Love is a powerful emotion in many aspects. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays love as an emotion that can be bought. In the 1920s, love was rarely a feeling and more often a business or societal gain. It is obvious that Daisy has no true feelings for Tom, and that her marriage to him was arranged and/or forced. We are able to see this aspect more clearly as the details of Daisy and Tom’s marriage unfold throughout the book.
In chapter five of The Great Gatsby we learn many new details about Daisy’s former feelings for Jay Gatsby. The book clues us in on their love story, “. . . Her mother had found her packing her bag one winter night to go to New York and say good-by to a soldier who was going overseas. She was effectually prevented, but she wasn’t on speaking terms with
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He was a rich man who was approved of by Daisy’s family. Although it is never directly stated, we can assume Daisy was forced into the marriage because of her behavior the day before her wedding, “‘I came into her room half an hour before the bridal dinner, and found her lying on her bed as lovely as the June night in her flowered dress- and as drunk as a monkey. She had a bottle of Sauterne in one hand and a letter in the other’. . . ‘Tell ‘em all Daisy’s change’ her mine’” (76). I interpret the letter Daisy has in her hand as Gatsby’s letter to her, urging her not to go through with the marriage. It is stated in the book that Daisy doesn’t drink, but the day before her wedding she does, which suggests that she felt she needed a substance in order to go through with it. Daisy marries Tom for one reason, not because she loves him, but because he comes from old money and is approved of by her family. I believe this is an example of “buying love” because if Tom had been poor, as Gatsby was, Daisy would not have thought twice about marrying the man she truly