The Great Gatsby question

Sheeba wrote: "‘Why, my God! they used to go there
by the hundreds. The poor son-of-a-bitch.’

Nick Carraway tries in vain to assemble people for Gatsby's funeral but nobody cared a shit about it.

If Daisy was aware of the news, which i think in all probability she would, why didn't she even send a message?

It makes me doubt if she really did love him or she just got excited about his new status and due to her own dull marriage life?
"

Fitzgerald leaves these questions for readers to ponder. We don't know and never will, and how we speculate on the answers depends on who we are as individuals.

For example, we don't know who drove the death car. Gatsby alone says it was Daisy, while eyewitnesses swear a man was driving. Gatsby is a criminal who makes his living by deceiving people, yet Nick, and through him most readers, believe Gatsby and ignore the sworn testimony of honest, hardworking witnesses.

Why so many readers are willing to believe a crook says something about how they allow themselves to be influenced by Nick, and their own world view. Are that many people that desperate for a romantic hero?

Did Daisy love Gatsby or was she merely excited by the flattering idea of a rekindled romance, enamored by his charisma and the trappings of his worldly success? How would she feel if she knew he lied about her being the driver?

Lots of unanswered questions that force us to think, and it is that process of pondering that allows us to learn about ourselves.


Here's what Ciffs Notes has to say about Daisy's feelings for Gatsby: By boldly kissing Gatsby when Tom leaves the room early in Chapter 7, then declaring "You know I love you" loudly enough for all to hear (much to Jordan and Nick's discomfiture) Daisy has, in effect, shown that to her, loving Gatsby is a game whose sole purpose is to try and get back at Tom. She's playing the game on her own terms, trying to prove something to her husband (her response to Tom's rough questioning later at the hotel also supports this idea).


But Daisy not sending flowers nor even phoning and very few people show at Gatsby's funeral makes a statement. Not even Wolfsheim shows up. The owl-eyed man's comment, "The poor son-of-a-bitch," makes it clear, passing judgment on Gatsby as "a nobody."

He wasn't great after all. He was only "great," like a circus side-show performer.

I think Daisy would have been aware of the death, but that she did not care much about Jay. He was a tryst and became a tool. Maybe somewhere along the way she realized that in her youth she very nearly made a very grave mistake.

This mistake in love is something that is deliberately absent in This Side of Paradise, present in The Beautiful and Damned, and a theme of the author's own life. Daisy is the mature character in Fitzgerald's universe who recognizes the mistake and avoids it.

It seemed to me that Daisy was trying to get on with her life without him. Even before his death she wants to be without him, almost as if she had unwillingly found some kind of resolution in her marriage to Tom.

Daisy did admit her love for Gatsby (in front of Tom no less), but that love didn't mean that she was prepared to devote her life to him. As is the tragedy of the story, Daisy had moved on. In the scene where she sees Gatsby outside her window and turns the light off, she cuts herself off from him, and instead of renewing her old love, she chooses to deny it.

If there's one thing that is sure about the character of Daisy, it's that she's not happy about - but never willing to change - the status quo. In Gatsby's revival in her life, she knows she loves him, and she knows she might be happier married to him, but life hasn't set itself up that way, and she chooses not to change it. Daisy isn't happy to keep her car crash quiet, but again chooses not to change the way things are. This personality trait of Daisy's extends all the way out to Gatsby's death, where having not sent flowers or a message, she simply continued not to.

I never even considered that Gatsby was lying to Nick about Daisy driving. It's a possibility. It isn't even Gatsby who first suggests it was Daisy who was driving. It's Nick and Gatsby agrees. It's also odd that Daisy would ask to drive the car, at least I thought.

But I don't see what Gatsby would get out of the lie. He wasn't going to turn her in and he even tells Nick he's going to take the fall. (Though, he could've of course been lying).

I had the feeling that Daisy told Tom she was driving and Tom got her to agree to put the whole blame on Gatsby. The scene Nick witnesses through the window supports this to me:

Daisy and Tom were sitting opposite each other at the kitchen table, with a plate of cold fried chicken between them, and two bottles of ale. He was talking intently across the table at her, and in his earnestness his hand had fallen upon and covered her own. Once in a while she looked up at him and nodded in agreement.

They weren't happy, and neither of them had touched the chicken or the ale - and yet tbey weren't unhappy either. There was an unmistakable air of natural intimacy about the picture, and anybody would have said that they were conspiring together.

Tom had already said that his mistress meant nothing to him and I can definitely see him getting his revenge on Gatsby by covering up his wife's crime. If the truth came out that Tom was having an affair and Daisy was driving no one would believe it was an accident. Tom would be ruined and image is everything in their world.

So, yes I think Daisy knew about Gatsby's death. And I think (in a way) she had a hand in it.

I believe that Daisy and Tom acknowledged their affairs and made a decision as a married couple to "fix" things. They cover up their respective roles in the accident and walk away never looking back. They stay married, distance themselves from everything and cut all ties with all of the people that had anything to do with who they had been having affairs with. I'm sure they knew of Gatsby's death. If others in their society/social strata were shunning his funeral, then if they wanted to keep up appearances, they would have to as well.

And that is another reason we see her behaviour as flawed. No matter whether you have broken up with someone, you still send flowers, or acknowledge that this person meant something to you. She is a deeply flawed, self-centered hussy with serious issue problems. No way would I want to be even friends with such a person. Regardless of the fact, and because of the fact that she can't and won't acknowledge that this man was the love of her life.....she is such a shallow creature of her class.