Daisy, after meeting with Gatsby and realizing how he is still devoted to her, also decides to have a love affair with him. By kissing Gatsby right after Tom leaves the room in chapter 7, then declaring “you know I love you” loudly enough for all to hear, as well as purposely wanting to ride to town with Gatsby and not Tom, it shows how Daisy is using Gatsby as a means to be petty and get back at Tom and his philandering. This is further shown when Daisy finds herself in the middle of Gatsby and Tom’s fight, and that she cannot bring herself to say that she has never loved Tom. In that way Daisy, while seemingly innocent, uses Gatsby as a way to get back at her husband when she realizes that Gatsby is still in love with her. It can be argued that Daisy never really intended to leave Tom for Gatsby, or that she perhaps also did not really favour Gatsby over Tom. To the Daisy (and those of the wealthy), it is unthinkable that they should leave one another even if their marriage is loveless, since the materialistic power that they obtain is far more important to them. Instead, they choose to fight one another through petty means such as this, which ropes in other unwilling participants into their plots and schemes, and causes harm to everyone around them.
By the end of the novel, after Daisy's murder of Myrtle as well as Gatsby's death, she and Tom are firmly back together, “conspiring” and “careless” once again, despite the deaths of their lovers. As Nick notes, they “weren't happy…and yet they weren't unhappy either.” Their marriage is important to both of them, since it reassures their status within the old money class and brings stability to their lives. In the end, despite Daisy's exaggerated unhappiness and Tom's philandering, they are still in their careless marriage. Their marriage is stubbornly strong, even with the multiple cheating instances, murders over the summer, and the lack of love within their marriage. This reinforces the dominance of the old money class over the world of Gatsby, and hence the American world in the 1920s. Even with the many marital troubles, for Tom and Daisy, their marriage guarantees their continued membership in the exclusive world of the old money class. In other words, class is a much stronger bond than love in the novel, as well as to the wealthy in the 1920s.
Beyond that, the carelessness of Tom and Daisy is due to the extreme wealth that they possess. Tom and Daisy use their extreme wealth as a shield, “retreating” back into it whenever something goes wrong as a result of their actions. Because they are, in this way, free from consequences, they do not care about the said consequences of their own actions. This causes the moral decay of the upper classes which simultaneously results in the suffering of those below them.
After Daisy hits Myrtle while driving Gatsby’s car, she and Tom conspire together to pin the blame on Gatsby. This leads to a snowball of events, where George, enraged by the false news, murders Gatsby and then himself. In the aftermath of it all, Nick observes that while those of the lower classes in the novel, mainly Myrtle, George and Gatsby have all died, Tom and Daisy are not punished at all for their recklessness. In fact, they even disappear elsewhere after all the events have occurred, running from the consequences of their actions. In that way, money is shown more than just status - it's a shield against responsibility, which allows Tom and Daisy to behave recklessly while the other characters suffer and die in pursuit of their dreams.
Not only that, Tom and Daisy are both portrayed with little to no conscience. Although Daisy was the one who killed Myrtle, although Tom was the one who indirectly caused Gatsby’s death, neither of them showed any remorse for their actions. Nick finds this out when he says that he “was sure there’d be a wire from Daisy before noon”, yet no wire from her came. The decay of morality really shines through when both Nick and the readers realize truly how little Tom and Daisy care about others, to the point where the human lives of those below them hold no meaning to them.
When Nick finally meets Tom in October, he confronts Nick about the events that occurred leading to Gatsby’s death. Nick’s response is completely centered around himself, while simultaneously blaming Gatsby, saying that Gatsby “had it coming”. He even says that he had “[his] share of suffering”, that being his temporary unhappiness due to the events that occurred. Tom does not even consider for a second that perhaps Gatsby, Myrtle or George might have suffered more - after all, they lost their lives permanently. Nick also notes that it is pointless to contradict or argue against Tom, as to him, his actions were “entirely justified”. Nick goes on to say how Tom and Daisy “smashed up things and creatures… and let other people clean up the mess they made”. It seems as though Nick is describing a spoiled child throwing a tantrum, and it depicts the childishness of those in wealth, specifically old money. Without ever having to work for what they want, they have never experienced suffering and have not matured into sensible adults. As a result, a vicious cycle is formed - those that are in wealth never learn to use it wisely, yet because of their wealth they stay in wealth; those that are poor are constantly being affected by those above them, and are never really able to rise up above their class.
In conclusion, Fitzgerald uses Tom and Daisy to critique the morality of those in the upper classes in the 1920s. These people from the upper classes do not have the responsibility to use their wealth wisely, and rather they squander it meaninglessly whilst indulging themselves in pleasure and other self satisfying activities. More often than not, when these people act recklessly, it affects all those below them, yet they themselves are unaffected behind their wall of wealth and power.
