Emmanuel Kant’s theory: the Great Gatsby- an ethical judgment on Daisy Buchanan and on Jay Gatsby
Love, lust, and the pursuit of happiness, How has Daisy Buchanan remained loyal to Tom Buchanan?
Ethics is a recurring problem in Great Gatsby since the characters displays samples of different actions and behaviors that can be classified as both ethical or unethical. Daisy is the loyal wife to Tom Buchanan, a wealthy man of means. Tom comes from an old family of blue-bloods and extreme wealth. He has taken care of Daisy and her lifestyle of comfort and carefree living, partying and extravagance for years (Luhrmann 14:23). She loves Tom and married him years ago because she had fallen in love with him. They have enjoyed many years together and consummated their love with the birth of a daughter into their family. Daisy has shown Tom in many ways how she loves him and her loyalty to him and their family. Tom also loves Daisy and takes care of her because she has shown her loyalty to the family. Daisy stays with Tom even though he has been unfaithful to her. He has affairs with other women and Daisy is aware of these indiscretions and yet, she remains loyal and stays with Tom. She opts to sick with her family mainly because she is not mean and what the best even when Tom does not replicate.
Daisy is also supportive of Tom, thus showing her loyalty by standing behind what he professes. When Tom is confronting the house staff, a butler, he adjusts the butler's tie and makes a comment that "they need us to take care of them" (Luhrmann 38:13). A statement that Daisy quickly quips about, how Tom reads the thick books with long words and implies he is superior because of his knowledge, thereby edifying him.
Despite the fact that daisy is characterized with glowing charm and beauty she is not selfish even when she hurts. She is loved by Gatsby but she struggles to maintain her loyalties to Tom who has an affair with his married mistress but still supports the family. She is a character that is linked to purity, light and innocent as she presents herself with so much dignity. She refuses to make a choice at that time when Tom and jay are in the same room because she does not want to hurt her husband and chooses to stick to the deceitful relationship (Luhrmann 63:23). Daisy wanted the false curse of happiness upon her own daughter and Tom as that is all that she ever knew off.
Her loyalty is additionally seen in that her love for Tom still remained despite that she once had and already has Jay. She cannot connect herself to allow Tom to leave because she is only concerned that he will get hurt. This is a form of selflessness despite the fact that Tom had continually subjected her to hurts by choosing to have a mistress even after she was aware about it. She admits that she once loved Tom but he let her expectations and ambitions down (Luhrmann 84:11). Her ability to set standards to live demonstrates her loyalties because she followed her illustration although the decisions were not necessarily the best. In numerous occasions she choose her family over what she really wanted because she hoped that Tom would be supportive and loving and she lost her love for him in the process. She cannot therefore be regarded as selfish because she choose to be happy after having tried.
Jay Gatsby as Manipulative
Jay Gatsby is the primary example of being manipulative. Jay utilized his power to conduct crimes that were targeted at increasing his wealth and developing his status in order to win Daisy since money was what was hindering them from being together. So in order to rise his social ladder he abandoned ethics to mainly focus on his individual interests. Despite the fact that he understood that Daisy was married to Tom he disregarded ethical codes to pursue his feelings. This therefore, demonstrates the willingness of Jay in forsaking his ethics in order to obtain daisy’s love which was equivalent to money. The primary goal that was held by Jay was get Daisy and retain her to himself even without true love.
Jay has a long and complex way of obtaining daisy and he chooses to use Nick. Jay befriends Nick by introducing him to his business operations as a way of getting closer to Daisy. Nick invites Daisy for tea and they both agree that they should not let tom know about their plans. However, the tea meting had fully be organized by Jay who is using his friendship with Nick in order to get an opportunity of meeting Daisy. Jay has to use nick to bring Daisy to his parties which he throws hoping that the relationship amid Nick and daisy would bring her to his parities (Luhrmann 90:21). As a way of impressing daisy jay utilizes his relationship with the investor in creating more money that is enough to offer support to Daisy so that she can be impressed by his efforts and fall for him.
Jay manipulates everyone including his partner, investor and Nick in undertaking the blind love pursuit. All that Jay does that includes each purchase that he makes, all the parties that he throws can be categorized as a part of the extensive scheme that is objected at drawing Daisy back to him completely (Luhrmann 71:20). In a single sense this can be categorized as a love pursuit but on the other end it can be considered as a manipulative illusion. Jay develops the incapability of dealing with the real situation as he focuses more on what he wants thus setting his norms aside which eventually leads to the arrival of his death.
Jay has not preserved any form of loyalty because his pursuit for obtaining daisy is a fantasy for Daisy as the idea and not based on her personality. After his meeting with Daisy and Nick he s more than determined to win her even without making any considerations. He uses the loyalty of those close to him to get what he want which is wealth and a closer way of meeting daisy. In the beginning, money or rather wealth was the essential thing that hindered them from sticking together and he therefore made sure that he never survives without its presence (Luhrmann 33:44). Jay’s perseverance and influence on achieving his objectives is in many perspective deceitful his he only considered what he receives and what he will obtain at the end without considering others. His friendship with Nick only started to grow after the realization that Nick was a cousin to Daisy. With this he only wished to benefit by ensuring that Nick brings his pursuit closer which implies that he never cared about their friendship.
Conclusion
Jay Gatsby is a manipulative character who only focused on what he wanted by using his relationship with others to get close to Daisy. His association with Nick only developed after the relation that him and Daisy were cousins. He used Nick in bringing daisy closer while the investor helped in creation of more wealth that would hold up and impress Daisy. On the other hand, Daisy is loyal since despite her hurting, beauty and charm she remained loyal to Tom and choose her at the end.
Work Cited
Luhrmann, Baz. The Great Gatsby. 2013. Retrieved from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1343092/
Birsch, Douglas. Introduction to Ethical Theories: A Procedural Approach. Waveland Press, 2013.
