Characteristics:
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Daisy's Role in the Novel:
- Daisy's character is based on Fitzgerald's wife, Zelda, who was also in love with money and material wealth, and who was also guilty of infidelity. Daisy is the object of Gatsby's affection, and he has been spending the last five years trying to win her back with his wealth. For Gatsby, she is his American Dream. After so much time he has put her on such a high pedestal that she is naturally falling short of his expectations. In this chapter, she kisses Gatsby on the mouth and tells him that she loves him, yet she won't give up the life she has with Tom to be with Gatsby. It is obvious that Gatsby is losing her when he "began to talk excitedly to Daisy, denying everything, defending his name against accusations that had been made. But with every word she was drawing further into herself, so he gave that up, and only the dead dream fought on as the afternoon slipped away, trying to touch what was no longer tangible, struggling unhappily, undespairingly, toward that lost voice across the room” (134). When she claims that she loved Tom, but she loves Gatsby too, he is shocked and disappointed. In his mind, they had an epic love, and as soon as he became wealthy, he thought he could win her back. Her rejection, however, both shocks and disappoints him, and "the words seemed to bite physically into Gatsby” (132).