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Power And Control Of Daisy In The Great Gatsby

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In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, Daisy possesses extreme power and control over Jay Gatsby. Daisy, though a woman in a predominantly male-dominated time period, uses her attractiveness to manipulate the ‘great’ Jay Gatsby to her advantage. As the novel progresses, Daisy has many different roles. She is initially portrayed as Tom’s trophy wife without much purpose, aside from representing Tom’s ‘prize’ for success. As we learn more, we find out about her and Gatsby’s past five-year relationship. It turned out that Gatsby had actually proposed to Daisy, but was turned down due to Gatsby’s lack of wealth at the time. Knowing this, Gatsby had been working to build his wealth to win her over. Gatsby’s perception of their relationship allows Daisy to take control of him and his benefits. This proves dangerous for Gatsby, as on page 161 Gatsby was shot and killed “No telephone message…the amorphous trees.” This was a product of Gatsby taking the fall for Daisy's misdoing of accidentally killing Myrtle Wilson. …show more content…

Throughout the novel, Daisy stays consistent with her persona of Innocense and ignorance, however, there is a part in the novel in which she breaks this facade, one of these occurrences happens on page 12 when interacting with Tom “”Look” she complained… specimen of a----” (Fitzgerald, 12) This type of behavior by women in this time period may not have been warranted, but this didn’t prove to be much of an issue for her. Daisy seemed to act entitled; however, Tom brushed it off quite seamlessly. On page 92 Gatsby is seen showing off all his luxuries and riches to Daisy in the form of shirts. “He took out…beautiful shirts before.” (Fitzgerald, 92) This shows how Daisy successfully manipulated Gatsby and inevitably got to his

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This is predictable given that Gatsby's whole character is based on deception; he has reinvented himself as a wealthy and powerful man, but in reality, he is a poor North Dakota boy. Daisy, who comes from a rich family, sees right through him. She recognizes that he is not the guy he claims to be (not from old money), and this leads her to withdraw from him. Gatsby can see that Daisy is slipping away from him, and he feels powerless. This is a pivotal moment in the novel, as it symbolizes the beginning of Gatsby’s downfall.

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Gatsby believes that he can win Daisy through elaborate parties and excessive spending of money, the moment with the shirts helps indicate this. At some point, Daisy becomes a part of Gatsby’s vision to not be Gatz, but rather part of the attraction of Jay Gatsby. Daisy is not seen as a person, but rather objectified as a thing or another accessory to completing Gatsby’s own vision of

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What does Gatsby realize about Daisy ’s feelings towards the

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In her literary criticism of The Great Gatsby titled “Herstory” and Daisy Buchanan, Leland S. Person Jr. describes the conflict that Daisy comes into with both Tom and Gatsby. Person describes Daisy as a victim of the actions of the men in her life, reasoning that “She is victim first of Tom Buchanan’s ‘cruel’ power, but then of Gatsby’s increasingly depersonalized vision of her” (Person Jr. 250). While Daisy is victimized and objectified by both Gatsby and Tom more and more as the novel wares on, she ultimately has the opportunity to choose the more malleable if not lesser of the two evils. In Daisy’s relationship with Tom, Tom holds the majority of the power and is thus able to dictate her actions much more easily. However, when she is with Gatsby, it is by her own decision.

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In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, “The Great Gatsby,” Daisy Buchanan struggles to free herself from the power of both Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby, whom both use their wealth and high standings as a way to dictate power over and impress others. Fitzgerald purposely develops Daisy as selfish and “money hungry” character when she chooses Tom, a rich man, over Gatsby, a poor man (who she was in love with), which establishes her desire for power that she never achieves.

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Throughout the book, Gatsby does wild things just to show Daisy how amazing he is or how much he “loved her”. While doing this he proceeded to have Daisy drive his car and accidently hit Myrtle, scare Daisy, loses her in the end, and Wilson ends up shooting him in the back. He shows that he doesn’t care about himself. He cares about living in this dream world where Daisy is his and live a rich lifestyle. When in reality, Gatsby never would have gotten Daisy.

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In Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Daisy is conflicted between social class and love throughout the entire book. Thirsty for money and wealth, Daisy finds herself constantly torn between an old money Tom versus a new money Gatsby. Through Nick’s stern narration during the beginning of the book Daisy is introduced as a radiant and ethereal beauty born for a glamorous lifestyle. Although as the book progresses, Daisy’s facade begins to crumble revealing a much more complex persona that symbolizes the lack of virtue and morality traits conveyed through her many unfaithful decisions and her prioritization of social class over self happiness. Daisy’s lack of virtue and morality is first seen when she decides to get married to Tom instead

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Using this example, it’s clear that Daisy yields an influence over both Nick and Gatsby that portrays her as such a special character. The nervousness of both men shows that Daisy genuinely is such a woman that a man will work for. On top of this anticipation, Nick implies that Gatsby “talked a lot about the

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Daisy is treated many different ways throughout the novel. Although she treats men similarly . At the beginning of the story we find out that that Daisy is not being treated well, Tom has been cheating on her with Myrtle’’Tom’s got some woman in New York’’(p15 fitzgerald),Jordan tells Nick this when Tom got a telephone call from that woman. Moreover, when Tom and Gatsby were arguing in the apartment they treated her like a possession or an item. On the other hand, Gatsby does everything for her because she is his everything.

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The Great Gatsby In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Daisy Buchanan is not who she first seems to be. She first comes across as a kind, innocent woman—the Daisy that Gatsby had fallen for. We learn Daisy's true colors as we read farther into the book. Readers now perceive Daisy as being consumed with money, notoriety, and her own desires instead of the innocent woman she once seemed to be. She rejects the opportunity for true love, the opportunity to be truly heard and cared for in favor of material success and social standing, which ultimately results in her own sorrow.

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She chooses the extravagant lifestyle that Tom is capable of providing instead of patiently waiting for her true love. The self-centered desires she displays demonstrates the lack of authetic love she promised Gatsby. Instead, she marries Tom “without so much as a shiver”, demonstrating her hedonistic mindset (76). Since Tom treats Daisy with minimal care, she thoughtlessly dives into an adulterous affair with Jay Gatsby. With no severe intentions towards marriage, she always “ought to have something in her life” to fulfill her heart (79).

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This final decision employs the audience to believe how Gatsby’s want of acquiring Daisy could never

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In Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Daisy is portrayed as a modern woman; she is sophisticated, careless and beautifully shallow. Daisy knows who she is, and what it takes for her to be able to keep the lifestyle she grew up in, and this adds to her carelessness and her feigned interest in life. In all, Daisy is a woman who will not sacrifice material desires or comfort for love or for others, and her character is politely cruel in this way. Daisy’s main strength, which buoyed her throughout her youth and when she was in Louisville, is her ability to know what was expected of her and feign cluelessness.

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He becomes rich through his connection with Meyer Wolfsheim and purchases a mansion across the bay from the Buchanan’s house, where he hosts lavish parties in the expectation that Daisy will attend one of them” (Bruccoli 10). Gatsby has done everything to get her back, he even convinced her to tell her husband that she has never loved him, even though she has. Gatsby time and time again manipulates Daisy into falling back in love with him when he knows she has already moved on. Though, the reader can not help but notice his love turned obsession with Daisy. He is constantly staring at her house longing to be with her.

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As American business man, Richard M. Devos, once said, “Money cannot buy peace of mind. It cannot heal ruptured relationships, or build meaning into a life that has none.” In the novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott, Fitzgerald, Daisy, an elite socialite, is blinded by dollar signs and makes multiple decisions based on class, ultimately leading to the destruction of those who she claims to love, and without a doubt love and idolize her. Jay Gatsby has been in love with Daisy for five years, and supposedly she is with him, but she’s too impatient to wait for Gatsby while he is at war and decides to marry an arrogant, racist, and rude former college football star, Tom Buchanan, for money. Daisy is a self-absorbed, vacuous socialite whose decisions lead to the destruction of Gatsby.

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