In the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald he has three major female characters that play
a key role into his book. It takes place in Long Islands, New York in the summer after World War
1. Fitzgerald represented the women in a negative, stereotypical way during the era of the
1920’s. The women in this novel from Daisy Buchanan, the femme fatale, to Jordan Baker
the corrupt ingénue are all terrible people. They feed off the pain and suffering around
them and are very dishonest. Nick states that they are all careless, uncaring people, and
they destroy people and things.
Daisy Buchanan is the dream of Jay Gatsby and leads him to believe he might have a
chance to win her back. She first falls in love with the young lieutenant in Louisville
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which had been stationed by her house.
She later makes a promise that she would wait for Gatsby until he
comes back from the war which she will later not fulfills. Despite Daisy living a life of glamour
and great wealth, she does not seemed satisfied and is frustrated by her husband Tom. In
Chapter.7 she goes onto explain the confused state she is in at the moment. She tells Gatsby
that he wants too much, “I love you now-isn’t that enough? I can’t help what’s past.” (pg.132,
Chp.5). She is telling Gatsby to be happy with what he is receiving now from her. “I did love him
once-but I loved you two” (pg. 132, Chp.5)although she was happier with Gatsby then with Tom
she is not willing to drop her social class and wealth for a Nouveau riche. On the ride back home
Gatsby decides to let daisy drive and ends up being a huge disaster. Not only does she kill
Myrtle the woman Tom is having an affair with but, decides to let Gatsby take the blame.
to add insult to injury after the death of Gatsby the Buchanan’s have moved with no
forwarding address and she doesn’t show up to the funeral. This goes on to show how
careless and self-centered Daisy is with not only getting Gatsby killed but not
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even showing up to the funeral. Myrtle is one of the older female characters in the Novel and is the wife of George Wilson. She is the women who is having an affair with Tom and wants to go up in the social class around her.
Nick describes her as annoying and admits that at the apartment party he got
drunk for the second time since he couldn’t stand them. “I thought he knew something about
breeding, but he wasn’t fit to lick my shoe.” (Pg.34, Chp.2). George is a hardworking man but
does not have the money nor class to keep Myrtle happy. “I knew right away I had made a
mistake. He borrowed somebody’s best suit to get married in and never even told me about it,
and the man came after it one day when he was out.” (Pg.35, Chp.2) Myrtle gives off the vibe
that she is not willing to stay with someone just for love. She is in it to either gain wealth from it
or go up in the social class. It is obvious that George truly loves Myrtle and even tries to move
West with her but that isn’t enough to stop her from seeing a rich man like Tom. This makes
her terrible since Tom uses her to pleasure himself and does not want anything serious while
George is madly in love with her and she is still willing to pick Tom over George.
Jordan Baker is a friend of the Buchanan’s and also ends up falling in love with Nick. At
the get go we find out that she is a competitive golfer and knows about the affair Tom
is Having. She is a very dishonest character due to the fact that she cheats in a golf tournament. Nick describes her as not only a golf cheater, but a cheat at life. Although Jordan is not cheating on Nick she is very careless and sees herself above everyone else. “They’ll keep out of my way,” she insisted. “It takes two to make an accident.”(Pg.58, Chp.3). This goes to show how careless she is and nick hopes she will never meet a driver as careless as her. Nick also goes on to state “She is incurably dishonest, she wasn’t able to endure a disadvantage.”(Ch.3, Pg.58). The Women in The Great Gatsby are all pretty much terrible people. They can range from cheating on their spouse to cheating to get their way. Jordan and Daisy are the biggest opposites in the 1920’s for women. One shows a domesticated female that has no say in their marriage while Jordan was out driving which was a man’s thing at the time and was cheating in sports something women wouldn’t do. Even Tom states that he wants his daughter to grow up being a beautiful fool. This goes to show how Fitzgerald stereotyped the women of the 1920’s through Daisy Buchanan, Myrtle Wilson, and Jordan Baker.
other than his possessions. And her desire to stay in touch with her rich lifestyle even extends
In the beginning of the novel she tells nick that she has done everything and seen it all, showing how her money and wealth have allowed her to do whatever she pleased. While Myrtle lives in automotive repair station with her husband. Myrtle doesn't have the money or the status that Daisy has. Myrtle is unhappy because she is poor and wants a life where she can be rich and glamorous. She wants the materialistic things in life.
...aughter, her gestures, her assertions became more violently affected moment by moment and as she expanded the room grew smaller around her until she seemed to be revolving on a noisy, creaking pivot through the smoky air” (Fitzgerald 35). Myrtle represents the “need” of women to be known for having money and wealth so that she is much more popular. Myrtle wears the dress to disguise her current status and act as if she is a part of the rich, but in reality she is poor and naive, but the transformation of the dress changes her to rich and conceited.
From the outside, Daisy seems like the demure wife of a wealthy ex-football player, Tom Buchannan. The relationship the two share is far from a perfect marriage, but it is functional for upper-class society. Daisy often speaks nonsense, putting off the impression that she lacks intelligence, but there are moments when Daisy shows her true nature. The first moment occurs when Daisy shares
At a cursory glance, Daisy may seem like the quintessential socialite, with a happy marriage and a life of luxury. With her wealthy lifestyle, Daisy has the independence to travel anywhere and whenever she wants, oftentimes without Tom, as seen when Nick invited her to “come for tea … and don't bring Tom” [88]. This small act of independent is offset by Tom’s eventual “perturbation at Daisy’s running around alone”[110]. In this scene, Tom’s grasp on Daisy’s life is tightened once more as if she was an expensive piece of jewelry, with the miniscule possibility of being stolen. However, on the other hand, much of Daisy’s wealth does come from Tom, giving a great deal of control to him in their relationship to the point where Tom does not hide the fact he has a mistress. “You mean to say you don’t know? … I thought everybody knew”[19]. With the way Jordan says this, one can infer that even Daisy knew and she basically had no say in the matter. Furthermore, when Tom’s mistress continues to call during tea and Jordan whispers, “The rumor is that that’s Tom’s girl on the telephone”, it shows the amount of control that Tom has over Daisy and Myrtle [122]. This part also shows the impact of societal norms, which had made it seem acceptable for Tom to have a mistress while if Daisy was having an affair it would be more looked down upon.
Myrtle eventually had similar goals as Gatsby, but her life did not begin the same way. She was of the lower class of society and married a simple man. The two pursued a poor life, but Myrtle’s husband George was a decent man. Nevertheless, Myrtle became unsatisfied, and when the opportunity arose to better the quality of her life, she took it. Daisy’s husband Tom, an unfaithful, rough man not very committed to his marriage, began an affair with Myrtle.
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.
Throughout the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Myrtle is a victim of her own desperation. This sense of despair stems from her marriage to George Wilson. As soon as she marries George she knows she made a mistake and she pays for that mistake every second of her life. This despair that originates from her marriage then translates into her cheating on her husband with a married man, Tom Buchanan and completely ignoring him. Due to her obvious desperation, Tom is able to boss her around on numerous occasions and makes her do what he wants because of her desperation.
Tom Buchanan and George Wilson have plenty in common with their attitude pertaining towards women in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald throughout the entire novel gives the audience an insight on his thoughts about the nature of man. Fitzgerald portrays men often treating women harshly throughout his novel. For example, there are many violent acts towards women, a constant presence of dominance, and also ironically Tom and Georges over reactions to being cheated on.
Myrtle’s ambition proves to be her fatal flaw in being the tragic hero. The goal of her ambition is to lead her to a higher social status. In pursuit of her ambition she expresses that her husband, George Wilson, serves as an obstacle since he is in the opposite direction of where she wishes to be. She expresses disgust in George for committing actions that are considered lowly by her standards. She was particularly unenthused with her husband after it is revealed that “he borrowed somebody’s best suit to get married” without telling her. (35) She expresses her marriage as regretful, which illustrates her ambition to strive for better, being Tom. Essentially it illustrates that she would rather be treated with little respect to achieve status, rather than to be treated with respect without status. Myrtle not only exudes her ambition through her pompous attitude, but also in the manner in which she carries herself. She is a young woman in her “middle thirties, and faintly stout, but (carries) her surplus flesh sensuously,” and although she is not attributed with beauty she is somewhat charismatic. (25) The way in which she carries herself may be considered sexual, and her persona is alluring for men such as Tom. Her seducing persona illustrates her ambition in being a temptress in order to move up the social ladder.
Tom and George show their attitudes about women throughout the book; they have similarities and differences. Both, Tom and George are disrespectful to the women. Throughout the book, the reader learns about Tom’s constant cheating. He was even caught
But because of his obsession with the past, he can never accept the present as it is, resulting in his failed Dream and his inability to reach happiness. Originating from a poor midwestern family, Jay Gatsby joins the army as a boy in an attempt to achieve honor and glory in the only way he feels he can. When at his training camp in the South, he meets and falls in love with Daisy Buchanan, a gorgeous debutante in whom “Gatsby’s meretricious dream was made flesh” (Trask 214). When Gatsby’s deployment note finally comes, he is reluctant to leave Daisy and the relationship he has begun with her, but his desire to fulfill his Dream with Daisy comes with the requirement that he become the wealthy young man he has portrayed himself to be. He departs with the fervent hope that Daisy will wait for him while he becomes “rich and gentlemanly… so he will be worthy to ask Daisy to… marry him” and maintains complete belief in the attainability of his Dream (Mizener 81). Unfortunately for Gatsby, Daisy falls victim to the pressures of her surroundings, caving to the demands of her parents and society that she marry Tom Buchanan, an enormously wealthy and powerful man from East Egg. From then on, Daisy is placed outside of Gatsby’s grasp, ruining the attainability of his Dream. They reunite five years later, Gatsby
reveals the struggle daisy must encounter of being a married woman who longs for another man.
What’s Fitzgerald’s implicit views of modern women in this novel? Daisy and Jordan dress the part of flappers, yet Daisy also plays the role of the Louisville rich girl debutante. A good question to ask is perhaps just how much Daisy realizes this is a “role,” and whether her recognition of that would in any sense make her a modern woman character.
Tom and Daisy have a toxic relationship, but neither one of them do anything to make it better. Tom cheats on Daisy throughout the story, even though they are married. They have a kid together, but that doesn't seem to stop Tom. He likes the idea of having a beautiful