The Great Gatsby: Pages 145-156

In my opinion, these pages of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, mark the downfall of character Daisy Buchanan. All throughout the novel, I had liked the character of Daisy as I believed she was one of the few, honest people in the story. She always had something funny to say, and I had always hoped that she would be the character to turn out alright. However, after the intense encounter with her husband Tom and Gatsby, I lost all respect for her. It seems as though at this point, when all had gone to chaos and been revealed, she gave up and chose the easy way out. Daisy disregarded the fact that she had cheated on her husband, and she chose instead to fill the shoes of the victim, the one who was hurt in the end. She completely abandoned the man she loved, Jay Gatsby, because of his indiscretions and sketchy business dealings, but she refused to see that she had done the same thing. Daisy chose the direction that would cause her the least amount of trouble in the end and that would ensure that she would be well taken care of for the rest of her life. Yet, through that decision, she broke the heart of the one man who truly cared for and loved her. Gatsby was the one who stood outside her house for hours, making sure that Tom treated her well and hoping that she would join him, but she never showed up. Gatsby returned home the next morning, dejected and depressed with no words other than “nothing happened,” (Fitzgerald, 147). Tom Buchanan would never have waited outside for Daisy, never would have sacrificed his time in order to make sure that nothing hurt her, and yet Daisy chose the man that had cheated on her over the one who had never stopped loving her.