By boldly kissing Gatsby when Tom leaves the room early in Chapter 7, then declaring "You know I love you" loudly enough for all to hear much to Jordan and Nick's discomfiture Daisy has, in effect, shown that to her, loving Gatsby is a game whose sole purpose is to try and get back at Tom. She's playing the game on her own terms, trying to prove something to her husband her response to Tom's rough questioning later at the hotel also supports this idea.
The other early vision of Daisy is of the peacekeeper although one wonders why she would want Tom and Gatsby both at the same outing. On the hot summer day, it is Daisy who suggests they move the party to town largely in an attempt to keep everyone happy.
Strange things, however, always happen in the city — in the land of infinite possibilities. By changing the location, the action also shifts. As the chapter continues and the party moves to the neutral, yet magical, land of the city, the real Daisy begins to emerge, culminating in her fateful refusal to be part of Gatsby's vision. In a sense, she betrays him, leaving him to flounder helplessly against Tom's spite and anger.
Finally, by the end of the chapter, the mask of innocence has come off and Daisy is exposed. Her recklessness has resulted in Myrtle's brutal death.
To make matters worse, one even senses that Daisy, in fact, tried to kill Myrtle. Gatsby has a hard time admitting that the object of his love has, in fact, not merely hit and killed another person, but has fled the scene as well. Myrtle's death by Gatsby's great car is certainly no accident. The details are sketchy, but in having Myrtle run down by Gatsby's roadster, Fitzgerald is sending a clear message.
Gatsby's car, the "death car," assumes a symbolic significance as a clear and obvious manifestation of American materialism. What more obvious way to put one's wealth and means on display than through the biggest, fanciest car around. Yes, it is tragic that Myrtle dies so brutally, but her death takes on greater meaning when one realizes that it is materialism that brought about her end. Looking back to Chapter 2, it is clear that Myrtle aspires to wealth and privilege.
She wants all the material comforts money can provide — and isn't at all above lording her wealth over others such as her sister, or Nick, or the McKees. Her desire for money which allows access to all things material led her to have an affair with Tom she got involved with him initially because of the fashionable way he was dressed. Myrtle's death is sadly poetic; a woman who spent her life acquiring material possessions by whatever means possible has been, in effect, killed by her own desires.
Dwelling too much on material things, Fitzgerald says, can not bring a positive resolution. Materialism can only bring misery, as seen through Myrtle. Wilson, too, becomes more dimensional in the chapter, which is necessary in order to prepare adequately for the chapter to follow. While Wilson isn't necessarily good, he is pure. His distress at finding out about his wife's secret life is genuine but, being a man of little means and few wits, he doesn't know what to do about it.
Clearly he loves Myrtle deeply — so deeply, in fact, that he would lock her in a room to prevent her running away he plans to take her West in a few day's time, showing once again that in Fitzgerald's mind, there is something more pure, more sensible, about the West. Wilson is meant to stand opposite Tom, and the way the two men respond first to their wives' infidelities, and later to Myrtle's death, show that although one man is rich and the other poor, they still have much in common.
In the end, however, the poor man comes off as the more passionate and heartfelt in his grief. Nick is the only character to make it out of this chapter in better shape than when he went in. He has, of course, remembered that it was his thirtieth birthday during this chapter remember, Fitzgerald himself was only 29 when this book was published so it is likely he saw thirty as a milestone for his narrator, as well as himself.
For Nick, the change marks a passage away from youthful idealism even ignorance. Although Nick begins the chapter much as in prior chapters a bit uncomfortable with the Buchanans and what they represent, but not at all willing to take a stand against them , by the end he has seen quite clearly what Daisy, Tom, and Jordan are about.
After Myrtle's death, Nick is plainly shaken and as a man of moral conscience, he has looked at his life and those around him. This is where Nick shows what he's really made of. Rather than accept Tom's invitation, as expected, he tells the reader "I'd be damned if I'd go in; I'd had enough of all of them for one day.
Gone is the fellow who withheld judgment because not everyone "had the advantages that [he's] had. His opinion of the Buchanans becomes clear and continues to ripen until he finally can stand it no longer and heads back to the Midwest at the end of the book again, Fitzgerald is showing the Midwest as a Utopia.
The final image in the chapter is perhaps the most pathetic in the whole book. For some readers it will tug on their heartstrings, for others it will be a defining moment, showing the true Jay Gatsby. He makes a strikingly odd figure with his pink suit glowing luminously in the moonlight.
When Nick inquires as to what he's doing, Gatsby, ever the dreamer, replies he is keeping watch, in case Daisy should need his help. When Tom and Gatsby have their altercation at the hotel in Chapter 7, Daisy's motivations are called into question: Her inability to deny having loved Tom speaks well for her, but at the same time, it suggests that her attachment to Gatsby has been purely business. Tom also knows that after Daisy realizes Gatsby is not of their same social circles, she will return to Tom for the comfort and protection that his money and power bring.
Although Daisy's true self comes out more and more each time Nick encounters her, her final actions help show what she has been really made of. When she hits and kills Myrtle Wilson, and then leaves the scene, readers know as poor Gatsby still does not that she is void of a conscience. Perhaps all that white that has surrounded her isn't so much purity although Gatsby, of course, would see it as such , but perhaps the white represents a void, a lack as in a lack of intellectualism and a lack of conscience.
To Daisy, Myrtle is expendable. She is not of the social elite, so what difference does her death make? To add insult to injury, as if she hadn't betrayed Gatsby enough already, she abandons Gatsby in his death.
After killing Myrtle, Daisy returns home. She and Tom resolve their differences and leave soon thereafter, moving presumably to another city where they will remain utterly unchanged and life will continue as it always does. Daisy, although ethereal in some qualities, is decidedly devilish in others. Previous Jay Gatsby. Next Character Map. Removing book from your Reading List will also remove any bookmarked pages associated with this title.
Are you sure you want to remove bookConfirmation and any corresponding bookmarks? My Preferences My Reading List. Like Tom, Daisy is deeply attached to her upper class lifestyle. All that Gatsby wants is Daisy, but Daisy repeatedly prevents him from attaining this goal of possessing her completely. All of the characters in the book—even Nick, as he discloses in the opening pages—seek financial improvement in the hopes of securing a better life.
Yet none of these characters achieves anything like happiness. Ace your assignments with our guide to The Great Gatsby! SparkTeach Teacher's Handbook. How does Nick Carraway first meet Jay Gatsby? Why did Daisy marry Tom? Why does Gatsby arrange for Nick to have lunch with Jordan Baker?
How does Tom find out about the affair between Gatsby and Daisy?
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