to think Daisy Buchanan (The Great Gatsby) is one of the worst examples of a woman? (contains spoilers!)

[CartwrightMiss]

Ok so it's only fiction and set in the 1920s.

But Daisy really has no redeeming qualities about her. How she could not pay her respects to Gatsby or at least acknowledge his death. Sure Gatsby himself was flawed but Daisy is a selfish and weak woman.

Aibu?

[limitedperiodonly]

It's not preventing discussion to put spoiler in the title.

The Great Gatsby is Great Literature and quite old, but it is also a work of entertainment, and that entertainment is spoiled by telling people what happens in the end.

Yes, OP, Daisy is selfish and weak. I don't think it's a stretch of anyone's intellect to come to that conclusion.

[BookieMonster]

Absolutely agree with Daemon
Is Pride and Prejudice also off limits in case we spoil the ending?!

[GrendelsMum]

Apparently, readers, she married him.

[DaemonPantalaemon]

I am sorry OliviaMMumsnet. You asking people to so some serious dumbing down. If some people have not "seen" the movie, they should not read the thread.

This is a classic book, an old book. It is not just a movie, there will be a thousand movie versions, but the book is a classic. and it is the height of the ridiculous to expect people not to discuss "spoilers" for a book that has been around for more than 70 years. It is deeply anti-intellectual to treat a classic work of art as nothing more than a Friday night moving starring Leonardo di Caprio.

I am really enjoying this thread, it is one of the better threads on Mumsnet recently, and it would be a shame for it to go the lowest common denominator route.

[Pfaffer]

I didn't understand why Nick admired Gatsby so much. He was clearly a very controlling and obsessive person. Was it really as simple as 'he had nice stuff and could do a good party'?

[DaemonPantalaemon]

Latara, I like you:)

[SlimePrincess]

The beautiful little fool comment was what Zelda Fitzgerald actually said when she saw her baby for the first time,

[Latara]

No i seriously never had heard of the Great Gatsby being a book before this thread; i honestly thought it might be an old film or play but i wasn't sure.

Now i can even pretend i've read it thanks to this thread hehehe!

[BOF]

Old Yeller dies

[AtYourCervix]

And Bambi's mother gets shot.

[PacificDogwood]

Bondage in 50 Shades ??

[AtYourCervix]

Really?

That's like not mentioning everyone dying at the end of Romeo & Juliet.

Or Lizzy and Darcy getting it on.

Or the bondage in 50 shades.

[OliviaMMumsnet]

Hello Know this is a well known classic but we've been asked to flag the spoliers for those who may not know the ending>
Thanks
MNHQ

[LaurieFairyCake]

I thought the acting by Carey Mulligan/Leonardo de Caprio and er.... Spider-Man was amazing.

They brought real depth to the characters. I've not really been a big fan of Leonardos til he did The Reader ?(the one with Kate Winslet) - and I haven't see his 'Edgar' yet but I thought he was phenomenal as Gatsby.

[AphraBehn]

Reveal Are you reading NA for an exam next Friday by any chance?

[LadyClariceCannockMonty]

'She is a product of her upbringing and environment. The "beautiful little fool" comment is heartbreaking. That's all Women could be to survive in that world. Her false little world.'

I agree with this. She is meant to be a rather empty, shallow person and a bit of a cipher, because in her world that's what a woman was supposed to be. At least as long as she was also pretty and wealthy.

Gatsby is so easily seduced by surface beauty, wealth and its attendant power that of course he's seduced by her. But he's also shallow and lacking a moral compass, so he can't or won't see that she doesn't really care about much or have much to offer.

[RevealTheHiddenBeach]

The beautiful fool comment has just struck me as extra interesting - I'm reading Austen at the moment, and in one of the books (northanger abbey I think?) there's a bit about how the best way for a woman to be is pretty and to know nothing, so that the 'man can shape her mind' - which then kind of puts Daisy in a different light for me. She's not a character I would look up to but I do feel a bit sorry for her. (this is based on the book - I haven't seen the film yet!)

[treas]

My vote would go to Becky Sharp personally

[DevlinMaccabee]

Yes, Old Sport, I agree that Daisy is not very nice at all.

[Remotecontrolduck]

Agree hackmum, Daisy in the film wasn't as horrid as Daisy from the book. It at times felt as though she actually loved Gatsby, which sort of deafeated the whole point of her character.

I didn't like the film that much, there were some incredibly shot scenes but details like the presentation of Daisy and Tobey Maguire as Nick in the sanitarium didn't work for me at all.

[ovenchips]

CartwrightMiss I mean Daisy is a wonderfully drawn character rather than an example of anything good. She isn't likeable but she is very interesting to read about.

The Great Gatsby IMHO is a perfect book. I was completely bowled over by the writing and it being so evocative yet without any extraneous words (it's v short book).

One of those books that you read and think you could never, ever, ever have written even a paragraph of and feel madly jealous about.

I've not seen the film and probably won't just in case it spoils it for me.

[DaemonPantalaemon]

Latara,

Are you serious? You really did not know there is a famous American novel called 'The Great Gatsby'?


???????????????

[Latara]

Oh dear, i didn't even know it was actually a book!

Education-by-Mumsnet... i might bother to see the film now, it sounds more interesting than i'd thought it would be.

[hackmum]

In the film, Carey Mulligan plays her quite sympathetically, so it comes as a shock at the end to realise she doesn't really care.

She is a very unlikeable character, though perhaps not as unlikeable as Tom. Obviously you're not supposed to like them, but it does make it a difficult book to engage with, in my view. It is one of those books that really divides opinion.