Manipulative Charmers

Beauty can make men do wonderful and terrible things. Throughout literature readers have seen many women persuade men with their beautiful looks and charming personalities. In the novels The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway and The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald Lady Brett Ashley and Daisy Buchanan are two beautiful women who play incredibly influential roles in two very different novels. Brett and Daisy shape the two novels by ways in which conflict revolves around their charm and they are able to manipulate men through the desire that they have for the them. It is clear that conflicts of both novels revolve around Daisy’s and Brett’s charm, and readers are shown this in the earliest parts of the novels.
As soon as Lady Brett Ashley and Daisy are introduced readers are able to pick up on their beauty. In The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald shows us this by stating, “But there was in excitement in her voice that men who cared for her found difficult to forget: a singing compulsion, a whispered “Listen,” a promise that she had done gay, exciting things just a while since that there were gay, exciting things hovering in the next hour” (Fitzgerald 9). Fitzgerald uses compelling language to portray Daisy’s beauty and charm that she has on ‘the men who cared for her’. Fitzgerald uses personification to show how Daisy’s soothing voice can be compared to that of a singer while at the same time her voice is as delicate as a whisper. This description of Daisy is given only a few moments after readers are introduced to her which Fitzgerald geniusly placed to show how substantial Daisy’s charm is. Similar to Fitzgerald, Hemingway shows Brett’s charm shortly after she is introduced as well: “She stood holding the glass and I saw Robert Cohn looking at her. He looked a great deal as his compatriot would when he saw the promise land… Brett was damned good-looking… She was built with the curves like the hull of a racing yacht, and you missed none of it with that wool jersey” (Hemingway 30). Although Hemingway is much more literal with his details of Brett, he still leaves an impression to the readers of how stunning Brett is. Hemingway uses a simile to show that Cohn is so drawn into Brett’s beauty that he stares at her is if a compatriot were staring at the promise land. Hemingway uses another simile to show Brett’s physical beauty by comparing her figure to the finely shaped hull of a racing yacht, and the narrator Jake even reiterates this by saying that the wool jersey that she is wearing allows shows off her curves even more. It is clear that Brett and Daisy are two stunningly visual characters, but their personalities differ from the beauty of their looks.
Daisy and Brett both shape the novels that they are in by playing a manipulative role that causes other characters to go to extreme lengths to keep a relationship together. Hemingway shows us this when Bill explains what Cohn has done to Romero and says, “It seems the bullfighter chap was sitting on the floor. He was waiting to get strength enough to stand up and hit Cohn again. Brett wasn’t having any shaking hands, and Cohn was crying and telling her how much he loved her, and she was telling him not to be a ruddy ass” (Fitzgerald 206). Cohn made a huge mistake by beating the hell out of Romero because he was so obsessed with Brett and he couldn’t have her. Instead of being honest with Cohn and telling him how she doesn’t feel the same about him as he does to her, Brett manipulates Cohn because she mostly enjoys the attention that not only Cohn but many other men give her. There is another instance where Brett has betrayed her fiancé, Mike, where he has been drinking to celebrate the entire Spain trip, but his drinking has now become unpleasant because he has to deal with the stress of Brett being with Romero instead of him. Brett recognizes the things that men do for love for her but she fails to do the right thing every time. Similar to Brett, Daisy Buchanan reacts the same way that Brett would in a situation where she can take advantage of the man who loves her. In The Great Gatsby Daisy has left such an effect on Jay Gatsby that he would even take the blame for a murder that he didn’t commit: “‘Was Daisy driving?’ ‘Yes’ he said after a moment, ‘but of course I’ll say I was.’” (Fitzgerald 143). Gatsby feels so strongly about Daisy that he would rather face the consequences of having killed somebody rather than see Daisy face that punishment. Where Daisy has manipulated Gatsby and taken advantage of him is the way in which she doesn’t thank or hardly even recognize that Gatsby has taking the fault for something that could put her in prison for the rest of her life.
Men throughout literature have always fallen for the beautiful girl. While women like Daisy and Brett may be charming and pretty, they should not be considered beautiful because their ugly personalities completely contradict their looks. Daisy Buchanan and Lady Brett Ashley shape the novels that are in because of how the men drool over their charm and because the two girls are manipulative and take advantage of the love that other men have for them.