Vilification of Women in American Literature The Vilification of Women in The Great Gatsby and Ethan Frome Women have played an important role in American literature. Unfortunately, this role was often negative, without cause to be so. Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome and F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby are examples of American literature in which women are needlessly vilified. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald presents three women in an especially bad light. Daisy Fay Buchanan, the narrator's cousin, is the most obvious. Daisy is selfish and materialistic. She married her husband, Tom, because he was wealthy when he proposed to her. She ignored her true love, Jay Gatsby, because he was poor; this fact is evident when the two meet again after years apart and Daisy sees that Gatsby is rich now. Gatsby bought the house right across the bay from Daisy so he could be near her (Fitzgerald 83). Daisy admires all of his possessions and even considers leaving her husband for him, but in the end remains with Tom. This action is evidence of Daisy's selfishness; the moment of their reunion means everything to Gatsby and nothing to Daisy, except for a game to help Daisy pass the time during her idle days (Magill 1144). The selfishness of Daisy is a detail that thrusts her into the role of a villain in the novel. Daisy's selfish nature is magnified a hundred times at the end of the novel. Driving home after an uncomfortable evening with Tom and Gatsby, she strikes and kills Tom's mistress in Gatsby's car. Daisy allows Gatsby to take all the blame for the accident. As a result, Myrtle's husband kills Gatsby. To add insult to injury, Daisy does not even show up at Gatsby's funeral, despite her role in his death. This uncarin... ... middle of paper ... ...Great Gatsby portrays women as objects, meant only for fun and pleasure, certainly incapable of independent thought or responsible action. Wharton's Ethan Frome displays women as evil characters who seduce and tempt men, only to leave them hurt in the end. Wharton and Fitzgerald are typical of many American authors who needlessly vilify women in their novels. Bibliography: Works Cited Book Reports. Golden Essays. 2001. . (Golden Essays). De Koster, Katie. Fitzgerald's Sense of Ambiguity. California: Greenhaven Press Inc., 1998. Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Macmillan, 1992. Freeservers. Fantasy in Ethan Frome. 2000. . (Freeservers). Magill, Frank N. A Critical Survey of Long Fiction. Vol. 4 and 8. California: Salem Press, 1974. Wharton, Edith. Ethan Frome. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1911.
When he first meets Daisy, Gatsby becomes infatuated with his idea of her, or rather, the false persona that she creates of herself. In fact, Gatsby reveals that “she was the first ‘nice’ girl he had ever known” (155). Gatsby was so impressed with Daisy mainly because of her wealth and her status; it is what he wants. However, Daisy chooses Tom Buchanan over Gatsby, solely because of his social status. As a result, Gatsby revolves his whole life around her: he becomes wealthy, creates a new image of himself, and buys a house across the bay from Daisy. For instance, he fabricates lies about how “ [he is] the son of some wealthy people in the middle-west” (69) and how “ [he] was brought up in America but educated at Oxford” (69) in order to impress her. These lies end up altering others’ perspectives of him - not necessarily in a positive way - and impacting his life as a whole. Daisy unwittingly transforms Gatsby into a picture-perfect image of the 1920s: lavish parties, showy cars, and a false illusion of the attainment of the American Dream. Despite Gatsby’s newfound wealth and success, he never fully accomplishes his dream: to get Daisy. Gatsby’s final act for the sake of Daisy has no impact on her feelings towards him. When Gatsby claims that he crashed into Myrtle and killed her, Daisy carelessly lets him do so, which ultimately results in his death. To make
While Daisy drives the car, Gatsby sits by her side and an accident takes place, in which she hits the car into Tom’s mistress, Myrtle. When this takes place, Gatsby quickly takes the blame for hitting the car, as a gesture to protect her from Tom. Gatsby wants to protect Daisy from the world and wants to see her in safe situation at all times. He has unconditional love for her and it continues to grow to the point where he accepts responsibility for actions he never took. Daisy does not accept responsibility for this act, rather lets him accuse himself. Tom is then told that Jay Gatsby is the one who is the cause of the murder, and the individual one ruining the relationship between Tom and Daisy. Being a cause of problems in Tom’s life, Tom goes to his mistress’s husband, George and explains the situation in which Gatsby murdered Myrtle. George, her husband then shoots and kills Gatsby while seeking revenge. He believes that if Gatsby leaves the life of Daisy, all his problems will come to an end and he will be able to live his life as before. Gatsby invites his own murder because in his attempt to protect Daisy, he risks his own life. Gatsby is unaware that his protection for Daisy leads to his own murder. It shows the extent to which he loves Daisy; there is not limit to his love for Daisy, not even his
The very ironic piece of literature The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzergald is a novel written in the early 1920s. In this novel, the author comments on various types of themes like hope, betrayal, social class, greediness, death, American Dream, power and justice. One of the very important theme that the author comments on is betrayal. The Great Gatsby is a very brilliant piece of literature that talks about how the characters betray their loved ones. Daisy Faye, born in Louisville, Kentucky was a princess whom every man dreamt of. She always dressed in white clothes which symbolized purity and innocence. Daisy Buchanan is a very dynamic character and has a very multi-dimensional personality. This novel, is a very vivid piece of literature
“The driving force in this alliance is clearly riches, not romance, for Daisy seems to have loved Gatsby all along but felt that he was unworthy of her socioeconomic standing” (Nagel 116). Daisy Fay married for money, was very ready for marriage, and married someone she didn’t love. Consequently, she was by far the most atrocious and hard-hearted character in The Great Gatsby. She had no morals and always did whatever would benefit her the most. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Daisy’s bad morals led to tragedy and death.
Women were not equal to men during the era of the 1920’s. In “The Great Gatsby,” Fitzgerald represents a negative, misogynistic, stereotypical view of the various types of women during the era of the 1920’s. During the that time, women were not portrayed in a positive light., By writing a book centered around that time period, it causes one to wonder the message Fitzgerald was trying to illustrate about women and what he was saying about society as a whole. Fitzgerald represents the view of women within the 20’s by depicting each character as a representation of the many stereotypes occurring within that era. The main characters Daisy, Myrtle, and Jordan each display pertinent roles within the story representing how women’s roles were defined by their relationships, often times they were objectified, and how they were overruled by male dominance.
Even though at first when they finally got together after all those years and everything seem great and romantic but good things always come to an end. The affair effected Gatsby in his life by having him back the old love he first had for Daisy even hoping for a lifetime future together. His dream is very much vivid about his romantic hopes about Daisy in his mind, “There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams, not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion” (95). He seems to be falling deeper in love with her even maybe more than the love she really had for him even though through the end of the chapters her love that she claims to have for him seemed not truly. In New York, the truth comes out more about she feels about Gatsby by being questioned and feeling guilty when Tom gets to the fact that she loves him and not Gatsby but Gatsby rejects his sayings and tells Daisy to say how she truly feel about him. Over all the excitement, Daisy tells how she truly feel about the whole love affair, “I did love him once but I loved you too” (132). It is possible that the leading of Gatsby’s death was caused from Tom’s jealousy of his wife’s confessed love for Gatsby. Tom would had told Wilson that Gatsby was the driver of the car that killed Myrtle and her secret
In the Great Gatsby, there are multiple leading female roles. The women in the novel are all portrayed in similar ways and follow the same common themes. The novel discusses the issues of infidelity and love. While exploring these things, the women in the novel tend to be shown as materialistic and inferior. Throughout the novel, patriarchal attitudes, stereotypical gender roles put on women, and stereotyping women as materialistic liars, all are common.In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, he portrays the characters Daisy and Myrtle as inferior and materialistic, showing/revealing that Fitzgerald supports patriarchal attitudes.
Her sequence of lies leads George Wilson to believe, senselessly, that this was all Gatsby’s fault. The shame of the affair eventually compels Wilson to shoot Gatsby and then commit suicide. Daisy, could have owned up to her mistakes and saved Gatsby’s life, but for Daisy Fay Buchanan, self-preservation is far more valuable than personal merit. This in fact proves “the greatest villain in the Great Gatsby is in fact Daisy herself, for her wanton lifestyle and selfish desires eventually lead to Gatsby’s death, and she has no regards for the lives she destroys” (Rosk 47). Nevertheless, Nick Carraway sees right through her disturbing ways and reflects upon the Buchanan’s. After Nick ponders a thought he muttered “They are careless people Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they made” (Fitzgerald 170). Many people see Daisy Buchanan as a poised, pure, and elegant woman who is happily married; however, few like her cousin, Nick Carraway, suffer from knowing her true self: careless, deceptive, and selfish. Daisy is able to use money to get her out of every situation she runs
Firstly, Gatsby’s immaturity causes him to lose Daisy. Tom, Daisy’s husband, knows that she regularly visits Gatsby, but he does not get to know their affair. Thus, Tom provokes Gatsby to say, “your wife doesn’t love you, she [has] never loved you. She loves me” (Fitzgerald 130). Daisy tries to prevent Gatsby from revealing their relationship to Tom, but she fails. This disappoints Daisy and makes her lose faith in Gatsby. Thus, she replies Tom “how could I love him?” (Fitzgerald 132). Gatsby becomes shocked by this incident because he realizes that his childish action has made him lose Daisy. Gatsby should have realized that Tom’s provocation is an attempt to separate him from Daisy. This in turn causes Daisy to side with Tom, revealing how Gatsby’s immaturity leads to his downfall. Furthermore, despite Daisy’s action Gatsby still does not give up his love for her and after the conversation between who does Daisy loves the most, Tom sends Daisy and Gatsby back to Long Island in Gatsby’s yellow car. When they reach the Valley of Ashes, Myrtle runs over their car and dies instantly. M...
Daisy Buchanan, in reality, is unable to live up the illusory Daisy that Gatsby has invented in his fantasy. After Daisy and Tom Buchanan leave another one of Gatsby’s splendid parties, Fitzgerald gives the reader a glimpse into what Gatsby’s expectations are. Fitzgerald claims that “he wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and say: ‘I never loved you.’” (109). Here it is revealed that Gatsby’s one main desire is for Daisy to go willingly...
She is feeling low and wants to drive to get her mind off things, not surprisingly Gatsby let her charm him once again. On the way back to The Buchanan’s, a woman runs in the middle of the road and Daisy doesn’t slow down. Daisy hits her and kills her, but the most tragic part was that she didn’t stop. Tom sees all the commotion on the way back and stops by. Tom discovers it is his mistress who Daisy hit; he begins to talk to Mr. Wilson her grieving husband. Mr. Wilson describes the car and Tom tells him it was Gatsby. Gatsby let everyone believe that knows what happened, what Tom said is true, and Daisy’s selfish ways doesn’t stop him. A few days later, Mr. Wilson hunts down Gatsby and shoots him, and right after shoots himself. Daisy never spoke the truth, and her and Tom leaves town immediately. Daisy’s selfishness and pride make her directly responsible for Myrtle Wilson’s death; and indirectly responsible for George Wilson’s and Gatsby’s. Neither Daisy nor Tom goes to Gatsby’s funeral because ‘they were careless people who smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back to their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together and let other people clean up the mess they
A gender role in the time when British literature was being written was very important to the women history. Women were subservient to men in most of the British literature. Some literature women had a little more power than in others. When women were asked to do something by a man there was no way they could say no. the way women were treated then is the equivalent to a housewife now in the Twenty-First century. When a man told them to do something they had to do it. Throughout the literature women started desiring more respect and power. A very good example of a woman that overcame gender roles is Susan B. Anthony. She was born on February 15, in 1820 in Adams, Massachusetts. Susan B. Anthony taught for fifteen years then she decided to be in the women’s rights movement. After that’s she was committed and devoted to be to omen suffrage. Susan B Anthony remained very active with anything that had anything to do with women until her death on March 13, 1906. Another example is Elizabeth Cady Stanton she was born on November 12, 1815 in Johnstown, New York. Throughout her life she stood behind women’s right with the Women’s rights movement as well as Susan B Anthony. She was the president of the National Women’s Suffrage Association (NWSA) for 20 years. She died a very respected and honorable woman on October 26, 1902. These women really changed the game for women back in the day. These women were very important representatives in the Women’s Rights Movement. They helped out a lot and put a lot of time throughout their life to make sure women got to where we are today. They were huge role models for women today. Although women had to fight for us to get rights, British literature consisted of women being subservient to men. I am go...
During the confrontation between Gatsby and Tom Buchanan about Daisy, she is talked about like she is a possession to be won over. During the argument Nick “glances at Daisy who was staring terrified between Gatsby and her husband” (Fitzgerald, page 143). Gatsby and Buchanan tell Daisy what to say instead of allowing her to tell her own truths, and if she does start to speak up for herself she is quickly quieted down. Daisy states at the beginning of the novel while talking about finding out the sex of her child that, “I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool – that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool” (Fitzgerald, page 16). Daisy is the only female character in the novel who understands that no matter what a woman accomplishes, she will always be downcasted based on her gender. This outlook is what allows her to be controlled by Gatsby and Buchanan, because she doesn’t believe that anything she can do will make her more of a human to them. Myrtle on the other hand, while still a married woman, isn’t able to see her powerlessness. She feels powerful enough to stand up to Tom and chant Daisy’s name over and over again until he breaks her nose (Fitzgerald, page 37). This scene demonstrates the way that men handled women if they ever did feel confident enough to speak for themselves. One final scene from the novel that really
“Girls wear jeans and cut their hair short and wear shirts and boots because it is okay to be a boy; for a girl it is like promotion. But for a boy to look like a girl is degrading, according to you, because secretly you believe that being a girl is degrading” (McEwan 55-56). Throughout the history of literature women have been viewed as inferior to men, but as time has progressed the idealistic views of how women perceive themselves has changed. In earlier literature women took the role of being the “housewife” or the household caretaker for the family while the men provided for the family. Women were hardly mentioned in the workforce and always held a spot under their husband’s wing. Women were viewed as a calm and caring character in many stories, poems, and novels in the early time period of literature. During the early time period of literature, women who opposed the common role were often times put to shame or viewed as rebels. As literature progresses through the decades and centuries, very little, but noticeable change begins to appear in perspective to the common role of women. Women were more often seen as a main character in a story setting as the literary period advanced. Around the nineteenth century women were beginning to break away from the social norms of society. Society had created a subservient role for women, which did not allow women to stand up for what they believe in. As the role of women in literature evolves, so does their views on the workforce environment and their own independence. Throughout the history of the world, British, and American literature, women have evolved to become more independent, self-reliant, and have learned to emphasize their self-worth.
The Portrayal of Women in American Literature Throughout American Literature, women have been depicted in many different ways. The portrayal of women in American Literature is often influenced by an author's personal experience or a frequent societal stereotype of women and their position. Often times, male authors interpret society’s views of women in a completely different way than a female author would. While F. Scott Fitzgerald may have represented his main female character as a victim in the 1920’s, Zora Neale Hurston portrays her as a strong, free-spirited, and independent woman only a decade later in the 1930’s. In F. Scott Fitzgerald's, The Great Gatsby, the main female character, Daisy Buchanan, is portrayed by, Nick, the narrator, only by her superficial qualities.