The Great Gatsby Wealth Analysis

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Daisy’s Love for Status and Wealth Can money buy happiness? Being in poverty will obviously not make someone happy but neither will empty wealth. As seen through the characters of The Great Gatsby, solely having money often leads to disappointment and sadness. In the novel, F. Scott Fitzgerald writes about Jay Gatsby, a rich man who throws lavish parties in order to reunite with his love, Daisy Buchanan. Daisy, a woman already married to Tom, comes from old money and is a person with tremendous wealth but little happiness. Daisy is inauthentic because she puts on a falsified happy persona despite her actual pessimism and prioritizes wealth and status over love; ultimately, she never fulfills the true American Dream because her fixation on money…show more content…
When Nick visits his acquaintances in East Egg, he notes Daisy’s presentation of herself to others. Nick states, “Her face was sad and lovely with bright things in it, bright eyes and a bright passionate mouthㅡbut there was an excitement in her voice that men who had cared for her found difficult to forget…” (Fitzgerald 9). Despite her overall “sad” face, she keeps the different parts of her face “bright” and “passionate.” This illustrates how Daisy is two-faced and puts on a cheerful facade to others. Fitzgerald's description of Daisy seems to focus more on her superficial appeal rather than her actual personality. She is characterized as a person who actively seeks external pleasure, such as pleasing men with her voice, instead of internal happiness in life. Daisy confesses to Nick that she is cynical and tells him a story about her daughter: “She told me it was a girl, and so I turned my head away and wept. ‘All right,’ I said, ‘I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool—that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool’” (Fitzgerald 17). This shows that Daisy has a pessimistic outlook and understanding of women’s roles in society. The fact that she believes that being a “fool” is the best thing a girl can be hints that Daisy tries to be a “fool” herself. In order for a woman to achieve status, she must put on a fake but…show more content…
The day before marrying Tom, Daisy gets severely drunk and pulls out a string of pearls. She cries, “‘Take’ em downstairs and give’ em back to whoever they belong to. Tell’ em all Daisy’s change’ her mine. Say: ‘Daisy’s change’ her mine!’...half an hour later when we walked out of the room the pearls were around her neck and the incident was over” (Fitzgerald 76). Her state of drunkenness allows Daisy to reveal the true feelings that she usually hides. Under intoxication, Daisy tries to give back the string of pearls, which symbolizes Daisy trying to reject Tom’s wealth and status. However, the next day, she puts her inauthentic persona back on and casually walks out of the room like nothing has happened. The pearls around her neck means that Daisy has chosen Tom for his wealth despite not actually wanting to marry him. Later on in the novel, when Gatsby throws his clothes out as a display of wealth, Daisy has an emotional outburst: “Suddenly, with a strained sound, Daisy bent her head into the shirts and began to cry stormily. ‘They’re such beautiful shirts,’ she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. It makes me sad because I've never seen such – such beautiful shirts before’” (Fitzgerald 92). Through her “strained sound” and “stormy cry,” it is obvious that Daisy is frustrated with her decision in marrying
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