Shafia-Why Daisy cries over the shirts.

In the chapters I have read so far, I have been able to deduce that Daisy wishes to portray herself as a materialistic person and she succeeds in doing so at first. However, I think she longs for more than materialistic items but chooses to hide this to avoid getting hurt like she has done in the past. She may have chosen to do this as a defence mechanism.

 Her tears over Gatsby’s shirts and claim of never having seen “such beautiful shirts” in her life are indeed false. She is married to the very wealthy Tom Buchanan so we know that this cannot be the case. I think that the shirts hold some sort of sentimental value for her as they represent everything that she once had but can no longer have (at least not openly and freely) as she is a married woman.

Daisy’s tears may also be of regret at not pursuing her relationship with Gatsby when she was free to do so and for settling for a man who is almost his equal in terms of wealth and status but who cannot provide her with the one thing she longs for-love. Tom’s shirts are described as being “shirts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine flannel” which have been brought from “a man in England” who buys his clothes. Daisy’s tears could also be as a result of her realisation of the sharp contrast between Tom and Gatsby. Tom is an uncultured and ill-informed brute of a man whereas Gatsby a sophisticated gentleman and his shirts act as a symbolism of how cultured he is.

Daisy is not a “beautiful little fool” yet she wishes for her daughter to be so that she may be saved from the complexities and harshness of reality. However, if her daughter is a fool, she would not be intelligent so she may not have the capability to imagine and therefore long for things such as a greater meaning to her existence. She wishes for her daughter to be content with materialism, although she is not and that is the reason for much of her sadness and anger at her life with Tom.

Thought piece 3 - Jessica

In the ending of chapter five, when the three characters Daisy, Gatsby and Nick are at Gatsby’s mansion they go into a cupboard where Gatsby begins throwing his shirts around the room. This causes Daisy to cry at claiming she has never seen ‘such beautiful shirts before’. Daisy does this because she is broken although the she is clever she has been hurt and has never fully recovered. Her character is unique because she knows how to hold the power in relationships whether it be friendships or more, there are only few she sees as her equal. Daisy cries because she regrets aspects of her life such as her marriage to Tom and ignoring his betrayal. She regrets not going and being with Gatsby when she received the letter on her wedding day. Although it can be argued that Daisy has the lifestyle that was idealised in the 20’s so she should be happy. However, she does not have what she truly wants and that's to love unconditionally and be loved and adored in return. 

When she says that ‘it makes me sad because I've never seen such – such beautiful shirts’ she blatantly lies, because her lifestyle with Tom, it provides her with the ability to the same kinds of shirts in a daily basis. However it presents the regret she has of not going to Gatsby when she received his letter. The shirts that Gatsby throws around the room show his now higher social standing, he throws shirts made of ‘sheer linen and thick silk’ around the room with no such thought to them ripping. He doesn't need to worry about them ripping because he can just buy more. He's rich enough to not care about these pieces of material. She didn't go to him because he was of a lower social standing to her and although they were ‘in love’, as some suggest, it would have been unacceptable. The traditions of the period were that you could only love and marry someone of the same social standing. Daisy regrets not waiting because then she could have married the man she believes she truly loves. Therefore I think her tears are in fact tears of regret.

Thought piece 2 - Jessica

I agree that Fitzgerald achieved his goal of writing something ‘extraordinary and beautiful’ and one of the ways he did this was making the majority of the characters he wrote unpleasant. He makes the audience acknowledge that they are horrible characters but they all individually highlight the problems of the age such as the belief of their own superiority and the lack of priorities. He has characters such as the three ‘Mr Mumbles’ that are only present when talking about Gatsby and the rumours that help make his name. Fitzgerald only identifies these characters to either drop in some information to add to the story or they are simply background noise for the setting. The characters however frustratingly pretentious and arrogant they are, are still part of what makes the writing brilliant. 

Fitzgerald wanted to write something new for the age, a novel that represented what it was about. The Great Gatsby does this perfectly . He presents the characters to be unpleasant because throughout the 1920’s that's the way people were. They idealised class social standings and the materialistic lifestyle of ‘the American Dream’. Mannerisms were simply overlooked, if they had enough money treating people with respect was not necessary.  He tested the boundaries of the presentation of people but subtly he never bluntly says the characters are crude and annoying but they are.

Thought piece 1 - Jessica

The first chapter sets the rest of the novel up beautifully as it introduces the characters that will have an impact on the story. It only presents the basics of each character such as Tom’s ‘woman in the city’. In the beginning that is all she is known as. Fitzgerald only tells us that she is Tom’s other woman as it hides the rest of her identity. He doesn't give her a name, while in contrast to her is Daisy, Tom and even the omniscient narrator in the character Nick. With these characters Fitzgerald shares so much detail about each of them like the way Daisy talks in a ‘low, thrilling voice’ she used to draw people in. Fitzgerald keeps his character ‘Mr Gatsby’ as a mystery to everyone,  not just the characters in the book who know Gatsby as the man with the lavish parties but the readers as well.

Fitzgerald sets the scene and the mood in the chapter through the intricate detail he uses. When describing the surroundings he uses personification of simple things such as the garden to draw the reader in closer and keep their interest. While the mood of the first chapter is both elegance yet inferiority highlighted by Nick. The elegance that Fitzgerald presents is held by the Buchanan’s living on the better side of the bay, and the way their lifestyle is presented. But in contrast to them is Nick, although he is living on the opposite side of the bay, he is superior intellectually but his lifestyle presents his inferiority to the Buchanan’s.

The Buchanan's are the representation of the idealised ‘American Dream’, which consists of having a big, beautiful house full of materialistic objects, a wonderful happy family and the money to pay for it all. Yet Fitzgerald realised the idea that was the basis of so so many individuals aspirations was in fact a lie and that nothing would ever be ‘perfect’. Fitzgerald does this through Tom’s affair and Daisy's blatant ignorance towards it. Daisy is often labelled as silly and childish, however she is quite clever and so puts on the front of being fragile and ‘innocent’, but when she talks to Nick about her daughter saying that ‘the best thing for a girl to be is a fool’ her intellect begins to shine out. She knows that her life is not perfect and that it has flaws but she ignores them to keep herself happy. She acts the fool when in fact she is quite the opposite.

Mrs Baker is the strength and knowledge of the novel. Her masculine structure that was idealised throughout the ‘roaring 20’s’ presents he strength. She is also the fountain of knowledge for Nick as she brings him in on the secrets that ‘everyone knows’ except him. She tells him about Tom’s woman in the city and the mysterious Mr Gatsby. She is the light that guides Nick through his confusing new surroundings.

Emma- Why does Daisy cry?

Daisy has lived a life of luxury, so to see her cry over some shirts is very odd. There obviously are some subconscious feelings that Daisy has to make to cry ‘stormily.’ As soon as she met Gatsby for the first time in five years a lot of emotions and memories would have returned to her. The amount of emotions that she would have had to deal with and control, as she was in Gatsby’s and Nick’s presence could have pushed her to break down.

Daisy knows that she is the only reason of Gatsby’s happiness and excitement in that moment, without her presence Gatsby would not have any unreasonable joy. She knows how much she means to him, and maybe she knows that she will not be able to live up to the very high expectations that Gatsby has of everything, especially her but even his shirts as even she who has lived this life of luxury has ‘never seen such beautiful shirts’.

Gatsby could also be seen as messing up Daisy’s life, as the shirts could represent the many beautiful fixed factors of her life, which became unstable the minute she met Gatsby again. She knows there a chance that they would run away together meaning she would have to leave her old life (the shirts) behind. She would have leave the now ‘coloured disarray’ of her life behind. She knows she has to choose between the many people, her home and basically her whole life or choosea man who she used and still loves. Anyone would cry over a decision like that. Also she knows from that very moment her life will be different. Huge life changes causes a build-up of emotions good and bad and we are shown in a short period of time from Daisy the effect that these emotions have, which is basically crying over beautiful shirts.

Why does Daisy cry? - Nafeesa

Daisy is clearly not crying because the shirts are 'beautiful', she is crying because she cannot believe that she is with Gatsby again and by Gatsby coming into her life again it has made her realise the life she could have had with Gatsby.

They way Gatsby is chucking his different coloured shirts 'throwing them, one by one' shows how  Daisy is missing out on something and that his style of shirts is bringing back memories of the past. The quality of the shirts, 'thick silk, fine flannel'  shows how Gatsby is wealthy and his shirts are made out of expensive materials. This frustrates Daisy as she could have been living with Gatsby in this mansion as the Gatsby she knew five years ago couldn't afford all these expensive shirts.

Daisy realises that with Tom she only has one thing which is money, before their wedding day he bought her some pearls 'valued at three hundred and fifty thousand dollars'. But with Gatsby she can have 2 things which is love and money and she could have had a purpose in life with Gatsby.  Daisy is overwhelmed by Gatsby’s mansion as it 'drew from her well-loved eyes'.  This shows how Daisy is now loved by Gatsby and this is now expressed through her eyes.  However Daisy knows that her relationship with Gatsby is just a fantasy now and in reality she is with Tom therefore she is crying because of this.

Thought piece: Why does Daisy cry?

Thank you for your responses so far - don't forget to get your blogs in to discuss in Monday's lesson. Why does Daisy cry over those shirts?

'Why does Daisy cry?' - Saira

Gatsby creates a “coloured disarray” of his shirts to possibly impress Daisy with his mass of wealth, Daisy is quite a materialistic person and therefore, he feels like gloating about his wealth would impress her.

Daisy had cried earlier in the chapter when she spoke to Gatsby, “her throat, full of aching, grieving beauty, told only of unexpected joys” with use of a triadic list, Daisy’s true feelings towards Gatsby are exposed.

However, at this moment Daisy supposedly cries “stormily” over “such beautiful shirts”, but in reality she could be mourning for the love and wealth she could have attained if she was not a married woman. Daisy hides the tone of her voice, “muffled in thick folds” because the tone of her voice would give away the way she feels for Gatsby, of which Nick already had a sort of idea, unlike Gatsby who is ignorant to her feelings.

It is evident that Daisy is not a “beautiful little fool”, to some extent she understands and reciprocates Gatsby fervent, fabricated love. Perhaps, this makes her acknowledge the emptiness of her life with Tom, and the reality of not being able to attain Gatsby’s ‘love’ and wealth. It may even be that Daisy feels overwhelmed by the naked truth of people treating her as if she is a frivolous luxury/ possession that can be bought by a great amount of wealth.

Why is Daisy crying? - Abbi

Throughout 'The Great Gatsby' everything we see is from Nick's eyes and through his words - we don't know why Tom is having an affair, and wouldn't know about it at all if Jordan hadn't told Nick, we don't know how Gatsby's works out the connection between Nick and Daisy and we do not get any of the thoughts of the other characters about the events described by Nick. Because of all this, the novels perspective on the world is narrowed and our understanding of the characters tainted.

In previous chapters, Nick has presented Daisy as ditzy and fluffy - yet hinted at the greater available depth of her character. Daisy seems to be a woman who knows her place in society, her place in the world as something greater than her - she's aware of her husbands affair, her failure of having borne him a daughter and her growing powerlessness within her home life.

However, in chapter five, Daisy is thrown into emotional turmoil with her being re-united with Gatsby. The reader, like Nick, knows nothing more than what has been told to us by Jordan Baker in the previous chapter - so Daisy's situation is controlled by Gatsby more than anything; however, this is reversed upon her entrance, where upon Gatsby falls to pieces, 'fumbling' and 'trembling'.

After all the emotional turmoil of the afternoon - is it really surprising that Daisy cries over something so meaningless? She hasn't seen Gatsby in 5 years, probably thought she'd never see him again, and then, suddenly, he makes this reappearance back into her life.

In short, it can be argued that Daisy's tears over 'shirts' while, on the surface, seem to fit the persona she has displayed in earlier chapters, 'artificial', could actually be hinting to some greater and deeper emotional heartache and confusion.

Thought thingy - finally! - Abbi

1) As a novel, ‘The Great Gatsby’ accomplishes Fitzgerald’s goal perfectly and, it could even be argued that Fitzgerald even surpassed it. ‘The Great Gatsby’ is unique and it is easy to see why it had become the classic that haunts A Level students across the globe. It meets all the set criteria – it’s ‘extraordinary and beautiful and simple and intricately patterned’. ‘The Great Gatsby’ is so exceptional, such a one of a kind, that it is easy to understand why critics of the day simply did not get it – because I’m not sure they were supposed to get it. Fitzgerald wrote it to be ‘new’ – things that are new, aren't always built for the audience who get them to understand.

2) People never like the way they’re described by other people; viewing ourselves from other people’s perspective highlights aspects of our character that we are blind to. Wilson’s description of the characters as ‘unpleasant’ shows Fitzgerald’s genius within ‘The Great Gatsby’ – Fitzgerald presents a view on society that haunts the reader, with its honesty. For all Nick’s biased, and sometimes slightly confusing, narration – his obsession with Gatsby, his disgust of Myrtle Wilson and the sense of him not fitting in with the East – we see his view of a society in total flux, a ‘white chauffeur’ driving ‘rich blacks’ – the class system being broken down and re-built, the foundations of America and the American Dream being completely rocked and all through Nick’s eyes. Being asked to argue this is impossible, because, as the reader, you aren't supposed to like yourself – no matter how much you wish to – because Fitzgerald has presented all the ugly aspects of human nature and wrapped them up in something ‘beautiful’ and ‘intricate’ and, as much as you can love the novel, you simply can not love yourself.