The “golden girl” is the idea of this perfect woman, something that can never really exist. In the 1920’s the idea of a golden girl would be pure. She’d be beautiful, with and without makeup, skinny, and rich. She’d also probably have a lot of admirers but hardly any relationships, as to seem more “untouched”.
- This description fits Daisy, as she was written to encapsulate this idea of perfection. Although, as you look closer you see there is more to her. Despite seeming naive, she is actually shown to be shred and conniving. She puts up with her husband’s affair, only to later have her own affair. “I’m p-paralyzed with happiness.” Daisy says this when she first meets Nick. Nick comments on her tone, describing it as absurd but charming. This might hint that Daisy is just pretending, performing this caricature of the golden girl. She says later the only way to survive as a woman is to be a fool, and that is what she tries to project.
- Like most people, Gatsby is in love with Daisy, not actually her, but the idea of her. The people who like her don’t see her as an actual person, more as a precious item to be collected for bragging rights. This was common for a lot of women during this time. And it is especially prevalent in the argument scene in chapter 8, where Tom and Gatsby are arguing about who Daisy loves, not even considering to ask her. “She never loved you, do you hear?” he cried. “She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me. It was a terrible mistake, but in her heart she never loved any one except me!” This is something Gatsby says, without even checking in with Daisy to confirm if it’s true.
- Life for women during this time wasn’t the best. It was a predominately male world, not allowing for women to be as successful. If you were a woman and had some idea of the world around you you would realize there isn’t much hope for you. The only options really were to become a housewife or some man’s mistress. We see this through both Daisy and Myrtle. Daisy is smarter than led to believe so she has realized this, and she knows how horrible it is, and she doesn’t want her daughter ever finding out.
- Daisy smashes up people’s lives, most obviously, Myrtle’s, George’s and Gatsby’s. It starts with Gatsby, when she first meets him again. She does love him but never really had any intention of running away with him, like Gatsby presumed. Then there’s George and Myrtle. She accidentally kills Myrtle, but then doesn’t even stop and keeps driving. This breaks George who kills Gatsby and then himself. This is basically all of her doing, and in the end, she doesn’t even bother with the funeral.
- If Daisy had an alignment her alignment would be true neutral. She doesn’t care about being a perfect citizen, nor does she want to cause chaos. She does what she wants, well, as much as she can as a woman. She indulged in Gatsby’s fantasy, but then killed Myrtle. Although a lot of the things Daisy does flips between being good or bad, I consider her to be a bad person. She does nice things sometimes, yes, but it isn’t because she’s nice at heart. She does what she wants, without any care for ethics.