Daisy Fay Buchanan is the focal character in F. Scott Fitzgerald's magnum opus The Great Gatsby (1925).

Biography

Daisy Fay was born into a wealthy Louisville family. By 1917, Daisy was courted by several officers, by which she met Jay Gatsby and the two fell in love. Before Gatsby left for war, Daisy promised to wait for him.

After Jay started attending Trinity College, Oxford, Daisy sent him a letter revealing that she had married Tom Buchanan. During the marriage, Daisy gave birth to the couple's daughter, Pammy, who Daisy had hoped would be "a beautiful little fool." After her cousin Nick Carraway arrived in East Egg, having a brief reunion with Daisy, he met Gatsby who at that point had spent years trying to become wealthy so he could win Daisy's love and successfully set up a meeting between the two for the first time in five years.

At the Buchanan home, Daisy, Tom, Jordan, Nick and Gatsby decided to visit New York City, Tom taking Gatsby's yellow Rolls Royce with Jordan and Nick while Daisy and Gatsby drove alone. Once the group reached the city, they have a party in an expensive hotel suite that descends into a confrontation between Daisy, Tom and Gatsby. Though Gatsby insisted that Daisy never loved Tom, Daisy admits that she loved both Tom and Gatsby. The party ended with Daisy driving Gatsby out of New York City and Tom leaving with Nick and Jordan.

Myrtle mistook Daisy and Gatsby in the car for Tom, believing he had returned for her and was killed after running out to the vehicle and being struck, leaving a panicked Daisy driving away from the scene of the incident. In her home in East Egg, Gatsby assured her that he would take the blame if the two were caught. Tom told George, Myrtle's husband, that it was Gatsby's car that killed Myrtle, which was followed by George going to Gatsby's home in West Egg and shooting both him and himself in a murder-suicide.

After Gatsby's murder, Daisy, Tom and their daughter left East Egg, having no forwarding address either. As Gatsby took the blame, Daisy did not tell anyone of her role in Myrtle's death, the only other living person knowing the truth being Nick.