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.