Richard D. Altick once stated, “a woman was inferior to a man in all ways except the unique one that counted most [to a man]: her femininity. Her place was in the home, on a veritable pedestal if one could be afforded, and emphatically not in the world of affairs”. This Victorian ideal completely changed after World War I. With the passage of the 19th amendment (guaranteeing women’s voting rights) females took on a more powerful, masculine role. This new, dominant place in society enabled women to gain power in their societies and especially over men. Women became newly carefree and because neither males nor females respected their morals, the society of the 1920’s grew to be extremely hedonistic. F. Scott Fitzgerald reflects the moral decline of the 1920’s throughout his novel The Great Gatsby. All of the female characters in The Great Gatsby come from different social classifications, but they still reject the exemplary Victorian etiquette and never hesitate to seize power. Daisy, Myrtle and Jordan are all corrupt women who are able to wield power over the men that they desire by using their positions in society. Daisy Buchanan seems ethereal in The Great Gatsby. For Jay Gatsby, she is the reason he made his fortune. However, Daisy is not as pure or as innocent as Gatsby makes her out to be. About five years prior to the setting of the novel, Gatsby and Daisy fell in love with each other. Gatsby had then been sent off to war, but now he returns to win back his love, Daisy. Unfortunately for Gatsby this is an impossible task because while Gatsby was away, Daisy married Tom Buchanan, an arrogant aristocrat. Daisy successfully wields power in her society through marriage and attains higher social status. Daisy will never leave T... ... middle of paper ... ...l. 176. Detroit: Gale, 2013. Literature Resource Center. Web. 11 Mar. 2014. Goldsmith, Meredith. "White Skin, White Mask: Passing, Posing, and Performing in The Great Gatsby." Modern Fiction Studies 49.3 (Fall 2003): 443-468. Rpt. in Children's Literature Review. Ed. Jelena Krstovic. Vol. 176. Detroit: Gale, 2013. Literature Resource Center. Web. 11 Mar. 2014. Seiters, Dan. "On Imagery and Symbolism in The Great Gatsby." Bloom's Literature. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 7 Mar. 2014 Wershoven, Carol. "Insatiable Girls." Child Brides and Intruders. Bowling Green: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1993. 92-99. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Linda Pavlovski. Vol. 157. Detroit: Gale, 2005. Literature Resource Center. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.
215-225. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism Select. Detroit: Gale, 2008. Literature Resource Center. Web. 30 Mar. 2014.
The great Gatsby gives us an accurate insight into the 1920s zeitgeist regarding the role of women in society. America was in a state of an economic boom and rapid change. Society had become less conservative after world war one. The role of women was revolutionary during this time and although women had a lot more freedom now; they were still confined to their sexist role within society; Men were still seen as the dominant gender. Scott Fitzgerald illustrates the extremities of gender and social class, and the lack of independence this brought upon women. This essay will discuss the three major female characters and the ideas that Fitzgerald confronts of female stereotypes of the 1920s.
in Twentieth- Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Janet Witalec. The. Vol.
Women have been considered the second class citizens from the beginning of time. It was not until 1848, when Elizabeth Cady Stanton initiated the start of the women’s right movement that hope was revealed for a brighter future for the female population. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, portrays the era when women had no power over men. This story is about James Gatz, or better known as Gatsby, who struggled to achieve his American Dream of rewinding time to five years ago when he was happily together with the love of his life, Daisy Buchanan. Gatsby, who started out as a farm boy, successfully climbed up the social hierarchy ladder to living in the West Egg on Long Island, New York. He dedicated his whole life of getting Daisy
During the 1920’s, the role women had under men was making a drastic change, and it is shown in The Great Gatsby by two of the main female characters: Daisy and Jordan. One was domesticated and immobile while the other was not. Both of them portray different and important characteristics of the normal woman growing up in the 1920’s. The image of the woman was changing along with morals. Females began to challenge the government and the society. Things like this upset people, especially the men. The men were upset because this showed that they were losing their long-term dominance over the female society.
In 1920s America, women gained freedom and independence. They could now vote, more women were in the workforce, and more women could live richer social lives. Divorce rates also doubled as it became easier for women to leave their unhappy lives with their husbands. Even with changing social and gender norms, most women were still trapped in marriages that restricted their autonomy and never let them grow beyond the role of housewife. This is especially true in the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, as women deal with the unhappiness that comes with living with a husband that they do not love and living a life that they do not choose. The book mainly focuses on the perspectives and problems of the men, like the narrator, Nick, and his friend Gatsby, but it also brings light to the
Within all of Fizgerald's fiction women are represented as a decorative frame of naivety and beauty, the women characters are treated subordinate and not represented as being equal to the male sex. F.Scott Fitzgerald wrote the novel The Great Gatsby on April 10, 1925. Set in down town New York City, it alters between here and Long Island with the majority of the characters living in fabricated West Egg in the summer of 1922. Revolving around mystery and passion, the story unfolds revealing the alluring secret relationship between Daisy and Gatsby. Women are conveyed as being very materialistic and in love with wealth and fortune, Sarah Churchwell depicts The Great Gatsby as a "cautionary tale of the decadent downside of the American dream." 1 Decadence is shown within the complete novel as Fitzgerald portrays the lack of moral values, as the novel shows America consisting of jazz music and excessive lavish parties resulting in the fraud of the American Dream; It could be portrayed that the rich were completely materialistic, revolving their lives around social status and selfish behaviour. Edwin Clark, who wrote the first New York Times commented on the characters who lived at East Egg as “meanness of spirit, a carelessness and absence of loyalties…dumb in their insensate selfishness, and only to be pitied.”2 This tumbling decay resembles Fitzpatrick's interpretation of what America was truly like in the 1920's suggesting the difference in class and fortune, as West Egg is conveyed as...
Forum 19.4 (Winter 1985): 160-162. Rpt. inTwentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Thomas J. Schoenberg and Lawrence J. Trudeau. Vol. 192. Detroit: Gale, 2008. Literature Resource Center. Web. 30 Nov. 2013.
In the Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays a surreal representation of life in the 1920’s by creating his setting to show the dark truth of social classes and gender roles by portraying the deprived people who work for the rich. We see this when the valley of ashes is introduced showing the lives of the poor then comparing it to the wealth showing Nick in Toms mansion. Scott Fitzgerald also shows the gender difference portraying females as only wanting to marry the rich by showing Myrtle be desperate for Nick and Daisy refusing to marry Gatsby because of his lack of wealth, this is shown though the characters differences
Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby satires 1920’s America as a time of fame, glamour and excitement. It is a time when women greatly influence the culture. While Fitzgerald uses women as vital characters in his novel to symbolize the beauty, status and personality behind the ideology of the American Dream, there is still a widespread idea that a woman’s role is not to overlap with a man’s role. Men primarily dominate women. Women are commonly evolving into the new mode of flappers who sport knee highs and loose fitting clothing.
double standards regarding the opposite sexes were still applicable. They found new interests following the end of World War I, gaining a new mentality of independence, individuality, and expression of themselves. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, shows a portrayal of different women in the time period. Fitzgerald depicts the role of women in the 1920s, both directly and indirectly as two vital characters- Daisy and Myrtle- had different social standings, but were both objectified and reduced to their appearances, showing the hollow progress of the women’s movement, despite their newly gained freedom.
Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Linda Pavlovski. Vol.
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New York Times Book Review (1968): 42, 44, 46. Rpt. in Nineteenth- Century Literature Criticism. Eds. Laurie Lanzen Harris and Sheila Fitzgerald.
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