THE HEAD, THE HEART, AND THE VOID: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF DAISY BUCHANAN IN F. SCOTT FITZGERALD’S THE GREAT GATSBY AND QUEEN GERTRUDE IN SHAKESPEARE’S HAMLET

This essay offers a comparative analysis of Daisy Buchanan from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Queen Gertrude from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Despite differences in era and context, both characters exhibit a lack of introspection and an imbalance between reason (“the head”) and emotion (“the heart”), which significantly contribute to the tragic trajectories of their respective narratives. However, their moral responses diverge: Daisy displays persistent emotional detachment and an absence of remorse, while Gertrude demonstrates a subtle but discernible capacity for guilt. This comparison illuminates how these flaws shape narrative turbulence and character agency.