3.2.2 A Symbol of the Dream of Gatsby.. 10

3.2.3 The Intention of Fitzgerald. 11

3.3 The inevitability of Nick’s Unreliable Description on Daisy.. 12

4. Conclusion... 13

References... 14

1. Introduction

The Great Gatsby is one of the most important works in the 20th century and it is a representative one of Fitzgerald. It draws Jazz Age and Roaring Twenties which represents a cautionary tale of American Dream and it wins a historical reputation for Fitzgerald as Eliot judged that it was the first step in the development of novel art since James (Henry James, 1945:310).

1.1 The Research Background and Comments on Daisy

Among the studies on The Great Gatsby, researchers mainly focused on the narration structure of the novel, the character of Gatsby and the reasons for the disillusionment of American Dream of Gatsby. As for the heroine Daisy, few critics made a specific analysis on her character. Some of the more radical critics believed that Daisy had caused the destruction of the life of Gatsby while extremely few critics believed that Daisy was also a victim of the times, and she should not bear too harsh criticism.

Most domestic critics view Daisy as a negative example in the female characters among the novels. For example, professor Guohua Zhao regarded Daisy as a “Golden Girl” (2004:67) who missed in the money and played an essential role in the tragic story of Gatsby. However, there are some critics pretend to find out the positive view of Daisy. They are represented by Zhang Fuyong and Wang Xiaoni who view Daisy as a woman with feelings and affections in the thesis Comment on Daisy Buchanan. In addition, some critics provide a relatively neutral comment on Daisy. For example, in Duality of the Ego Identity of Daisy, Yu Liequan revealed the reality that Daisy possessed an empty life and lacked the pursuit for the realization of her social value, but he did not blame too much on Daisy.

As for international researches, in “Herstory” and Daisy Buchanan, professor Person wrote that “few critics write about The Great Gatsby without discussing Daisy Fay Buchanan; and few, it seems, write about Daisy without entering the unofficial competition of maligning her character (1978:250).” However, professor Person thought that “despite the tedency of critics to view her as a ‘monster of bitchery,’ Daisy has her own complex story, her own desires and needs” (1978:253) and mentioned that “Nick only faintly apprehends the uniqueness of Daisy’s voice” (1978:254). Represented by Person, international critics noticed the positive view of Daisy and challenged the narrative of Nick earlier than domestic critics. At the same time, there are also some voice challenging the character of Daisy. Marius Bewley, for example, pointed out her “vicious emptiness”(qtd. in Person, 1978:251) and “monstrous moral indifference.” (qtd. in Person, 1978:251) Robert Ornstein thought she was “criminally amoral,” (qtd. in Person, 1978:251) and Alfred Kazin judged her “vulgar and inhuman.” (qtd. in Person, 1978:251) Finally, Leslie Fiedler saw Daisy as a “Dark Destroyer,” (qtd. in Person, 1978:251) “a purveyor of corruption and death,” (qtd. in Person, 1978:251) and the “first notable anti-virgin of our fiction, the prototype of the blasphemous portraits of the Fair Goddess as bitch in which our 20th_century fiction abounds” (qtd. in Person, 1978:251).

In conclusion, few critics write about Daisy Fay Buchanan without maligning her character (Zhang Fuyong and Wang Xiaoni, 1994:152).In these mean views of Daisy, the similarity could be found is that they all concern her tremendous power over Gatsby and his unfortunate fate. In these papers, Daisy was usually evaluated in the identity of the lover of Gatsby or the wife of Tom instead of an independent inpidual. Such an unfair role setting could be found in the first appearance of Daisy in the novel. The first introduction about Daisy is extremely short: Daisy was his “second cousin once removed” (Fitzgerald, 2012:4). So what have to be paid attention is that the partial narration of Nick might result in the negative comments on Daisy.