When we ignore our true desires, our search for relevance can ironically become

meaningless. Throughout human history, humans have always searched for meaning and
importance in the periods of time and possibilities that become available to us. At certain times it
will be a struggle, and it may cause us adversity. We can achieve different purposes at different
spans in our lives, but what if society halts us from embracing our true importance? In the book,
The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald, Daisy Buchanan is a character that believes she cannot
achieve proper meaning due to her womanhood. Because of this, she fakes meaning through
status and the attention of others, which causes her to spiral into a shallow hedonism. As a result,
she loses her most important relationship and becomes what she most fears, trapped.

Initially, Daisy Buchanan is portrayed as a beautiful and charming woman. In the

beginning of the story, she is seen as other-worldy, pure, and elegant. When she first meets Nick,
she is in a huge white dress on a fancy looking couch. This is in reference to her desire for status,
and how she finds her own meaning through hedonism and materialism. Even so, Nick quickly
realizes she might be more depressive than she lets on. She is shown praising herself for her
own sophistication, but there's clearly a sense of emptiness within her character. She describes
everything as being terrible, because she’s seen everything. This reflects how her own wealth and
status is eating her up inside, but she appears to do nothing about it. On one hand, she is gloomy
and bleak due to her dissatisfaction with her household. But on the other hand, she gets her status
and sense of worth.

However, while Daisy seems to do her best at finding personal happiness and importance,
it is very much an act. This act is based around internalized misogyny, as on the inside she
believes that women are not significant enough in the world, so the best they can do is be
“beautiful fools”. She weeps when she finds out her baby is a girl, because she believes her
daughter will also fahce the same feelings of irrelevance and will have to be doll-like like she is.
Her character is based around a search for meaning that is held-back by the lack of support and
oppression, so she pretends she has all the meaning in the world. She pretends she is worthy, but
she sits still and looks pretty as a means for survival in the time period. Her meaning is never
from within, as she believes it is impossible for her to do that. Her meaning is external. It comes
from wealth, status, and most importantly, other men. This image of grace and innocence that she
puts on works so well that Gatsby falls in love merely with the idea of her. She is described by
him as having a voice that is full of money, which shows that to the men as well she is
comparable to external wealth. He has rose-colored glasses towards her, refusing to see her
slow-burning sadness and instead sees her as an ideal standard. She is slowly becoming the
“beautiful fool” she warned her daughter about. The same goes for Tom, as Daisy takes on the
same household role as other women did in the time period. She is the duitial, quiet, housewife.
She lets him cheat, lets him be angry, and as a result, gets to keep her importance as a woman to
him. When she and Gastby reunite, she is at first very excited by this idea of an affair. It is slowly
revealed that both Gastby and Daisy are in love with each other for selfish reasons, Gatsby is
only in love with the idea of her, and Daisy is in love with the sense of relevance she receives
from him. She cries while hugging him, and remarks on how nice his shirt feels. This shows how
she has an attachment to his wealth, and not him himself. She adores his status and money, as it
yet again adds to her never ending need for material things. Most importantly, she likes the
attention she gets, as she obtains a sense of belonging and significance.

Consequently, the last half of the book is when we truly begin to understand the
consequences of this worldview. By the end of the story, she is plagued with indecision between
Tom or Gastby. She is unsure who she truly loves and who she wants to be with. Due to her
shallowness, she wants both as they give her the gratification she needs to survive. All her life,
due to the sexist society she lives in. Her entire life she has never had to make decisions for
herself, and when she gets the opportunity she fails. Her fatal flaw is that the image she was
presenting is becoming real. Gatsby does not see beyond her elegance, and she loses the last
pieces of authenticity she thinks she has. Paradoxically, what she fears becoming is what she
actually ends up being. Daisy’s indecision is as a result of her fear of being trapped, a fear of
irrelevance. She puts on a mask of being free, but this freedom is never real. She is stuck with
Tom by the end, who keeps her around because of his sense of control he has over her. The
meaning of her character is that she does not change, but her mask shatters. Because of her
acting like the ideal woman, she has slowly become fickle, greedy, and loses her sense of inner
value. She is trapped with Tom by the end, she doesn’t achieve a grand sense of change or
confidence to leave him. He lets her keep her sense of worth, and she pursues her mindset that a
refined girl is all women can be so there is no point in fleeing. In short, Gastby was her
possibility for meaning, but she was unsatisfied with this. By the end, her self-worth has dipped
and she feels she has no merit, so she stays with Tom. Her conflict is that she doesn’t know how
to find a sense of individual worth because she feels it is impossible for her. Nobody can attain a
full meaning just based on other peoples validation, and Daisy Buchanan is no expectation for
this.
In conclusion, in F. Scott’s Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is a story about Daisy
Buchanan using opportunities of wealth and affection to find personal fulfillment and meaning.