What does "chafed" mean here?

Question

I would like to know what "chafed" means in the following sentences:> "I like her," said Daisy, "I think she's lovely."> But the rest offended her—and inarguably, because it wasn't a gesture but an emotion. She was appalled by West Egg, this unprecedented "place" that Broadway had begotten upon a Long Island fishing village—appalled by its raw vigor that **chafed** under the old euphemisms and by the too obtrusive fate that herded its inhabitants along a short-cut from nothing to nothing. She saw something awful in the very simplicity she failed to understand. This is an excerpt from *The Great Gatsby* by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Daisy, Tom and Nick went to Gatsby's party, where Daisy was astonished at its unmasked hedonism. Throughout the party, she was more and more aware of the difference between her "old money" society and the "new money" society at Gatsby's party. Therefore, she came to dislike everyone present except one very famous actress. In this part, I could not grasp what "chafed" means. How could the raw vigor be chafed under the old euphemisms? Does it mean that the euphemisms curbed their raw vigor?I would very much appreciate your help. :)

Answer 1

Great question! I recently reread Gatsby and was bowled over by the power of Fitzgerald's writing. This is a good example of where he uses precise language to convey a great deal in a very few words. Daisy embodies the virtues and limitations of "old money" in the novel. She has never encountered the roughness of "new money" and celebrity culture (Broadway at the time was more prominent than Hollywood in the American imagination).

"Chafing" is a word that makes the reader almost feel viscerally the discomfort, bordering on pain, that this new world makes her feel. To chafe is to rub raw. And yes, the erotic connotations are deliberate.

This new culture is trying to thrust its way upward, through the protective layer that her upper class privilege has always offered her. Euphemisms are the little lies we tell in an effort to be polite, especially with people more powerful than ourselves. Daisy is so used to those euphemisms that she is literally repulsed by the thought of mixing with people who do not share her values. But they don't really care. They are declaring themselves the new elite during this Roaring Twenties period. And so they have remained.