Linguistic Characterization and Impact of Daisy in The Great Gatsby Saad Iftikhar College

Throughout F. Scott Fitzgerald's masterwork The Great Gatsby, the remarkably capricious character of Daisy Fay Buchanan succinctly epitomizes the ideas of aristocracy and superficiality so readily present in the hedonistic society of the roaring twenties. Regardless of whom she associates herself with, Daisy, through her inherently mercurial nature and incessantly cynical attitude, acts as a plague, with her complaints and melodrama siphoning the life, albeit unintentionally, out of her acquaintances. By way of Fitzgerald's illustration of Daisy through his language and that of other characters, as well as the use of her own distinctly ambivalent and promiscuous language in conjunction with her infamously alluring voice, Daisy effectively and significantly impacts both the characters and the overall plot of The Great Gatsby in a decisively negative manner, fostering animosity and sowing discord along her destructive path.

Daisy's obsession with worldly possessions and her subsequent superficial nature are among the most apparent of her characteristics, with her depiction by others and personal actions further advancing her materialistic identity. When Daisy's second cousin and narrator of the novel, Nick, observes that, "It was...