Tom and Daisy both came from the upper crust of society. Daisy married Tom because his house was covered with ivy. Tom was from the old money; his family had been wealthy for many years. Daisy claims that she was in love with Gatsby, but he did not have the money she was expected to marry. Therefore, when Tom was introduced to Daisy, she saw an opportunity to marry a person she could love and who was wealthy enough to provide the life she was accustomed to.
At the beginning, when Daisy is talking to Nick on the porch, Nick’s wording was interesting. Nick talks about the restless way her eyes flashed, resembling Tom’s habit, and her whole performance pleased her because it represented their “membership in a rather secret society to which she and Tom belonged.” Tom and Daisy play their roles in a rich, bored society, and the drama of it all is the reason that they do it. Daisy plays the air-headed, pretty wife, while Tom plays the hulking, brute of a man. They thought they were a perfect combination of the ideal wealthy couple.
Daisy has been brought up being a pretty object. She was an object to Tom; however, he did truly love her. When Tom’s mistress, Myrtle, called out Daisy’s name, Tom became outraged and hit her. He felt it was permissible to have a mistress, yet he still honored Daisy by not allowing Myrtle to talk about her.
Throughout the novel Tom manages to speak sensitively to Daisy. For example, when Tom and Daisy are in the kitchen eating chicken, he takes time to remind her of all the intimate moments they have had together. I think that this scene shows that Tom really does love Daisy in his own way.
Nick speaks of Tom and Daisy at the end of the novel. He talks about how they smashed people up and then “retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together…” Nick points out the similarity between Tom and Daisy’s characters and attitudes about money.
Free Great Gatsby Essays: Point of View
Importance of Point of View in The Great Gatsby
In novels containing interweaving plot and varying scenes, the author’s selection of point of view becomes a primary factor in its impact and effectiveness. The Great Gatsby is such a novel which demonstrates this point most evidently. While Fitzgerald’s decision to view the plot through the eyes of Nick Carraway presents certain limitations, it provides the means to relate the tone and message of the novel as whole.
F. Scott Fitzgerald would be the first to admit that his masterpiece was not without flaws. In a letter written to Edmund Wilson, he criticized what he understood to be the novel’s “BIG FAULT.”
I gave no account of (and had no feeling about or knowledge of) the emotional relationship
between Gatsby and Daisy from the time of their reunion to the catastrophe.
Undoubtedly, this constraint on detailed development was imposed almost solely by point of view. Because Fitzgerald lays out the plot through the prospective of one essential character, intimacy between any other group of characters is lost or can only be hinted at. Somewhat of a haze surrounds these important relationships, as Nick and in turn the reader are blind to the details of their occurrence. In the case of Gatsby and Daisy, some of the power that backs Gatsby’s dream is never presented.
Such a situation is somewhat relieved, however, by integration of dialog. Not only does this aspect of of Fitzgerald’s point of view thoroughly describe the other character of the novel, but also it keeps the credibility of the narrator in check. Who is to say that Nick Carraway is to be the readers’ only insight to the affluent world of Long Island during the 1920’s? He himself admitted to being far from perfect; even “vulnerable.” By providing the reader with a chance to judge the importance, purpose, and mission of each character, less time is spent analyzing the credibility of the narrator and more is devoted to understanding Fitzgerald’s statement as a whole.
In The Great Gatsby, this is a message that would be lost if it were not for the selected point of view. Fitzgerald, through what Nick perceives and the changes he undergoes, comments specifically on the society of the time.