I recently read The Great Gatsby for English class and was extremely intrigued by Daisy’s character and thought of her as the most complex and multifaceted character in the book. It’s so interesting to see how she gives up love for status, just to fit the mold of the perfect wife, the perfect woman. She is a typical 1920’s woman and recognizes and chooses to conform to the social norms that apply to women. Daisy puts up a show just so that she can be accepted in society and her entire personality is defined by her husband. She changes herself completely and prepares her daughter to do so. Here is a narrative I wrote from her perspective inspired by her dialogue, “I hope she’ll be a fool—that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.”
3rd of September, the day Gatsby and Daisy had met. Every year, in the days leading up to this day, Daisy was consumed by the memories of a lifetime she had created 5 years ago with Gatsby, the only person she had ever loved. They played like a film reel in her head, distracting her from the present. Daisy stared at the bedside clock illuminated by the moonlight as it read 2:45 AM. She could hear the silence of the night carried by the unusual gushes of wind. She paid attention to these unknown sounds of East Egg as the roaring cars came to a halt, as the parties died down, as the whispers went quiet, as the city fell asleep. After shifting around under her velvet quilt as the city fell asleep, she lay still, closed her eyes, and let the night’s lullaby put her to sleep. She couldn’t tell if it was her dream, or subconscious thoughts that took her back to the very first time she met Jay. She watched as her time with Gatsby, all the secret meetings, all the unending conversations, all the pure love neared the end and came forth the night before Gatsby was to leave for war. The night she tried to convince him that they should run away from her family, societal expectations, this reality they did not want to be a part of. But this time he agreed, instead of justifying his decision, instead of planning a future that would never come, instead of putting his faith in her and her promise of waiting for him, he agreed. She dreamed of a perfect life that played in her mind continuously until it took away every ounce of happiness that she got from her life. Her life of being trapped in a marriage that could never bring her the love she had felt 5 years ago, that love that felt like a rush of sudden excitement. But it wasn’t just an ongoing fairytale for a love this passionate would only cause disappointment, only subsize, only burn to ashes. She dreamed of an unborn child, the daughter of Gatsby’s, the daughter who would never have to be the beautiful fool but wouldn’t have the life she could have lived, that her daughter with Tom Buchanan lives now. She dreamed of the daughter who would have to make sacrifices, learn to let go, the daughter who could never be raised with all the privileges that Daisy had wished for. She dreamed of an unlived life that would not bring her the comfort she was meant for . She dreamed of a love, incomparable, that she suddenly wanted to lose, that she needed to lose, but wasn’t able to until she woke up and to the silence feeling like screams, the whispers becoming louder, this love, this dream turning into a nightmare she was willing to give up on.
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