Prompt Revision #2

1980. A recurring theme in literature is the classic war between a passion and responsibility. For instance, a personal cause, a love, a desire for revenge, a determination to redress a wrong, or some other emotion or drive may conflict with moral duty. Choose a literary work in which a character confronts the demands of a private passion that conflicts with his or her responsibilities. In a well-written essay show clearly the nature of the conflict, its effects upon the character, and its significance to the work.

            If you had the choice between a life of security and respectability, or a life of passion, which one would you choose? Or would you try to have it all? In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, this is the choice that Daisy Buchanan must make more than once, and it his her difficulties making this choice that helps display and highlight the frivolousness of the upper class.

Throughout the work, Daisy Buchanan must deal with her conflicting feelings between Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby. Tom is a good American, who attended college and has loads of money. In other words, he is the respectable man for Daisy to marry. He is the man her family expects her to pick. However, Daisy is passionately in love with another man, Jay Gatsby. The problem is that Gatsby does not have a respectable family name, a respectable job, or a respectable amount of money. This is the conflict that Daisy deals with before marrying Tom. The majority of the book explores this issue later in their lives, after Daisy has already been married to Tom and has a child. Jay Gatsby moves into the house across from the Buchanan’s, and him and Daisy end up meeting to have tea. From that point on, Daisy wrestles between her feelings and passion for Jay Gatsby, and her desire to remain wife to Tom Buchanan.

            Daisy’s conflicting feelings cause many problems for her. In fact, the night before her wedding to Tom, Daisy drinks herself into a stupor and almost calls the whole wedding off. Many years later, Daisy does not hold many moral dilemmas about starting an affair with Jay Gatsby. However, she refuses to leave or tell Tom about the affair (as Gatsby wants her to do). This causes problems as Tom begins to invite Jay to parties and dinners. Neither Daisy nor Gatsby can hide their love for each other, and Tom does not remain oblivious for long. The conflict comes to a head when Tom, Daisy, and Jay all find themselves in a private room during a sweltering day in New York City. Gatsby and Tom have a confrontation, and Daisy is forced to choose between the two of them. She realizes she cannot have the best of both worlds, and chooses respect and security over passion. Driving home, in her anger and sadness, she hits a woman and kills her.

            Daisy’s personal war between her passion and her responsibility helps contribute to this theme of the frivolousness and ridiculousness present in the upper class. Fitzgerald develops this theme throughout the book in many ways including through the extravagant, pointless parties Gatsby holds every week. Daisy's dilemma furthers this because, really, her situation couldn't be more ideal. She has a child, a husband, and a secure place in the upper class. To think that this book was put out in a country that had just finished with its first world war, with soldiers returning home and finding themselves jobless, with widows whose husbands never returned, her "dilemma" becomes anything but. In that light, Daisy's problems make the upper class seem even more out of touch with reality than ever.

            Over all, Daisy’s internal struggle between her love for Jay Gatsby and societal obligation to her husband, Tom Buchanan, causes problems for her in The Great Gatsby. She refuses to accept the fact that she will never be able to have everything that she wants. This struggle highlights Fitgerald's comment on the absolute ridiculousness of upper class society.