Daisy Buchanan Research Paper

Daisy Buchanan: Angel or Demon?

While there are many differences between the book and movie of The Great Gatsby a particularly interesting alteration is the portrayal of Daisy Buchanan. In both adaptations of the story, Daisy Buchanan is shown as the wife of Tom Buchanan as well as the woman Gatsby believes is his one true love making him willing to do anything to win Daisy. In the movie however Daisy is represented as vapid and innocent, in the the book Daisy is written as a more deep and complex character with her own agenda.
In The Great Gatsby 2013 film directed by Luhrmann, Daisy is characterized as nothing more than a thoughtless “golden girl” who was more a victim at the hands of those around her than anything. This is shown in Daisy’s

These show that while Daisy knows and expects that everybody must love and be drawn to her; the fact that she said those things to her cousin only proves that she has no thought for the future and the problems that may rise from influencing everyone to flock around her under false pretenses. Instead, Daisy is content to sit back and watch the chaos she invoked, comforted with the knowledge that she cannot help the fact that all the men love her. Afterall, she didn’t force them to be love her in her opinion. In contrast, the original telling of the story written by Fitzgerald gradually reveals to the readers the process in which Daisy is slowly dismantled from her facade of angelic perfection, and revealed as a much more deep and complex character, encompassing her greed, snobbery, carelessness and pettiness to say the least. When first reading The Great Gatsby, the original impression of Daisy Buchanan is innocence. From the author's description of her as the golden girl, or Daisy driving around dressed in her white clothes with her good breeding and old money; she is painted as an angel, possessing an unknowing allure,

In the movie, Daisy’s innocent representation causes Tom to become a villain and for Gatsby to appear too pushy and demaning. While Tom certainly wasn’t the most righteous character, what with his cheating and influence on those around him, not every problem was his fault. Similarly with Gatsby, while he did have a big dream planned out and was convinced that his way was the only way, Daisy pretty much encouraged him to do all of it. She certainly never stopped him. However, since the movie represented Daisy as an innocent, a vapid unaware of all the evil around her, Tom and Gatsby’s wrong doings were emphasized and enlarged, while Daisy’s own mistakes were downplayed with Daisy herself looking as though she was the victim. On the other hand, Daisy’s character in the book made the readers more sympathetic to Gatsby (not really Tom because while he isn’t a full blown villain, he still wasn’t a very good person). Knowing that Daisy wasn’t what her outward appearance suggested, and wasn’t what Gatsby believed her to be made it all the all the more sad and pathetic when he continued to sacrifice himself for her, putting her happiness before his when she didn’t deserve it or even return the