Nick quotes about Daisy Flashcards
“I’m p-paralyzed with happiness.” Daisy’s first words spoken to Nick in Chapter 1.
Daisy’s affected but playful stutter suggests that she is a constant performer in social situations. Rather than express her happiness to see Nick in an earnest way, she performs happiness, and she does so ironically, which makes the reader suspicious as to just how “p-paralyzed with happiness” she really is.
She had the kind of voice that the ear follows up and down, as if each speech is an arrangement of notes that will never be played again. . . .There was an excitement in her voice that men who had cared for her found difficult to forget: a singing compulsion, a whispered “Listen,” a promise that she had done gay, exciting things just a while since and that there were gay, exciting things hovering in the next hour. Chapter 4
Instead of describing the quality of her voice, Nick emphasises the effects her voice has on others, and particularly on men. Daisy’s voice has an enticing mystique that captures the listener’s attention and compels them to follow the musicality of her speech. In this sense, Daisy recalls the Sirens of Greek myth, who use their enchanting voices to lure sailors into shipwrecks. Like the Sirens, Daisy’s voice issues a vague but entrancing promise of “gay, exciting things” to come, but instead her voice eventually leads to tragedy.
She’s got an indiscreet voice,” I remarked. “It’s full of—” I hesitated. Chapter 7
Once again Nick brings up Daisy’s voice, this time characterising it as “indiscreet”—that is, careless and rash with information that should remain secret or private. When Gatsby responds that Daisy’s voice “is full of money,” Nick suddenly understands the source of its dangerous mystique. Daisy’s voice echoes with affluence. Its “inexhaustible charm” makes exciting promises, but as Nick learns, such promises cannot be kept.
Daisy was young and her artificial world was redolent of orchids and pleasant, cheerful snobbery and orchestras which set the rhythm of the year, summing up the sadness and suggestiveness of life in new tunes.
