Character Analysis Of Zelda In 'The Great Gatsby'

Stephen King once said, “the most important things are the hardest things to say. They are the things you get ashamed of because words diminish your feelings”. This quote is a complex way of saying that people need to share how they feel even though most of the time it is hard to be able to say how you feel, whether out of shame or just not wanting to share. When F. Scott Fitzgerald could not say how he felt about his dwindling marriage he turned it into fiction by writing his wife, Zelda, into Daisy Buchanan. Fitzgerald not only portrayed Zelda in Daisy but also displayed his relationship with Zelda in both Daisy’s relationship with Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship with Tom. Although Daisy is fictional she seems to be inspired by Zelda.
He does this by having Daisy be from a wealthy southern family, by having Daisy be popular with the young men, and by having Daisy be a little bipolar. Ben Phelan states, in “The Legend of Zelda (Sayre Fitzgerald)”, that Zelda Sayre was born into an upper-class family in Montgomery, Alabama and was, “by all accounts, the pre-eminent belle of Montgomery” (Phelan).
By pre-eminent belle Phelan is saying that she was beautiful and the boys in town wanted to be with Zelda. Daisy mirrored this idea because she was born in to a wealthy, southern family and was popular with the boys when she was eighteen. This shown on page seventy-nine in The Great Gatsby when Fitzgerald writes, “The largest of the banners and the largest of the lawns belonged to Daisy Fay’s house… She was just eighteen, two years older than me, and by far the most popular of all the young girls in Louisville” (Fitzgerald). By saying that Daisy’s house had the largest of lawns, Fitzgerald implied that she was from a wealthy family, just like Zelda. BY saying that Daisy was the most popular girl in Louisville, Fitzgerald was saying that, just like Zelda, the boys in Louisville wanted to be
with Daisy. A second example that shows Daisy was inspired by Zelda is that they were both a little on the loony side. Zelda was diagnosed as schizophrenic when she checked herself into a sanatorium outside of Paris in 1930 and it has also been speculated that Zelda may have been Bipolar (Phelan). Daisy presented this side of Zelda by being a little bipolar herself. In the book, this is shown throughout pages 138, 139, and 140 when Tom, Gatsby, and Daisy exchanging blows with one another. Throughout these pages Daisy does from saying Tom is revolting and she never loved him to saying that Gatsby wanted too much and ended with saying that she loved both Tom and Gatsby (Fitzgerald). Another example of Daisy being bipolar is in Baz Luhrmann’s rendition of The Great Gatsby. Daisy goes from hysterically laughing to crying from sadness in the scene when Gatsby is throwing his shirts at Daisy (The Great). Both of these moments for Daisy show how she is prone to being bipolar. Through having the same origins and being bipolar Daisy was inspired by Fitzgerald’s wife, Zelda. F.
Scott Fitzgerald also connected Daisy’s relationship with Gatsby back to his own marriage with Zelda. Both Zelda and Daisy made their loved one wait until they were wealthy before they got serious but they both ended up together at a time in their lives. It is known that Zelda made Fitzgerald wait because in Howard Greenfeld’s biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald, He stated, “Zelda knew what she wanted, and she believed that eventually Fitzgerald could provide the life she had envisioned for herself. But that life required success—financial as well as social—and Scott first had to prove himself” (Greenfeld). This shows that Zelda wanted to be with Fitzgerald but he was not wealthy enough to be a suitable spouse for Zelda at that time. Once Fitzgerald was wealthy after the first book of his was a hit, he went back to Zelda and they got married (Greenfeld). Fitzgerald showed this aspect of his marriage in the relationship between Daisy and Gatsby. Daisy had made Gatsby wait until he was wealthy to think about getting serious with him. This is shown when Tom had called Gatsby a “common swindler” on page 140 of The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald). This shows that Gatsby was not good enough for Daisy when he did not have his money to throw around. Gatsby throwing his money around and having his lavish parties is his way of showing Daisy that he is wealthy enough to deserve her. After Nick reunited Gatsby and Daisy she started spending afternoons at Gatsby’s house. This is shown on page
120 of The Great Gatsby when after Nick questions about Gatsby letting his servants go, Gatsby responds saying, “Daisy comes over quite often—in the afternoons” (Fitzgerald). This shows that after Gatsby proved he had money Daisy accepted him as a partner. This is the same thing Zelda did with Fitzgerald. By relating Daisy’s relationship with Gatsby to his own marriage, Fitzgerald connected Zelda to Daisy. The final way Fitzgerald connects Daisy to Zelda is by connecting Daisy’s relationship with Tom to his marriage with Zelda. Fitzgerald did this by having Daisy and Tom to have a daughter and having Daisy cheat on Tom. Zelda and Fitzgerald had a daughter who was born on October 26 (Greenfeld). Their daughter was named Frances Scott Fitzgerald and was to go by ‘Scottie’” (Croasdaile). This connects Zelda to Daisy who has a little girl as well. Daisy’s daughter is introduced for the first time in person on page 123 of The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald). This shows that both Zelda and Daisy had a daughter. In 1924, Zelda met a French pilot and asked Fitzgerald for a divorce (Phelan). Zelda met this pilot, named Edouard Jozan, on the French Riviera where she and Fitzgerald were spending some of their time (Croasdaile). This shows that Zelda was not always faithful to Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald then wrote Daisy as a wife who cheated on her husband. This is seen when Daisy spends her afternoons at Gatsby’s house (Fitzgerald). Unlike with Zelda and Fitzgerald, Tom was also cheating on Daisy. This is seen when we meet his mistress, Myrtle, when Tom takes Nick to meet her (Fitzgerald). So, while Fitzgerald connects his relationship with his wife to Daisy’s marriage with Tom, Fitzgerald adds a small difference between the two. Fitzgerald associated his relationship with Zelda to Daisy’s relationship with Tom through their children and their affairs. F. Scott connected his relationship with Zelda to Daisy’s relationship with Gatsby by having Daisy make Gatsby wait until he was wealthy before she was able to be with him, although they did eventually get together. Fitzgerald associated Zelda to Daisy by having Daisy be from a wealthy southern family, by having Daisy be popular with the young men, and by having Daisy be a little bipolar. Fitzgerald not only portrayed Zelda in Daisy but also displayed his relationship with Zelda in both Daisy’s relationship with Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship with Tom. By doing this he shared his feelings about his dwindling marriage. Fitzgerald might not have been able to say how he felt about his marriage with Zelda out loud so he wrote it down, putting it into a fictional book. This is what Stephen King was saying when he spoke of important things being the hardest things to say. Even though Fitzgerald was unable to verbally say how he felt, he figuratively told his feeling through his book, The Great Gatsby.

Works Cited
Croasdaile, Caroline. “Zelda Fitzgerald: Love and Madnes.” Americans in Paris. Fall 2010. N.p., 12 Nov. 2010. Web. 11 Apr. 2014
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Carles Scribner’s Sons, 1925. Print.
Greenfeld, Howard. “Chapter 3.” F. Scott Fitzgerald. New York: Crown, 1974. 45-58. Print.
Phelan, Ben. “The Legend of Zelda (Sayre Fitzgerald).” PBS. PBS, 26 Mar. 2012. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.
“Stephen King Quote.” BrainyQuote. Xplore, n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
The Great Gatsby. Dir. Baz Luhrmann. Perf. Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan. Warner Bros., 2013. DVD.