The Great Gatsby Chapter 1: An Unhappy Marriage

“You did it, Tom,” she said accusingly. “I know you didn’t mean to, but you did do it. That’s what I get for marrying a brute of a man, a great, big, hulking physical specimen of a ----“ (Fitzgerald 12).

Fitzgerald immediately divulges the tension in Tom and Daisy’s marriage at the start of the novel. After periodically interrupting her, Tom’s character becomes both controlling and hostile, while Fitzgerald makes Daisy appear to be the victim who is continually hassled by her imposing husband. Daisy arouses sympathy from Carraway and the reader when she randomly mentions her hurt finger. She exclaims that Tom hurt her, although she divulges that he “didn’t mean to.” By arbitrarily mentioning her finger, Daisy desires to publicize her marital problems to both Nick and Ms. Baker, yet Tom barely responds to her. Although Fitzgerald does not conclude Daisy’s remark with Carraway’s thoughts, he subtly includes this interaction between husband and wife to divulge the deceitfulness of their marriage. Nick originally illustrates their lives to be filled with wealth and luxury, yet Fitzgerald exposes that although they are not happily united. Tom is seen as consistently dissatisfied, and Daisy appears to think lowly of her husband, who she depicts as a “brute of a man, and a “hulking physical specimen.” Although Fitzgerald has not disclosed much information about the course of Daisy and Tom’s marriage, one begins to recognize the tension that has arisen between them.