Saturday, September 17, 2011

In The Great Gatsby, why might Daisy choose to remain with Tom instead of leaving him for Gatsby ?

In The Great Gatsby, Daisy stays with Tom because, in her words, Gatsby asks too much. 


Gatsby demands that Daisy tell Tom that she never loved him, that all the time she was married to Tom she really loved Gatsby.  She loved Gatsby five years before, she admits, and she loves him now (the present in the text), but Gatsby insists that she loved him at all times in between.  When Tom reminds her of some of the good times they had together early in their marriage, she refuses to say that she never loved Tom.  That's when she tells Gatsby that he asks too much.


Gatsby's illusion is that he and Daisy have a special, poignant relationship.  His illusion could stay intact if Daisy married Tom for a reason besides love: for financial security, for instance.  But if she married Tom for love, or just loved him at all and at any point, his illusion would be destroyed. 


He insists on the truth of his illusion, but his illusion is not true, and Daisy refuses to say that it is. 

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