In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald paints a striking contrast within the characterisation of Daisy—that of idolatry and corruption. Daisy is a “silver idol,” a “golden girl,” yet someone who occupies a sense of “vast carelessness” within her own “artificial world.”
Through this contrast, Fitzgerald observes a sense of appearance versus reality. Specifically, he alludes to the perception of the trophy wife as a figure that is aspired to, compared to the darker reality of this social position. This highlights the significance of literature through its ability to have social significance beyond its context of production—delivering warnings that are significant within a contemporary world.
Firstly, Daisy is described as a woman with a glorious appearance, and yet also a corrupt individual. She is someone who seeks stability through wealth, and ends up in an unstable conflict between two men—Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan. Someone who, then, is only able to escape this conflict by relinquishing her relationship with Gatsby—who is symbolic of all of her autonomous desires—and thus continuing her matrimony with Tom Buchanan. It is through this that Fitzgerald paints the dilemma of aspiring to be the trophy wife. To succeed in the patriarchal world she inhabits, Daisy must force herself to become the “beautiful little fool” she wishes her daughter to be. She must look pretty, look happy, but revoke her desires to live a life of love with Gatsby.
This leads us to the contemporary dilemma of modern women aspiring to be trophy wives and housewives—like Daisy. In pursuit of stability compared to the modern workplace, women may desire to regress into a period of servitude and patriarchy. Thus, the housewife must surrender her desires for autonomy in order to enter a life of servitude. Although we may think this will present us with the stability we desire, a recluse away from the chaos of the modern world, it actually leads us into a life of subjugation, in which our desires—like Jay Gatsby—ultimately end up dead.
It is clear that Fitzgerald’s novel warns us of the dilemma of conforming to servitude. The allures of appearance are flawed by the reality of conflict. Daisy’s character serves as a symbol of the nature of the housewife and trophy wife tropes. Glamorous appearance, underpinned and falsified by a reality of conflict—where the only way to succeed is by revoking your own autonomy.
“Roaring 20’s, San Francisco, CA” by Tadson is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0