How Does Daisy Buchanan Symbolize In The Great Gatsby

Words: 1467
Pages: 6
Open Document
“Gatsby, one moment of magical encounter, would blot out those five years of unwavering devotion,” (Fitzgerald 109). Magicians are known for the tricks that they play on the eyes. What often seems like magic, turns out to be just a careful flick of the wrist. In the book The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the idea of magic is compared to several characters in the novel. The magician motif is used among other implements to prove that appearance is not always reality. Jay Gatsby is described as a rich, powerful man, and mysterious man, but all his fortune is made for a simple cause, the love of the beautiful Daisy Fay Buchanan. He is compared to a magician because he gives an appearance of being in a higher class than he really belongs …show more content…
Gatsby's greatness lies in his capacity for illusion. Had he seen Daisy for what she was, he could not have loved her with such single-minded devotion. He tries to recapture Daisy with his magic tricks, and for a time it looks as though he will succeed. But he must fail, because of his inability to separate the magic from the real. Daisy is the trick. Magicians usually have a white cloth over their tricks which explains why Daisy wears a white outfit. Daisy twice leads Gatsby to believe that she loves him, creating the illusion that the two of them will be together only to deceive the audience. Back in 1917 Daisy and Gatsby met for the first time and he falls head over heels in love with her. When he leaves to fight in the war he is under the illusion that Daisy will wait for him, an illusion that is soon broken as she marries Tom. She once again becomes an illusionist when she embarks on an affair with Gatsby, leading him to believe and even the audience believe that she will leave Tom for him, “I never loved him,” (Fitzgerald 132). However, it was only an illusion to deceive the audience when she reveals “I can’t say I never loved Tom,” (Fitzgerald 133). Since there is no real love between Gatsby and Daisy, there is no real truth to Gatsby's vision. Fitzgerald displays what critics have termed an ability to see the face …show more content…
That is exactly what the characters in the novel portray. The Great Gatsby seems worthy of the great title, but once the smoky mist of his illusion, the green light spotlight fades, and the magic dies out, there is nothing left of him that seems great after all. The main love interest Daisy deceived everyone into believing she loved Gatsby, but she managed to out trick him. Even the party guests were all a part of The Great Gatsby illusion. The problem is that false identities do depend essentially on externals, and the result is personal vacuum. Combined with Gatsby's optimistic "faith" that every desire can be turned into reality with the right stage-props, with the right gestures or "productions," there remains the nagging fear, the inevitable panic resulting from the fact that the "enchantment" itself can last only so long as the external appearance remains intact. Given any change in external circumstances; given any sudden eruption of crisis, or intrusion of real emotion, and the entire structure must collapse; the "enchantment" fades away like cheap neon light, and the result is nothing at all. "Enchanted objects," after all, by definition disappear when touched; and this is precisely the measure of Gatsby's success and his
Show More

Related Documents: How Does Daisy Buchanan Symbolize In The Great Gatsby

Gatsby: F. Scott Fitzgerald and Gatsby Essay

The Great Gatsby Datrice Mulsumo Melvin Joyce Word count: 951 The Great Gatsby is a novel written by F.Scott Fitzgerald in the 1920’s that ties power with wealth. Those with wealth have the power over the less fortunate such as farmers and laborers. This theme is portrayed through the characters of the book, how they live their…

Words 956 - Pages 4

Love vs. Materialism in the Great Gatsby Essay

Materialism The Great Gatsby does not offer a definition of love, or a contrast between love and romance. Rather it suggests that what people believe to be love is normally only a dream. America in the 1920s was a country where moral values were slowly crumbling and Americans soon only had one dream and objective to achieve, success. Distorted love is one theme in the novel The Great Gatsby, present among all of the characters relationships; Daisy and Tom, Tom and Myrtle, Daisy and Gatsby, and Wilson…

Words 1147 - Pages 5

What Does Daisy Fay Symbolize In The Great Gatsby

Scott Fitzgerald uses the color white in his novel The Great Gatsby 49 times. The author uses the color as a symbol to show innocence, purity and corruption in both the society and characters. Daisy Fay is a prime example of how this symbol is shown. She grows up wearing white, she has a white car, her house even has white in it. The mystery is that if Daisy grew up around all white, why by the end of the noel was she selfish and careless? This is how a major theme of wealth can breed carelessness ties…

Words 986 - Pages 4

American Dream In The Great Gatsby

The character Daisy Buchanan, who is overly wealthy, is used to criticize equally corrupted dream of the upper class. Fitzgerald portrays her to illustrate how people are still struggling to find true happiness in life even with wealth, marriage and high social class. First, Daisy is the character who partially fulfills the requirements for the American Dream because she was born into wealthy social class, which members of lower classes have striven for. However, she finds her life still dissatisfying…

Words 667 - Pages 3

Gatsby Essay

Money In the 1920’s, whether it be how they acted or how they are perceived, a person’s legacy was heavily dependent on the type of society they were born into, old money or new money. Those with old money, such as Tom Buchanan, wore their wealth and superiority behind a veneer of civility while those from new money, such as Gatsby, were gaudy and irresponsibly flaunted his money. Old money oozed of a secure and a traditional lifestyle, such as the one Daisy led. New money may have seemed appealing…

Words 1000 - Pages 4

Jay Gatsby American Dream Failure

are able to achieve social and economic prosperity. In the novel, Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby is committed to obtaining wealth and prosperity to earn Daisy’s fruitful love. His rags-to-riches success story embodies the American Dream. The obstacles faced throughout his journey reveal that the American Dream is ceaseless, and Jay Gatsby is always striving for more opportunities to entice Daisy. Overall, Jay Gatsby appears to achieve his American Dream, but his failure to find true…

Words 1449 - Pages 6

Gold In The Great Gatsby

symbolism is used to give the text a deeper meaning. In F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby, the protagonist, main character named Jay Gatsby is hoping of life with Daisy Buchanan, a woman who Gatsby has loved since before he went to war, and is constantly trying to win her love back after she married another man. Daisy’s cousin, Nick Carraway, describes Gatsby’s efforts and helps him try and win Daisy over as he tells the colorful story from a first person point of view. In this novel, color…

Words 1711 - Pages 7

The Great Gatsby Compare And Contrast

The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a story that is typically associated with hopeless romanticism, eerie stalking, wealthiness, and grand parties. In simplest terms, the story takes place during the roaring 20’s and is about a poor man who falls in love with a rich girl and spends the rest of his life becoming rich to impress her. However, no matter how wealthy he is or how many lavish parties he throws, he’s never good enough for her and dies utterly alone. Tom Buchanan and Jay…

Words 1141 - Pages 5

Social Class Boundaries In The Great Gatsby

November 8, 2016 Great Gatsby Annotations Big Ideas -Social class and boundaries: Fitzgerald symbolizes the division of social classes and the evident boundaries set by the societies by discussing the value of old vs new money in the society. It symbolizes this importance of social class using this division, East egg vs West egg not only as a geographical split but also a split of their society. -Sense of Belonging: Fitzgerald displays the theme of belonging using the protagonist, Jay Gatsby, since he…

Words 1025 - Pages 5

Essay Tom Marxist Lens

the development of economy.” The Great Gatsby fails to commemorate the exhilarating capitalist culture it depicts but instead, reveals its concealed depths of Marxist understanding. Fitzgerald’s novel exemplifies a social commentary of corruption through its grotesque characterization of those at the top of the economic heap. The most adequate way The Great Gatsby mocks ideology exists through the illustration of commodification. Nowhere so clearly does a character embody this as in the character of Tom Buchanan…

Words 829 - Pages 4