Daisy's Archetypes In The Great Gatsby

Sometimes characters represent more than the reader may think. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, tells the story of a wealthy man, Jay Gatsby, and his love for Daisy. Throughout the novel, many characters are brought up. On the surface, they seem almost unimportant, but after reading through the story it is made known that each of these people can represent different archetypes. Archetypes are perfect examples or perfect models of something. For example, Daisy represents the Queen. Queen, means she is a woman who is often connected to a powerful man. And Tom represents the Narcissist, Nick represents the Everyman, and Gatsby is the Wealthy Hedonistic. Fitzgerald uses many writing techniques to portray these archetypes to the readers.

The Queen archetype is usually connected to a powerful man and they find fulfillment in partnership with a man. Daisy’s “powerful man” in the book is Tom. While her and Gatsby’s interest in each other seemed to reappear when they saw each other again after being apart for a long time, she will always go back to Tom because her character is loyal to him and she realizes that Tom is whom she has to be with because of his money and because he is who she had been with for a while. Their relationship is her fulfillment in life. That is why she cannot leave him. In the book, Tom says, “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” (Fitgerald 131). Their relationship isn’t close perfect and they both know that, but it fills them both with an odd sense of comfort. This sense of comfort is what causes Daisy to stay with him; therefore, she feels that if she leaves him she won’t feel that same comfort. Also, when Gatsby would plan things to do with Daisy, she usually did not act like it was as big of a deal as Gatsby acted. Her, “gestures serve to downplay the intensity of her devotion, making the relationship more one-sided…” (Kehl 128). Her unwillingness to act like she and Gatsby were more than just friends exemplifies how she couldn’t leave Tom. The overwhelming feeling of fulfillment she gets from their

He throws luxurious parties in his huge mansion, has only the nicest things, and his bootlegging business is brought up. While he has all this money, he always wants more. He is not happy with where he is now. This is why he is characterized as the Wealthy Hedonistic. A hedonistic person is someone who is devoted to the pursuit of pleasure. They are known to be unhappy as well as selfish. His values were not what they should have been. He was, “a victim of his own warped idealism and false set of values” (Pearson 645). His unorderly values ended up negatively impacting his life. A way Gatsby proved himself to be selfish is by the way he treated Nick. At first, he came off as someone who genuinely cared about Nick and wanted to be his friend, but then as the story went on it is shown that he often used Nick to get to Daisy. He knew they were cousins and used that to his advantage. He was always pursuing Daisy because he thought Daisy would bring him happiness. He did not stop until he had