Don’t trust anything at first glance. An ideal F. Scott Fitzgerald subtly strings into the foundation and outline of the depiction of 1920 America in his novel The Great Gatsby. Throughout his whole novel, this is made obvious as on countless instances what we are first made to believe at first, is evidently proven to be an illusion as the story plays through. Fitzgerald uses characterisation with magical brilliance, breathing life into his characters making them emerge from the pages casting his spell of illusion even on the reader. Daisy Buchanan is a character that arguably had the most work and meaning poured into with Fitzgerald creating her with countless layers that are peeled off one by one throughout the story, like a rose if viewing her from the beginning or more like an onion when viewing her from the end. Daisy Buchanan through the introduction of the character, after meeting Gatsby during the middle, and the finish when her mask of illusion finally finishes crumbling completely, all heavily contrast with one another and paint a distinct picture of illusion and lies in The Great Gatsby.
The beginning of any novel is one of the most important stages for the use of characterisation due to the importance of first impressions in literature and in real life. Fitzgerald flawlessly executes this stage giving detailed descriptions of each character, painting a vivid picture in the readers head of how they look, how they act and how they even talk. He truly spares no detail even giving background detail. “Why they came East I don’t know. They had spent a year a France for no particular reason…” Nick states about the Buchanan couple. This seemingly useless information subconsciously gives the reader deeper insight into their personality. The use of stating their time in France for “no particular reason” shows us their wealth especially given that it’s the 20’s and travel is no easy (or cheap) trip. Daisy is introduced early in the first chapter along with her husband. In the first encounter with the character, Fitzgerald portrays her as just an innocent rich young lady who seems to have been given the world without her exerting any effort. Her “entrance” to the scene is her laying on a couch motionless. Her simply lying there without a care in the world being the first thing we see her doing shows how she really does not do much and her money does everything for her while she simply lays there. As the chapter continues and Daisy’s persona is further enhanced through her speech and actions another way to perceive her is almost forced upon the reader. Pity. “I thought everybody knew. Tom’s got some woman in New York.” Tom’s mistress is introduced. Fitzgerald introduces this character so that we begin to feel bad for Daisy as well given that her husband has a mistress and she evidently knows about it. This makes it very hard to dislike her off the bat due to it being shown that she is in fact sad about her husband’s mistress, as would anyone. After the introduction of the character Daisy, Fitzgerald gives us the idea of her being a rich innocent girl, but not completely without problems.
The second stage of Daisy’s character and the development is the introduction of her and Gatsby’s history. This history between them is the main story of the book and is where the pace speeds up. The linking of Gatsby and Daisy explains why Gatsby has been interested in getting close to Nick. Daisy’s further background is gone into by Gatsby’s telling after the revealing of their history. This is when the introduction of the term golden girl is made. We are told of how Daisy has had the attention of countless people in her youth and has always had some sort of relationship with a man. Through this recount, it is shown that Daisy and Gatsby were in Love before Gatsby went to War and Daisy gave his spot in her heart to Tom. After Daisy and Gatsby begin their affair, our view of her begins to slightly shift as if the illusion was slowly coming more transparent, little by little. The fact of her affair changed the way we saw her, taking away some of her innocence. Despite this, the reader is made to see her affair as almost justified due to her husband’s unfaithfulness. “There must have been moments even that afternoon where daisy tumbled short of his dreams – not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion.” This quote is stated by Nick as he is leaving Daisy and Gatsby in Gatsby’s. I think this quote strongly expresses the illusion of the character Daisy and how strongly said illusion is cast on Gatsby. The Golden Girl casts her spell on all men and woman to the degree of how she would like them to perceive her. As the novel concludes, the reader is able to see past Daisy’s wall of lies and how caught up Gatsby is in her lies.
The completion of Daisy’s character development occurs at the end of the book from the murder of Myrtle to the end of the story. Fitzgerald uses the peak of the story skilfully to complete the character Daisy, tying off the work he had been weaving into her since the beginning. He created a situation and puts Daisy in the centre of it and uses it to show to the reader who Daisy truly is and her true un-filtered motives. After she murders Myrtle in cold blood, “First, Daisy turned away from the woman toward the other car, and then she lost her nerve and turned back,” She blames the killing on Gatsby happily with no thought otherwise. Her actions show that she would pick her own safety and to keep her status over the man she loved, though even that it heavily debatable. Also shown is how despite the illusion being broken for the reader it is still firmly cast upon Gatsby’s eyes. Gatsby continues to love Daisy even after she blames him for the killing letting him fully take the fall. This illusion evolves into what ultimately ends Gatsby’s life and even in his dying moments he still firmly clung to this illusion as he waited for Daisys call.“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness.” This shows Daisy’s true love, money and how it is the only thing she truly cares about. I believe Fitzgerald uses Daisy as an analogy for all aristocrats in 20s saying that the community as a whole only cares about money. Fitzgerald uses this ending scene to finish off the development of many of his characters all at once with strong linking.
The character of Daisy shows how well Fitzgerald uses the technique of Characterisation not just to give us a vivid image of the person but to also portray an idea. He incorporates his techniques into Daisy flawlessly, creating a character with many different layers that he slowly shows, showing them through the story with water-like fluidity. He links these stages to the everlasting theme of illusion which he slowly allows the reader to see through at the three most contrasting points of the development of Daisy, the beginning, middle and conclusion. The technique of characterization is an underlying method used to convey the idea of illusion in The Great Gatsby.
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