The Dull Immorality of the Golden Girl
Autor: Rachel • February 15, 2018 • 872 Words (4 Pages) • 493 Views
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turned back. [...] it must have killed her instantly”(126). Daisy’s actions of intentionally killing Myrtle not only show her disregard for the value of human life, but also stage 2 moral development because she did not act for the good of anyone else, only she benefitted from it, and it was the pleasure of having getting back at Tom for his affair.
Daisy conspiring with Tom after the death of Myrtle illustrates her low level of moral development. After it is revealed that Daisy has killed Myrtle on purpose, Nick sees Tom and Daisy “sitting opposite each other at the kitchen table”(127) and also look as if “they were conspiring together”(127). The kitchen Tom and daisy were in had an intimate aura and it is known that Daisy tells Tom she killed Myrtle and the two malevolent beings are conspiring on how to spin all of this on Gatsby and run off by themselves shortly after, not telling anyone where they are moving to. Nick runs into Tom before moving and hears all of Tom’s lies and realizes that him and Daisy are “Careless people” who “smashed up things [...] then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made”(153). Daisy does not show up to Tom’s funeral and, even though she was responsible for the act that lead to his death, did not care and moved away from everything leaving her own cousin Nick to clean up the mess she made of their lives. Daisy’s egotistical actions of conspiring with Tom to blame Gatsby for Myrtle’s death, to not showing up at Gatsby’s funeral shows that she is exhibiting moral development level: avoiding emotional pain.
Daisy, the golden girl, is a spoiled, heartless, egotistical diva, though captivating in appearance. Daisy unmasks her immorality through her treatment of Gatsby; treatment that exhibited only levels 1 and 2 of Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory of moral development. Daisy’s immoral actions ultimately causes the greatest sin of all: murder.
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