Saturday, June 21, 2008

Daisy and Tom

What is the true relationship between Daisy and Tom? Explain.

10 comments:

kristeena said...

The real relationship between Tom and Daisy is that they are husband and wife. Further than that they are also more like lovers. The reason I say lovers is because they do love each other deep down but at the same time they both love to be free. I believe that the reason they cheat on one another is because they are bored of each other and have forgotten about the time when they were so in love no one could separate them. The reason they don't just split up and run off with their other person is because they are scared of losing each other.

Min Jae said...

I would have to disagree with Kristeena, since to me, the love between the both was more a superficial one that was just established for legal means. For Tom, The relationship with Daisy was a way to maintain his position as a East Egger and keep his money. To Daisy, it was more of a love that will shield pain away while Gatsby was gone to Oxford and to live satisfyingly. The relationship was just legal but it wasn't one that was fully cherished by both parties. Both were not loyal to one another and loved others out of the marriage.

dani.k said...

They are both high-class adults that never grew up from their spoiled-rotten childish state. Neither of them had to bother with cleaning up after themselves or making ends meet or, well, they never had a care in the world. They were both handed the world on a silver platter, to do as they pleased with it- without any boundaries; any rules but their own. They’re the type of people that no one can put up with for very long, and that’s what makes them perfect for each other, they’re so whimsical and irresponsible that they support each other. I think it’s the sort of relationship in where they see themselves in the other person, and because they’re so in love with themselves, it makes them in love with one another, as well. Other than this, there’s always the financial and social role that they both play. Tom gives Daisy the financial security that she cannot live without and Daisy is the epitome of the “high-class” that he wants to represent. They were each other’s way to cope with and take a breath from reality.

Young Eui Hong said...

What I see in Tom and Daisy's relationship is a bond of lies and unfaithfulness. They are both cheating on each other, and when Tom realizes that Daisy is having an affair with someone else, his reaction is rather exaggerated. When someone cheats on the other, it is obvious that the interest towards the real partner is split in half, between the real partner and the other partner. This may have caused Daisy to think about her relationship with Gatsby, even though she had no intentions of taking it seriously. Also, since both of them are from a high social class, losing each other would cause a dramatic effect and there could be a possibility of losing everything.

Unknown said...

Tom and Daisy have an unusual relationship. I think they barely knew each other because their relationship seemed to have been so rushed, all of a sudden they were married and had a daughter. They probably barely even knew each other well enough to love one another. Just as the era they lived in, the roaring 1920s, their relationship was fast, furious, and fleeting. They had a "thing" but everything just happened fast and in the end they both seemed to want out; they wanted an escape.

JinA said...

Reading the beginning three, four chapters, I had a feeling that both Daisy and Tom don't have feelings. How in chapter I, Tom receives a phone call from Myrtle "in front" of Daisy. Tom didn't at all feel guilty about having a love affair with a different woman. He even invited Nick to meet her. On the other hand, I felt Daisy didn't love Tom. She knew about Myrtle, but she ignored the fact that Tom was cheating on her even though she remained loyal to him. However, when Daisy talks about the day her daughter was born, I understood that Daisy was hurt about Tom's infidelity. That is why she said "I hope she'll be a fool- that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool."
I was not sure if their relationship was love or what Danica had posted above. At the beginning I thought Daisy didn't love Tom and she just married him for his money. I thought Daisy loved Gatsby, until in chapter VIII she chose to be with Tom. Then I understood the true relationship between Daisy and Tom; they were in love once, and they have a strong trust in each other in that they are sure that one is not going to leave them. For example, when Tom lets Daisy go back alone with Gatsby in the same car even though he found out about Daisy’s unfaithfulness. At the end of the novel, after all those love affairs, their marriage is still remaining. I am not sure if their relationship is love, but I am sure it is strong.

JinA said...

Adding to what I have said before, Daisy and Tom's relationship is strong because they are compatible. They are both from a society that money is everything and doing something outside the box is forbidden. I still believe that they don’t have feelings because they don't feel guilty about Gatsby's death. Daisy lets Gatsby take the blame about Myrtle’s death, and Tom thinks Gatsby deserved to die. Now that I think about it, their relationship is not love but financial and social security. Maybe they loved once, but I don’t see the love anymore.

Norberto said...

I think the relationship between Tom and Daisy is corrupted. They feel no love towards each other, but they fear being separated as well. I think this is normal human psychology; the reason is that at first they might have felt a strong attraction to each other, and maybe developed strong feelings on the way. But as the years went by, their thoughts became rotten and unchanged; this led to the inevitable boredom and quest to seek new companions. It might seem that Tom was seeking to increase his social status by having Daisy, and Daisy could have been attracted by the enormous luxury. But they are only two humans who felt something for each other, and they got used to living together for quite a while. They both had good social and economic results, but once a person becomes attached, they fear loosing one another after a long relationship. Sometimes it makes a person loose part of itself.

Unknown said...

What Danica said is truly interesting; how Daisy and Tom love each other because of their own image reflected in each other. But I’d have to agree with Kristeena that deep down, both Tom and Daisy truly do love each other. I believe that Daisy and Gatsby’s affair was just a fling and Tom’s and Myrtle’s affair was also just a fling. They truly are beings that enjoy freedom and doing what they want, but they do love each other. If they did not love each other, they wouldn’t live the comfortable life they live, and they wouldn’t accept one another the way they are.

Daniel said...

I think the main thing that keeps Tom and Daisy together is their baby. While Tom doesn't exactly love Daisy, I think he doesn't want to abbandon her and he thinks that she loves him so he feels bad. Daisy on the other hand may love him deep inside, but her love for Gatsby eclipses her love for Tom. I think they're more like children always arguing about nothing and acting just like a married couple, haha it's like I'm saying married couples are children.