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Claudine Caluza

Mrs. Storer

English III Block V

2 March 2020

Love or Luxury

Dependency on egoistic and inauthentic ideals recedes one’s ability to exercise one’s

judgment. To compensate for their loss of judgment, they fabricate feign identities to gratify

others and themselves. In the American novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Daisy

risks true love to achieve a sumptuous lifestyle, and years later winds up involved in an affair

that forces her to ruminate over Gatsby or her husband. She fails to stay true to her feelings and

amplifies the conflict. Daisy dissimulates her emotions because she does not want to abandon her

relationships, she avoids choices that affect her lifestyle, and she wants to hold on to each

choice's benefits.

Daisy’s attachment to both Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan compels her to not want to let

go of each relationship. Tom and Gatsby begin to verbally fight with each other, and on account

of this Daisy loses her patience and exclaims, ‘Oh, you want too much!’ she cried to Gatsby. ‘I

love you now—isn’t that enough? I can’t help what’s past.’ She began to sob helplessly. ‘I did

love him once—but I loved you too’ ( Fitzgerald 142). Gatsby holds Daisy in such a high

standard and Daisy tells him so, and with vehemence, she attests to this by saying at a point she

was in love with both Tom and Gatsby. When she mentions to Gatsby that she “can’t help what’s

past” it implies that those past feelings still have an impact on her in her current situation, that

her feelings with Tom still exist somewhere within her because it is beyond her control. She
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hides this feeling though by saying she did love Tom once, but she loved Gatsby as well. Daisy

is pressured to satisfy both her husband and Gatsby at the moment. The consequences of this,

however, she is still very indecisive about who she should continue to pursue, and the conflict

between the two men will only continue to grow unless she settles on a choice. In spite of that,

Daisy uses the quarrel between Gatsby and Tom to her advantage. Immediately after Tom

becomes aware of the affair between Gatsby, the author mentions that “Tom turned to Daisy

sharply. ‘You’ve been seeing this fellow for five years?’ ‘Not seeing,’ said Gatsby” (Fitzgerald

140). Rather than speaking up for herself, she lets Gatsby speak for her even though Tom

directly turns towards Daisy. Daisy not replying to Tom’s question before Gatsby could mean

that she does not expect any negative consequences for herself. The relationship between Tom

and Gatsby could be as tainted as it could be but her silence nurtures her relationship with the

men since all they could do is make assumptions on Daisy. In this situation, the only emotion

that mattered was who she loves, but if each man argued for her, she doesn’t have to worry about

losing anything because each man could provide to win her over. Not fighting her own battles

allows her to avoid making any real choices.

The most undemanding way Daisy could prevent the life of love and luxury from falling

through her fingers was to avoid making decisions. Daisy was constantly pestering Tom and the

other guests by insisting that everyone go to town because of the heat. When Tom finally

submits to Daisy’s request, she says, ‘Are we just going to go?’ she objected. ‘Like this? Aren’t

we going to let anyone smoke a cigarette first?’ ‘Everybody smoked all through lunch.’ ‘Oh,

let’s have fun,’ she begged him. ‘It’s too hot to fuss.’ ( Fitzgerald 127) Daisy wants to stall and

take time to smoke before anyone leaves to go out to town. Even though she complains about it

being hot, she insists that it is “too hot to fuss”. Daisy is aware that the conflict between Gatsby
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and Tom will break out. Daisy hides her true feelings and is quick to contradict herself by telling

everyone to stay because she wants to prevent anything negative from happening in the first

place. Unfortunately, this takes an opposite turn and Tom becomes persistent in going to town,

which is what Daisy wanted to avoid. She makes decisions based on how little consequences she

receives and does not want to risk being deprived of a life of luxury and security, as provided by

Tom, and a life of adventure and passion, as provided by Gatsby. Daisy was on the verge of

losing Tom and her life of luxury when Gatsby tells Tom, ‘ I’ve got something to tell YOU, old

sport,——’ began Gatsby. But Daisy guessed at his intention. ‘Please don’t!’ she interrupted

helplessly. ‘Please let’s all go home. Why don’t we all go home?’ (Fitzgerald 139). Daisy never

interrupted the quarrel between Gatsby and Tom nor spoke up for herself up until this moment. It

may seem like Daisy is telling everyone to go home because fighting is pointless, but really she

is at risk of losing Tom. By interrupting Gatsby, Daisy is aware that whatever Gatsby will say

will cause Tom to slip through her fingers, and she does not want to lose the security they have

between them. Her feelings are hidden because she does not want to seem as if she prefers one

man over the other. The ramifications of this, however, is that Daisy’s constant stalling will only

fuel the inevitable, which is that she can only choose one.

Daisy thrives on the advantages that both Gatsby and Tom provide her, and wants to hold

on to them. When she is at Gatsby’s mansion, she bursts out in tears when Gatsby begins to

throw his high-quality shirts everywhere, saying, ‘It makes me sad because I've never seen such

—such beautiful shirts before’ (Fitzgerald 99). Daisy is a woman of wealth and notices Gatsby’s

wealth. She gets sentimental because if she held onto Gatsby before moving onto Tom she could

have had everything she wanted. Instead, she conceals her feelings by claiming she is

overwhelmed with all the fancy shirts. This reveals how materialistic Daisy is, comparing
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Gatsby’s worth to all the physical luxuries he owns. However, since she is already rich, the only

void Gatsby could now fill in is her need for love. The only thing Gatsby does not have that Tom

does is that Daisy and Tom are in a secure relationship, as shown by Nick telling the audience,

“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then

retreated back into their money … or whatever it was that kept them together and let other

people clean up the mess they had made” (Fitzgerald 191). Daisy and Tom could easily fall back

into their money during times of conflict. Daisy hides her feelings of true love so that she can

have something to retreat back into during times of trouble. Gatsby was a bootlegger, so he could

never provide Daisy a sense of security because his money was made illegally. Despite this,

Daisy keeps jumping between each man

Throughout the novel, it depicts Daisy’s inner conflict and indecisiveness between

Gatsby and Tom. Daisy conceals her feelings because she doesn't want to give up her

relationships, she avoids choices that affect her lifestyle because she wants to keep up with the

advantages of each option. Her attachment and dependency on both Tom and Gatsby harm her

ability to make decisions. She conceals her true feelings so that she could hold on to each of

them for as long as she could. Each choice one decides to make will inevitably lead to a

downside. No matter what, it is up to each person to make the choices that matter most to

themselves.

Works Cited:

The Great Gatsby. New York:C. Scribner's sons, 1925.

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