Analisi Daisy Great Gatsby

Sara Stoppa

Numero di matricola: 780677

Laboratorio di letteratura anglo-americana

Anno 2015/2016 The power of Daisy’s voice

During the years, many critics have examined the figure of Daisy from different points of

view -her role as a mother, as an enchantress and as Gatsby’s unique dream- and even if

she is generally considered a negative character, “a woman of vicious emptiness ”, she still

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exerts a great fascination on readers. The common thread of the paper will be that of

Daisy’s voice. This feature has led to different interpretations, which will be clarified in the

following pages. First of all an analysis of her mermaid voice will be provided. Secondly an

apology of Daisy will follow in order to dismiss the accusations of insincerity and amorality

from her: criticisms about Daisy have developed partly because of her voice according to

what emerges from the novel. The two examined essays are purposely contrasting in

order to provide a wider overview of the character.

Daisy as a Siren

In the history of literature, sirens appear for the first time in Homer’s Odyssey and

Apollonius’ Argonautica. They were mythological figures, half women half fish -or birds

according to other traditions- and had seducing voices which lured the sailors passing by

and led them to death among the rocks. Daughters of Acheloo and companions of

Proserpina, they were said to live in the South of Italy, in the Tyrrhenian Sea. Odysseus

stayed immune to the sirens’ fascination thanks to Circe’s piece of advice. The witch

warned him to cover his ears and those of his crew with wax in order not to listen to their

dangerous voices. Jason and the Argonauts met the sirens during their way back to Iolcos;

in that occasion Orpheus’ melodies with the lyre drowned out the sirens’ singing. Then

many classical authors introduced these mythological creatures in their works of art such

as Plato, Aristotle and Ovid. They made an appearance also in Dante’s Comedy and some

years later in the works of the Romantic poets. Among the Romantic poets, Byron and

Keats compared the sirens’ singing to the voice of the poet. In the case of the Romantics

the poet as a siren represents the moment of creativity and the fascination of his verses,

aspects that are considered generally positive.

In the case of Fitzgerald’s Daisy, her resemblance and comparison to the sirens are

negative and signify mainly deceit. The interpretation of Daisy as a mermaid has

developed on account of her voice but other elements contribute to her characterisation as

a magical creature. First of all, in Hesiod’s Catalogue of Women and in Apollonius’

Argonautica the isle of the sirens is called Anthemoessa, i.e. “Flowery”: Daisy is the name

of a flower and her surname before marrying Tom Buchanan was Fay. Elves and fays

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1 Marius Bewley “Scott Fitzgerald’s Criticism of America” in Twentieth Century Interpretation of the Great

Gatsby, ed. Ernest Lockridge (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1968)

2 John Kuhnle found in the name of the woman an allusion to the Sun, by meaning Daisy “the day’s eye”.

Anyway the woman’s name suggests a strong link with nature.

were recurrent and folkloristic characters in ancient legends and were present also in

Spencer’s The Faerie Queen and in Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. So Daisy

Fay means “flower fairy” and this may explain the many references and allusions to

flowers all along the novel. At the beginning of it there is a description of a field full of rose

bushes between the sea and the Buchanans’ house. Moreover the Buchanans’ porch is

painted in rose colours and Nick’s appearance and attitude resemble that of a rose to

Daisy’s eyes during their first encounter. When the golf player Jordan Baker tells Nick

about Daisy’s girlhood, the young woman used to be surrounded by the orchids like a fairy

of flowers. And precisely because of her being a magical creature, she admires the plum

blossoms, the hawthorn and the daffodils in Gatsby’s kingdom but she is immune to their

enchantment. Gatsby would seduce her with flowers but a fairy of flowers can’t be tempted

by them. It is Gatsby who submits to Daisy’s charms and reaches out for her. Gatsby

compares Daisy to a rose, presumably a red rose (red is the colour of love, passion and

blood) even if daisies are white and Daisy has experienced a white girlhood; in addition to

it she is always dressed in white. Daisy’s essence is evoked also through the green light

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