The Dull Immorality of the Golden Girl

The Dull Immorality of the Golden Girl

Aspiring bonds salesman Nick Carraway moves to New York, meeting an anomalous group of friends who struggle morally with their relationships in American author F Scott Fitzgerald’s wondrous novel The Great Gatsby. This novel touches on the theme of wealth and its corruption when it destroys Jay Gatsby’s life, a friend who is absent from Nick’s eventual hatred of everyone he meets in New York. Daisy Buchanan’s lack of moral development, according to Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory of moral development, emerges through Daisy when she leads on Gatsby knowing she won’t marry him, the hit and run of Myrtle, and her conspiration with her husband Tom.

The portrayal of Daisy leading on Gatsby illustrates the immorality of Daisy and affirms that Daisy is the least morally developed according to Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory of moral development. Already married to Tom, Daisy discreetly has a liaison with Gatsby all the while knowing he wants her to leave Tom and run off with him. When at the plaza hotel, Daisy tells Gatsby “I did love him once—but I loved you too.”(118). Nick sees through Daisy’s lies and knows that she is only married to Tom because it is convenient for her, not because she loves him. The actions of Daisy in her affair inhibit those of stage 2 in Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory of moral development that is only making choices based on self interest and reward, Daisy does not care that Gatsby wants to marry her, she wants to love Gatsby and be married to Tom because Tom is old money and Gatsby is new money. Tom satisfies Daisy’s social status and Gatsby satisfies her love and this is all made clear to Nick when Tom leaves the room and Daisy starts kissing Gatsby and tells him “You know I love you”(105). During her affair, Daisy only acts in her self interest by doing what she wants and not caring if Gatsby wants to marry her or if Tom wants her to not have an affair. Daisy’s self interest exhibits only level 2 of moral development, the egoism stage.

When Daisy hits and kills Myrtle intentionally, it reveals her lack of moral development through her killing Myrtle with intent and letting Gatsby take the fall for Myrtle’s death. Daisy drove back home from the hotel, filling with an intensifying, horrible rage, speeding closer and closer until the bright lemon yellow car smacks Myrtle killing her instantly. Daisy lets Gatsby take the fall for the murder of Myrtle and Nick realizes this when he asks Gatsby if Daisy was driving and he says yes “but of course I’ll say I was”(126). Daisy manifests her primitive moral development when she lets Gatsby take the fall for her own heinous actions, this type of behavior is the lowest form of moral development: stage 1, the avoidance of punishment. Daisy only lets Gatsby take the fall for her actions so she will not be punished. Nick learns of Daisy’s intent to kill Myrtle when Gatsby tells her “ first Daisy turned away from the woman toward the other car, and then she lost her nerve and