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Daisy: Scummiest Skank EVER? (Major Spoilers)


Major spoilers as this has to do with Daisy's actions at the very end of the film.

George Wilson has obviously walked half the night to reach Tom and Daisy's house. It was dark night when he started and breakfast time when he arrived, so unless he stopped to rest, hell of a long walk.

When Daisy saw Wilson confront Tom with the dog leash, she MUST have known two things: Myrtle Wilson, the woman who was run over, was Tom's mistress. (She knew he had one but not who it was until then) and George Wilson can only have wanted to know the owner of the car which hit Myrtle SO HE COULD KILL HIM. (Which Daisy knew perfectly well was Gatsby's car as she was driving, and which she also knew Wilson had seen Tom driving earlier.) Now, I don't so much blame Daisy for not calling the cops RIGHT THEN, as that would lead to uncomfortable questions (as to how she knew about the car that hit Myrtle) BUT--

she had some way of getting to Jay Gatsby's every afternoon. Since it's extremely unlikely he was picking her up (in her husband's absence and in full view of the nanny and any other servants) she had only three ways of getting there: they had another car (if Tom was taking the blue one every day), by boat, or on horseback. ANY ONE OF WHICH WOULD BE FASTER THAN GEORGE WILSON GOING CLEAR AROUND THE SOUND (or whatever body of water was between the houses) ON FOOT even had he been rested let alone walked all night! She couldn't have taken one of these means of transportation, or, barring that, just PICKED UP THE PHONE and told Jay, "By the way, some people saw your car hit Myrtle Wilson last night and HER HUSBAND IS COMING OVER TO KILL YOU"? But no, according to this movie (and it's been some time since I read the story so I don't remember how it went down in the book) she just did NOTHING and let a guy who obsessed over her for EIGHT FRICKIN' YEARS and would do ANYTHING for her, get blown away?

Jay Gatsby was delusional and a terrible judge of character, if he thought Daisy did, or could, really care about him. She had to have had Narcissistic Personality Disorder and been a sociopath. Gatsby was also materialistic, as he obviously got an inferiority complex from going over to Daisy's parents' place in 1917 and spent the rest of his life becoming "all that" and more--and much good it did him--but he didn't deserve what he got! My real condemnation is reserved for Daisy, letting that happen to ANYONE--let alone a guy with whom she was romantically involved and who worshipped her! Then acting all happy and like everything was fine because she and Tom were together--WELL, OF COURSE, WHEN THE TWO PEOPLE WHO WOULD HAVE COME BETWEEN THEM WERE DEAD, and she killed one outright and didn't prevent Tom from letting the other be killed! She was a wretch beyond wretchedness!

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OMGA!! thank you!! for years (since i first saw th film and read the book as a kid) i thought, "what the hell?" we're absolutley correct - CALL the man and tell him a pissed off cuckold is coming to part your hair a new way. at least he'd have been prepared.

But Daisy's selfishness was without limit. Jay only appealed to her now because he WAS rich (later). had he gotten the opportunity to see Wilson, he would have known Daisy threw him under the bus and his admiration for her was missplaced. But FSF wanted the hero to perish. sort of an end of an era kinda thing. times were changing (the Great Crash '30's). i can't help feeling sorrow for Jay - had he seen her for the nothing she was, he might have had a good life.

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Daisy wasn't all bad; she was just weak. On the night before she was to marry Tom, she tried to run away and join Gatsby, but was dissuaded from doing so by Jordan. It wasn't all about the money.

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