Daisy Buchanan is arguably the most important character in The Great Gatsby because without Daisy, Gatsby would have no motive to throw all of his parties. Yes, the novel revolves around Gatsby’s life, but his life revolves around Daisy. But why? Why does Gatsby care so much about a woman he has not seen in five years? And even when he was with her before he went off to fight in the war, the time they were together was only one month long. Why is Gatsby so obsessed with her?
The answer to this is simple. It is because Gatsby is in love with Daisy. Even though the couple were only together for a month he was able to easily fall for Daisy because she is unlike any other woman he has ever met before. Not only is Daisy perfect in the eyes of Gatsby, but also meant to be portrayed as perfect in the eyes of the reader. The women Gatsby is typically surrounded by are all generic, un-classy flappers. Even though Daisy is also associated with women like this she remains classy and angelic because of her sobriety and natural charm. The combination of Daisy’s beauty, charm, class, and grace makes her sophisticated. These characteristics provide evidence for the fact that Daisy is a symbol of perfection in the novel. Since Gatsby prefers the finer things in life it makes sense why he would fall for a woman like Daisy since she is considered to be literal perfection.
Even though Daisy is a symbol of perfection, she is not perfect in reality because she is cheating on her husband with Gatsby and she hit and killed someone while driving and let someone else take the blame for it. Obviously, these things justify the claim that she is not perfect, and also the fact that she is human since no human is capable of perfection. Yet when people are in love their lover is perfect in their eyes because love is blinding. With that being said, Daisy is not a symbol of literal perfection, she is actually a symbol of perfection through the eyes of love.
Daisy being a symbol of perfection through the eyes of love adds to the significance of her character’s role in the novel because oftentimes love and romance are one of the most important things in people’s lives. It certainly seems to be a priority in Gatsby’s life. Without Daisy Gatsby would have no motivation to throw his parties, and without Gatsby’s parties and his undying love for Daisy there would be no novel.