| Quote #1 Why they came East I don’t know. They had spent a year in France for no particular reason, and then drifted here and there unrestfully wherever people played polo and were rich together. This was a permanent move, said Daisy over the telephone, but I didn’t believe it – I had no sight into Daisy’s heart, but I felt that Tom would drift on forever seeking, a little wistfully, for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game. (1.17) |
Daisy and Tom’s constant roaming is an indication that they are dissatisfied with their married life.
| Quote #2 "Who wants to go to town?" demanded Daisy insistently. Gatsby’s eyes floated toward her. "Ah," she cried, "you look so cool." |
Daisy only starts the affair with Gatsby because she sees in him the qualities that Tom lacks. Her feelings for Gatsby are more about her present marriage than her past love.
| Quote #3 I couldn’t forgive him or like him, but I saw that what he had done was, to him, entirely justified. It was all very careless and confused. They were careless people, Tom and Daisy – they smashed up things and creatures and 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 […]. (9.145) |
Tom and Daisy’s dissatisfaction with their own lives results in their causing destruction in the lives of others.