"The Great Gatsby" Film Adaption - Success or Failure?

Hey guys! So, this post is going to be about the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. This book (for anyone who isn't aware), takes place in the 1920's, and is about a group of affluent characters living in Long Island. The story follows a mysterious, private millionaire as his obsession with a married woman, Daisy Buchanan (whom he had previously been involved with) unfolds in a complex love story. In 2011, the book was adapted into a film starring Leo DiCaprio and Tobey McGuire. I'm going to be comparing the portrayal of Daisy in the novel and the film. The film was very successful in adapting Daisy as an extremely charming and submissive woman of the 1920’s.

Side-note: I just want to preface this with the acknowledgement of the fact that I feel like I was a little harsh on Daisy. I actually like the character, but reading this back, I feel like I came across very aggressive in describing her.

For much of the novel, Daisy is portrayed as very charming. She has the ability to get everyone’s attention, and is an “ideal” of this time. The movie successfully adapted this aspect of the character. Daisy is first introduced in the novel when Nick has dinner at her house. He explains that upon Daisy greeting him, “She laughed again...and held my hand for a moment, looking up into my face, promising that there was no one in the world she so much wanted to see. That was a way she had...” (Fitzgerald 9). Nick describes her as endearing and extremely engaging. She has a way of grabbing the attention of people around her, and captivating them with the way she carries herself. This scene in the movie was very true to the novel. Nick enters the room and Daisy is lying on the sofa, exactly as she is described in the book. In Nick’s voiceover, he describes his initial interaction with Daisy in the scene being as though, “There was no one else in the world she’d rather see.” At this moment in the film, Nick stops and stares at her as if mesmerized and in awe. Both the novel and the film made sure to show that she’s viewed by others as captivating and intriguing. She has a certain quality that makes others want to be around her.

As Daisy is shown more, her submissiveness becomes more and more apparent. Nick becomes aware that Tom (Daisy’s husband) is having an affair, and that that’s a fairly well-known fact among the people in the Buchanan’s inner-circle. In the film, Tom gets up from dinner to answer the phone, and it’s made apparent right away that he’s on the phone with his mistress. Daisy sits in silence and doesn’t say anything. She would never be able to speak up for herself, even if she’s aware that she’s being wronged and taken advantage of. In the book, when Nick and Daisy are discussing Daisy and Tom’s daughter, Daisy tells Nick that when she found out she had had a daughter, she thought, “I hope she’ll be a fool. That's the best thing a girl can be in this world - a beautiful, little fool…” (Fitzgerald 17). Daisy speaks this same line in the film, and it implies that Daisy knows what is going on with Tom, but knows she can’t say anything. She’s saying she hopes her daughter is a fool because she knows that no matter what, she’s going to be taken advantage of. She feels that it’s better to not cause any trouble, and just let people do whatever they want. Daisy is shown to be scared to speak up about anything. She lets people walk all over her, and this develops her as a character that the reader / viewer wants to feel sorry for. Its pitiful to see how submissive she is to everyone around her. Once again, this scene in the film was very true to the book, and develops Daisy in the same way.

As the story progresses, and Daisy’s relationship with Gatsby develops, Daisy’s “idealism” begins to fade away. It’s shown that she’s actually extremely shallow. After the car accident occurs and Myrtle is killed, the film shows Gatsby waiting for Daisy as she sits inside her house. He’s hoping that she’ll come out, and they’ll be able to run away together, but she never does. She’s seen sitting and talking with Tom. Earlier on, Daisy had expressed that she loved Gatsby, and that she didn’t want to be with Tom. “He had deliberately given Daisy a sense of security; he let her believe...that he was fully able to take care of her.” (Fitzgerald 149). This shows that Daisy liked being with Gatsby because she loved the attention she received from him. She felt safe and cared for when she was with him, and that’s something her relationship with Tom lacked tremendously. Once the car accident occurred, Daisy was scared. It showed her that she wasn’t necessarily “safer” with Gatsby. He couldn’t take care of her and keep her sheltered like she was with Tom. Once Gatsby was killed, Nick explains that Tom and Daisy went away together without saying anything to anyone. They didn’t want anything to do with the people of Long Island anymore. She went back with Tom because it was the easier and safer option. She hated disrupting the flow of things. She was somewhat comfortable with Tom before she became involved with Gatsby again. He gave her nice things, and she got to live a high-class lifestyle. There was no depth in their relationship, but it was comfortable for her because that was the way things were. She was scared of disrupting things, so she just wanted to go back to the way it was before. This aspect of Daisy is strongly developed and focused on in both the novel and the film. It continues to show Daisy as a shallow and pitiful character that can’t stand up for herself in any way, and only worries about herself.

Overall, the film was a very successful adaption of Daisy

Buchanan from the novel. The movie portrayed her charm, shallowness

and submissiveness very similarly to the way the novel did. The

movie stayed very true to the book in the key scenes that developed

Daisy as a character.