because of Tom’s affair), damaging their marriage and almost convincing Daisy to renounce her love for Tom even saying on page 132 that she doesn’t love him, and divorce him, despite Tom’s misdeeds and his affair, which is currently unknown to them, he still loves Daisy and she still loves him causing an exceptional clash of interests. Finally Daisy’s love for both Tom and Gatsby causes plenty of indecision and her eventual compliance with Gatsby nearly results in a divorce with Tom which would have been disastrous for their
Gatsby had told nick “Well, first Daisy turned away from the woman toward the other car, and then she lost her nerve and turned back. The second my hand reached the wheel I felt the shock-it must have killed her instantly.”(143-144) Gatsby had suffered the consequences by deciding he would take the blame for the incident, daisy on the other hand had only left New York without suspicion. Moreover Myrtle Wilson is a naive character in the story, Tom’s girlfriend and George Wilson’s wife. She also is not very intelligent about her choices for she decides to cheat on her husband with a man that he knows and is currently married. As Daisy’s actions had big consequences, Myrtle’s consequence was her life taken. Myrtle decided to run into the street, hoping to get Tom’s help, but instead it was daisy who intended to hit her and keep going. Some factors explaining the reason this was a terrible decision, running onto the middle of the street without paying attention to the traffic is dangerous, even worse is to expect the car to stop, it may but there is a possibility it will not stop as there have been rumors that myrtle had been going out with tom, this could have made Daisy want to kill her by seeing her.
Until one day when Gatsby invites Tom and Daisy to the party. Tom sees how Gatsby acts towards Daisy and realizes something is fishy. So he starts doing his research on ole’ Gatsby. One day Tom, Daisy, Gatsby, Nick, and Jordan all have dinner together in the city. But Tom starts an argument with Gatsby and Daisy wishes to go home. So she leaves with Gatsby but on the way back the two hit and kill Myrtle. Gatsby being the true gentleman he is takes the blame so that nothing happens to Daisy. But word gets around to George Wilson, Myrtle’s husband, that Gatsby killed his wife. So the next day George sneaks over to Gatsby’s and kills
In The Great Gatsby, Daisy’s betrayal takes place in order for Daisy to have stability in her life with Tom. Since their first encounter five years earlier, Daisy has led Gatsby to believe that she is in love with him and that they were going to be together, “they were so engrossed in each other that she didn’t see me until I (Nick) was five feet away,” (Fitzgerald 48) Although at first, their encounter is described as “a terrible mistake,” (Fitzgerald 94) her attitude towards Gatsby changes when she enters his immense mansion and sees the vastness of Gatsby’s wealth, “That huge place there?’ She cried pointing, (Fitzgerald 99) Gatsby then realizes that he has been betrayed when he accuses Daisy of never loving Tom, only to discover that Daisy
Gatsby has been at work for Daisy ever since he met her, but in the end Daisy always chose her husband and not her lover. He would always try to win her over with expensive things. This quote describes perfectly what Gatsby was doing, “ his goal is galvanized for him early on when was a poor young army lieutenant he is prevented from pursuing a relationship with Daisy.” Gatsby still trying his best efforts sent a love letter to Daisy on her wedding night. Daisy opened the letter, she loved it but knew she had to marry Tom. When Gatsby is killed, Daisy forgets all about him and moves on with her life. This quote describes Daisy and Gatsby 's relationship. “ Possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever. Compared to the great distance that had separated him from Daisy it had seemed very near to her, almost touching her.” When Daisy finally is won over by Jay Gatsby he dies and Daisy immediately runs back to Tom just as she always has done in the past.
Both Tom and Gatsby’s treatment of Daisy parallels their attitude towards their money. Gatsby worked very hard to gain his fortune from nothing and achieve his goal of being wealthy. This is the same attitude with which he approached winning over Daisy and trying to be with her. Gatsby goes as far as to “[buy his] house so that Daisy was across the bay”(78) and “read a chicago paper for years just on the chance of catching a glimpse of Daisy’s name.”(79) Gatsby uses Daisy as his impetus to drive his work and success and in turn then devotes all of his earnings to try and win Daisy over. Everything Gatsby does from the moment he meets Daisy to the moment he dies is dedicated to her. This is a reflection of his work ethic which is to constantly strive for what he wishes to achieve which is his idea of the American dream. Gatsby believes he has to fundamentally change himself to be good enough to be worthy of Daisy’s love. Completely opposite, Tom’s attitude towards the love of his life is very similar to his style of success. While he does truly love Daisy, Tom also is involved with Myrtle. Late in the novel during a fight, Tom admits to Daisy that “once in awhile [he goes] off on a spree and [makes] a fool of [himself], but [he] always [comes] back, and in [his] heart [he loves] her all the time”(131). Even though Tom treats Daisy poorly and cheats on her, he expects her to stay true to him.