Literary Analysis The Great Gatsby

In chapter four of The Great Gatsby F. by Scott Fitzgerald, Jourdan explains to Nick that before marrying Tom Buchanan, Daisy dates Gatsby until they unwilling separate when he left to serve overseas. Through Jourdan’s recollection, Fitzgerald makes it apparent that Daisy truly loves Gatsby, but once he leaves, feels obligated to marry Tom: in fact, Daisy cares so much about convincing onlookers that she’s put together that when she realizes that she can’t be with Gatsby she unhappily marries Tom, the man whom she doesn’t love but knows will provide her with a secure life. From the start, Fitzgerald implies that Daisy takes pride in keeping up her reputation, so will therefore go out of her way to behave like a good-samaritan in order to deceive
others. For example, even though she entices officers to the point that they demand to “monopolize [her]”, Daisy still manages to appear pure as she “dress[es] in all white” (74). In fact, she also deceives others into believing her facade so well that she manages to prompt younger peers (like Jourdan baker) into “admiring her most” (75). However, the author finally makes it obvious that Daisy leads a superficially life when he ironically describes her “drunk as a monkey” on Sauterne, a wine that sounds very high-end yet appears more yellow as opposed to white: much like Daisy, a girl who seems fancy but in actuality isn’t pure as she leads others to believe (76). When Fitzgerald describes that Daisy, apart from her false persona, acts like herself with Gatsby, he continues on suggest that she truly seeks Gatsby.
Preferring to spend time with Jay Gatsby, for example, Daisy neglects her commitment to go to “Red Cross and make bandages”, thus suggesting that she feels free to let go of her selfless-girl act when she spends time with Gatsby (75). Not to mention, she, willing to leave behind the model-citizen who she built herself up to behind, ignores the possibility of “rumors circulating” when she “packs her bags” to run off to Gatsby after the army deploys him (75). Finally, to symbolize that Daisy never wants to let go of Gatsby, Fitzgerald details that she “crie[s] and crie[s]” as she holds on to a letter, presumably from Gatsby, the night before she marries Tom
(76). Finally, Fitzgerald describes that Daisy, giving in to pressure to keep up her composed-life facade, forces herself to push her feelings aside and consent to marry Tom. For instance, after refusing to “[speak] to her family” after they “prevent” her from running away to Gatsby, “several weeks” pass then Daisy swallows her sadness and acts “gay as ever” when she agrees to “[engange]” Tom (75). Not to mention, at her bridal dinner, Daisy wants so desperately to escape her commitment that she turns to drinking in order to evade her instinct to “change her mind” (76). When Daisy, finally, sobers up the next day, she puts on her superficial act again as she, “without so much as a shiver”, forces herself to “marry Tom” even though she wants to turn back, this Fitzgerald symbolizes when he details that she wants to “give back [the expensive pearls that Tom gave her]” (76). Overall, Fitzgerald, describing that Daisy (overly concerned with convincing others that she’s a model citizen) can let her facade go when she spends time with Gatsby yet still marries someone else when he leaves to serve across seas, makes it clear that the southern-belle feels obligated to marry Tom when she truly loves Gatsby.
Through the passage, the author thus sets up Daisy and Gatsby’s affair that naturally follows when the two meet again four years later. Along with this, Fitzgerald recommends that when in love, a person should fight the urge to give into pressure from others and instead follow his or her heart, this way lovers will avoid agreeing to a unwanted life that will potentially drive them to seek the one whom they truly long
for.