Daisy and Roxie
Daisy Buchanan and Roxie Hart are very careless women who think only of themselves. They trample all over other people without giving a second glance behind them, and they are selfish women who never think or care about anyone else. Their only differences are in the different ways that they are selfish. Roxie pursues her selfish endeavors by trying to become a big star, getting the spotlight on her and doing everything she can to keep it on her. First Roxie steals Velma Kelly’s place in the magazines; then when another girl starts attracting attention, Roxie faints and it “slips out” that she hopes the fall didn’t hurt the baby. The director develops Roxie through using dim, soft lighting on her when she is unknown to everyone and then using bright light and flashy clothes on Roxie when she becomes famous. Roxie also has a very sassy, uncaring attitude on screen which helps develop her character into a selfish girl who thinks only of herself. Daisy pursues her selfish needs by leading on both Tom and Gatsby—while in reality she doesn’t love either of them, staying with Tom simply because he has money and having a fling with Gatsby only because he was something new and interesting at the time, plus a way to get back at Tom. Daisy leads Gatsby on the entire book and then runs back to Tom, not even bothering to show up at poor Gatsby’s funeral or even sending her condolences: “I could only remember, without resentment, that Daisy hadn’t sent a message or a flower.” Fitzgerald develops Daisy’s character as a selfish girl who doesn’t care about anyone else very simply in one sentence near the end of the book that stands out above all the rest: “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”