"It makes me sad because I've never seen such--such beautiful shirts before" (92).
On a tour of Gatsby’s home Daisy becomes distraught, seemingly for no reason. However, we can deduce that this is due to seeing Gatsby’s new wealth. This comment really emphasizes Daisy’s superficiality. Her sadness isn’t triggered by anything emotionally important to her, rather, it is triggered by something trivial like the “beautiful shirts”.
This quote is the turning point in the novel where the readers and Daisy both realize her superficiality and the ambiguity of her character.
These shirts represent the possibility of Daisy actually being with Gatsby, as his current wealth would satisfy Daisy’s family. She now has to accept that her choice of being with Tom wasn’t as necessary or inescapable as she originally thought it to be. She could have had Gatsby and financial security. In addition to depicting Daisy’s devastating realization, this quote also poses the question of if Daisy is aware of her own attraction to money. Her breakdown may not have even been about Gatsby versus Tom–perhaps it represents a personal crisis in which Daisy begins to realize her own superficiality. She would be neither a perfect example of old money(represented by Tom), nor new money(represented by Gatsby), instead, she would be somebody who had realized the superficiality and emptiness of both worlds, never fully belonging to either. With this, Daisy actually becomes a very ambiguous character. Originally, we as readers were sure of Daisy’s superficial personality, but in this scene she gains consciousness of her own person and her own inclinations, and we, along with her, realize that she is not a 2d character.
The themes that are touched upon with this quote are superficiality and old money vs. new money. These are two prominent themes seen constantly throughout the book, and are represented by the main characters, Gatsby and Daisy. Essentially, this quote is telling the readers as well as Daisy, all about her superficiality, and the superficiality of the world. Daisy seemingly cries over the superficial shirts, then we realize she is crying over the realization of her own superficiality, which is actually far from superficial. This is what makes Daisy an ambiguous character. On the surface, she isn’t crying over anything particularly substantial to her, but if we look closer, she is crying over a realization of her own self. Daisy stutters while crying over the shirts–she hesitates because this is the exact moment she began questioning her own superficiality. She realizes her own ambiguity. Her inability to stick to one side–either old money or new money–is represented by the way she allows herself to fall in love with Gatsby while still maintaining her relationship with Tom.