Next day at five o'clock she married Tom Buchanan without so much as a shiver, and started off on a three months' trip to the South Seas.
Chapter 4 · Jordan Baker
Context
After the dramatic scene of Daisy's breakdown the night before her wedding—during which she tried to return Tom's pearls and cancel the marriage—Jordan reports that Daisy went through with the ceremony the next day as if nothing had happened.
Analysis
The juxtaposition between Daisy's anguished breakdown and her composed wedding 'without so much as a shiver' creates devastating situational irony, revealing Daisy's capacity to suppress authentic feeling in service of social expectation. The casual mention of the South Seas honeymoon frames the marriage as a transaction whose reward is immediate luxury, suggesting that Daisy's class position makes emotional authenticity a luxury she cannot ultimately afford.
How to Use in Essay
Effective for essays on Daisy as a character whose apparent shallowness masks genuine constraint, or for arguing that the novel presents marriage among the upper class as an economic institution rather than a romantic one.