Gatsby’s Archetypal Quest for Daisy, the Monetary Prize

In The Great Gatsby, the characterizations of Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby, particularly in the flashback of when they first met in Chapter VIII, expose the absence of love that lies beneath the glitz and glamour of wealthy living. When seen through an archetypal lens, Gatsby’s pursuit of Daisy can be seen as an Archetypal quest where the “golden girl” is a treasure, rather than a love interest (Fitzgerald, 120) (Delahoyde, 1). To Jay Gatsby, Daisy is materialistically the ultimate peak of wealth to be obtained, a metaphor best illustrated in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s choice of descriptive words that portray her in the same way that money might be defined.
Daisy is a princess “high in a white palace the king’s daughter”, beautiful and comfortably assured a life of ease due to her wealthy place in society (Fitzgerald, 120). In this novel she is more a material, a monetary symbol, than a person, and this best proved in Chapter VIII (Delahoyde, 1). In a flashback of Gatsby’s to when he first knew and loved Daisy, his descriptions paint a picture of her “gleaming like silver, safe and proud above the hot struggles of the poor” (Fitzgerald, 150). In this glowing portrayal that showcases Daisy’s beauty and power, (both things that she was born with, that she did not earn) her appearance and social class is all that is focused on, she is merely an outward image. From the point of view of a man that supposedly loves her, there is no true substance revealed in Daisy that reflects who she is as a person. This ideal is weaved through the novel, nothing is said about Daisy that reveals a true depth to her character, and she does nothing to refute her apparent shallowness. Aside from her expressed charm or frustration, which only serve to garner admirers and observers rather than anyone who truly understands who she is,