Girls if you were Daisy what would you do?

Well, that sort of thing was more "accepted" amoung the wealthy and nobility in centuries past.
She also had a child to think about in a time when divorce was almost unthinkable.

One must put themselves in Daisy's shoes. If one was the kind of woman who would marry a man for his money and the lifestyle he would provide, even though she had given her promise to her first love, well that kind of woman would never leave the comfort of her luxuries.
Gatsby didn't realize that you can't change the past by trying to repeat it.

Daisy had just as much of an idealized view of Gatsby as he had of her; he was her lost love, her handsome, noble soldier in the white car. When Tom revealed Gatsby's gangster connections in the Plaza scene, that image crumbled and Daisy was so devastated that she couldn't concentrate on her driving and ran over Myrtle as a result.

Tom was a bully, an oaf, a philanderer, a bigot and a bore.

I think that Daisy would have been ready to move away from Tom, who gave her basically nothing but grief - even when she gave birth to their child he didn't hang around for/with Daisy, and such -

However there were 2 stumbling blocks (possibly) :

1. Her child - Tom would have put up a fight there - even against access rights for Daisy, pushing for himself to have sole total custody - due to sour grapes. However Daisy was well off herself by way of assets (recall him saying at the beginning of the movie to Nick "Some of it belongs to Daisy" - the property). Further money would be no object as far as legal team costs because Jay's wealth would have also afforded no end of top-notch legal counsel.
Also in those days the courts favoured the child staying with the mother moreso.

Whilst Tom had Daisy's affair with Jay to throw up in court .... Daisy's team could fight back with apparently quite a string of affairs which Tom had had throughout their marriage.

2. How filthy would the custody battle between Tom and Daisy get over the child before the suitability of Jay being the step father of her comes into play.
How dirty would that be, in terms of Tom digging into Jay's financial history and how Jay had made his money and how was he still making his mega fortune.

It may present a very real threat to Jay's freedom from prosecution to date regarding his hitherto lucrative income.

IMO I think Daisy would leave Tom - she has had a gutful of him and his ways, for the man who adores her, who would treat her with respect, love and sincerity and whom she loves.

However at what price? Would either of them personally, and both of them in their devotion to one another, be able to withstand and survive the inevitable backlash on every area of their lives - including publicly in the media, which Tom will unleash with a vengeance.


Matrixflower :)

I wouldn't have "up and left with Gatsby" because he is creepy and manipulative. He has basically been stalking her all this time, and preying upon (and manipulating) Nick. It's possible that with my modern upbringing I'm more clearly able to see this than a girl of Daisy's era would have been, but despite a few watchings of the Redford version, 1 viewing of the Leo version, and several reads of the book over many many years, I have never seen Gatsby's appeal at this point of Daisy's life. I would strike a deal with Tom where he lets me do my thing and he gets to do his thing with no fear of trouble, and then I would have taken off on an extensive traveling vacation to get away from both him and Gatsby!

Trying to look "behind the scenes" of these sketchy period pieces is almost fruitless, but I'm forced to wonder just what Daisy did with herself during the times before Nick/Gatsby reentered her life. Did she serve on charity committees like many society women did? It doesn't seem characteristic of her. Did she plan fancy parties to host at their home? Did they travel a lot? Daisy as an 'unattainable ideal' is a sufficient character as written, but Daisy as a person is quite unknowable.