One of the biggest betrayals in Francis Scott Fitzgerald's famous novel 'The Great Gatsby' was when Tom cheated on Daisy with Myrtle. Having delved into this topic, I believe that the relationship of spouses can be characterized as love-hate. Even though Tom cheated on his wife behind her back, in the end, he’ll always crawl back to his wife because he still loves her. Not only Tom, throughout the story, Daisy is also portrayed as having a love-hate relationship with her husband.
Tom isn’t happy with Daisy at the beginning, he thinks that he could do better and deserves someone 'higher'. We can see this through the quote “It was touching to see them together—it made you laugh in a hushed, fascinated way” (Fitzgerald, 83) showing Tom’s affair with Myrtle. This also portrays Tom’s personality and how ungrateful and selfish Tom is. Through Daisy and Tom’s unstable relationship, Tom isn’t satisfied with what he has and wants more. Which leads to his affair, stabbing Daisy mentally right in the back.
Tom isn’t a loyal man, he wanders around from woman to woman, but in the end, he still goes back to Daisy. The fact that Tom tries to keep Daisy away from Gatsby by revealing how Gatsby is a bootlegger and is involved in some criminal activities. Another reason why Tom still loves Daisy and does not leave her for Myrtle is that Daisy belongs to the same social class as him. Even though he didn’t appreciate her at the beginning, he hates the fact that he still needs her so badly, or that he could still be in love with her.
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Despite the fact that Daisy was getting abused and cheated on by Tom, she still decided to stay with him till the end. Although she is somewhat used by Tom, she still loves him because of his money and social class. Daisy Buchanan is someone who values the title and position of social classes, so it’s clear to see why she’s still in love with Tom and decided to stay with him.
“Take ’em down-stairs and give ’em back to whoever they belong to. Tell ’em all Daisy’s change’ her mine” (Fitzgerald, 34). This was Nick’s story on Daisy’s wedding day, he was recounting how Daisy got drunk and told Jordan that she didn’t want to marry Tom at all, but because of his money and high status, she married him anyway. Through this quote, we can see that part of their relationship was based on money and social status, which is why things escalated into a love-hate relationship so quickly between this couple.
The words 'love' and 'hate' may seem totally contradictory, but it can be true in this case. The author uses these two words to give the reader a feeling of antithetical truth, but the concept is that despite the total differences between these two words, it reveals an unexpected truth at the end. Even though Daisy and Tom’s relationship is portrayed as a love-hate relationship at the beginning of the book, the unexpected truth is that they still end up together after all the hatred and lies.
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