Daisy
Who is Daisy Buchanan? She can be described as superficial, shallow, fake and ditzy. However, there is another part of her, a deeper part, that she hides from everyone, including herself. Beneath the surface, there is a pool where not even light dares to go. That is her character, and it takes Jay Gatsby to churn the waters and bring the purest form of Daisy to the surface, if only for an instant.
At a first glance, Daisy is an utterly flat character, she came from wealth, she is currently wealthy, and will have wealth in the future. She appears to be in a state of stasis. However, upon closer inspection, Daisy fluctuates between being shallow and deep, feeling and unfeeling. Although she does not undergo enough change to be classified as a round character, it is safe to say that she is a midpoint between flat and round, a rather complex personality. The reader catches glimpses of her true self in a multitude of instances, but none better than when she refers to her daughter’s birth. “’I’m glad it’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’”(Fitzgerald, 17). This quote is much like Daisy herself. On the surface, it appears ridiculous and unreal, but underneath, it is one of the most profound statements that she makes. What Daisy truly means is that she herself is a fool, a useless little housewife following an extravagantly normal routine day after day. However, in many stories, including many of Shakespeare’s plays, the fool is a character with hidden wisdom and knowledge about life. The same applies for Daisy, her child, and all women of the era. In order to survive in a man’s world, a woman either had to ignore gender roles entirely and never marry or become so meek and innocent that no one suspected her true nature or married her right away. In the conventional definition of happiness for women, the latter was preferable, and thus, Daisy wished this curse of false happiness upon her
At a first glance, Daisy is an utterly flat character, she came from wealth, she is currently wealthy, and will have wealth in the future. She appears to be in a state of stasis. However, upon closer inspection, Daisy fluctuates between being shallow and deep, feeling and unfeeling. Although she does not undergo enough change to be classified as a round character, it is safe to say that she is a midpoint between flat and round, a rather complex personality. The reader catches glimpses of her true self in a multitude of instances, but none better than when she refers to her daughter’s birth. “’I’m glad it’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’”(Fitzgerald, 17). This quote is much like Daisy herself. On the surface, it appears ridiculous and unreal, but underneath, it is one of the most profound statements that she makes. What Daisy truly means is that she herself is a fool, a useless little housewife following an extravagantly normal routine day after day. However, in many stories, including many of Shakespeare’s plays, the fool is a character with hidden wisdom and knowledge about life. The same applies for Daisy, her child, and all women of the era. In order to survive in a man’s world, a woman either had to ignore gender roles entirely and never marry or become so meek and innocent that no one suspected her true nature or married her right away. In the conventional definition of happiness for women, the latter was preferable, and thus, Daisy wished this curse of false happiness upon her