Despite their many differences, ultimately characters Myrtle, Daisy, and Jordan are mistreated by the men in their lives. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the one commonality shared by Myrtle, Daisy, and Jordan is that their rebelliousness, their wealth and status, and their own view of their being desirable are governed by the men in their lives. This is shown through their treatment of men, actions, words, and goals. All three women in Gatsby are rebelling against 1920s American society in some way, shape, or form, but each rebels in her own unique and contrasting way: Myrtle by having an affair and through her protests; Daisy through her affair and intellect; and Jordan through her independence and actions. Already there is one …show more content…
This includes Myrtle’s. When Nick is walking with Tom to see Myrtle, they go to upper Manhattan where he says Tom has purchased Myrtle an apartment where she can act as she likes. Though this is not her real house, she takes great pride in the apartment. It is in a fancier section of Manhattan and is a huge step up from her small home above the garage. In her eyes, this apartment is huge and worthy of someone of class, which Myrtle is not. The apartment is described as crowded and full of furniture: “[...] a small living room, a small dining room, a small bedroom and a bath. The living-room was crowded to the doors with a set of tapestry furniture entirely too large for it so that to move about was to stumble continuously over scenes of ladies swinging in the gardens of Versailles.” (29). Myrtle is very content with the rooms because they are nicer than her real house, so she decorates as if it is a fancy mansion with loads of space. Myrtle loves her apartment and invites some friends over to have a drink and speak. She changes her dress to a nice one, making it seem like she is going to dine with the upper class. All this shows that Myrtle loves playing the role of an upper class lady when she is really poor. By sleeping with Tom, she has access to things she would never experience without him. She is able to have the finer things and spend money even if these objects are nothing but scraps. Myrtle's one and only objective is to move …show more content…
Daisy had gone out with Gatsby a long time before she met Tom, but Gatsby was drafted into the army and she never saw him again. She grew tired and lonely and wanted nothing more than to push on with her life: she wanted a family “And all the time something within her was crying for a decision. She wanted her life shaped now, immediately” (153-154). Conveniently, Tom strolled in, and he was perfect. He did not work so he was always available, he had loads of money so their family would always be financially stable, and he wanted a family too. Naturally, Daisy decided he was perfect for her and she married him. She now had everything she would need, but that is still not enough. Daisy, like many people, wants to have the best, she will never be satisfied. She loves all things expensive, money truly is her one true love. When with Gatsby she realizes that she should have stayed with him because now he too is filthy rich and so she finds herself ogling at his belongings, “They're such beautiful shirts,” she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. “It makes me sad because I've never seen such—such beautiful shirts before.” (94). She cries for the life she could have had with Gatsby, Tom means nothing to her now. Daisy wants whomever can support her best so if that is Gatsby then she is in love with Gatsby. Eventually she learns that Gatsby is in the illegal business of selling alcohol
From early civilizations to modern day social systems, economic status has always been a determining factor of power. Kings, queens, dukes, princes, and princesses possessed the greatest amount of wealth and thus the greatest amount of power over others. By having large amounts of wealth, royalty could control the actions of others below their economic status. This fact even applies the functions of modern American society. For instance, regardless of the specific circumstance, wealthy individuals have power over the actions of those below them. They control others by buying their loyalty or simply through others’ envy of them. Such principles can be applied to both men and women of wealth. The novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald,
Whilst lounging among her ‘friends’ and colleagues, Fitzgerald is able to show how Myrte is submissive to anyone who poses as a threat to her. During the time period in which the novel is taking place,the roaring twenties, the male in any relationship was dominant over the woman. The word “broke” also shows a strong development in words. Fitzgerald did not give Myrtle's character a fractured nose, but instead, gave her a more painful alternative,a nose that was “broke.” Fitzgerald is also able to show how Myrtle can be stricken and will not say a word about it due to the cause of her own fear. Since Tom Buchanan was angry , he physically hurt her in a
A Scandalous affair marks the life of Myrtle Wilson and Tom Buchanan in The Great Gatsby by F. Scotts Fitzgerald. During the novel Mrs. Wilson and Mr Buchanan disregard their spouses in order to have an affair. Both characters play a significant part in the novel making their development by the reader needed to understand the novel. Fitzgerald uses language in order to develop the charecters Tom Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson in separate ways.
Gatsby Essay Fitzgerald created the characters Daisy and Myrtle wilson to illustrate the similarities and differences between women living in two completely different worlds. Some people live in expensive mansions with expensive things and money to waste, while others have very little and have to work extremely hard for the little they have. Daisy, a beautiful, rich woman is similar to Myrtle Wilson in the sense that they are both in an unhappy marriage. They are seeking love and happiness through affairs. But on they also share many differences.
Set in the Roaring ‘20s, The Great Gatsby focuses mainly on the lives of men as Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby. However, it also clearly outlines the lives of several women : Daisy Buchanan, Myrtle Wilson, and Jordan Baker. On the surface, the lives of these women couldn’t be more different. Daisy, a rich debutante, is torn between her husband, Tom, or her first love, Jay Gatsby. Lower on the social ladder is Myrtle, who is having an affair with Tom, hoping to rise above her station in life. Jordan, on the other hand, is unmarried and a successful golfer, who travels the country participating in tournaments. While these women may have seemed independent, they’re still subject to the will of society which sees them as inferior and objects to be controlled by men.
Same Goal, Different Route in The Great Gatsby A more thorough investigation of The Great Gatsby is necessary to uncover a well-disguised theme by Fitzgerald in this work. Upon a simple read through one would probably not notice the great similarities of Jay Gatsby and Myrtle Wilson, but the two characters seemed to have the same agenda for their lives. While Gatsby took the route of acquiring money at all costs to join the upper class of society and to be acceptable in the eyes of a woman, Myrtle chose to make her way up in society at the cost of her marriage by attaching herself to money. The underlying question is who had the most success. As a young man, Jay Gatsby was poor with nothing but his love for Daisy. He had attempted to
The Great Gatsby is often referred to as the great American novel; a timeless commentary on the American Dream. A dream that defines success, power, love, social status, and recreation for the American public. It should be mentioned that this novel was published in 1925, which is a time when the American public had recently experienced some significant changes, including women’s suffrage, which had only taken place 6 years prior to the publication of this novel May of 1919. The women of this era had recently acquired a voice in politics, however, the social world does not always take the same pace as the political world. F. Scott Fitzgerald developed female characters that represented both women in their typical gender roles and their modern counterparts. I will be analyzing gender roles within the context of this novel, comparing and contrasting Myrtle Wilson, Jordan Baker, and Daisy Buchanan alongside one another, as well as comparing and contrasting their interactions with the men in the novel.
... a symbol of feminism, a woman who is strong, and sovereign a complete parallel to Daisy and Myrtle who represent sexualised and submissive women, who are suppressed by societal expectations. Fitzgerald successfully conveys the ideas that society thought of women in the 20s, and criticises these beliefs through the stereotypical female characters and their position in The Great Gatsby. He captures both the revolutionary changes of women in post world war one society (Jordan) and the conventional roles of women from the ‘old world’ (Daisy and Myrtle).
The 1920s served as a significant period of time for women as it was then that they broke away from all the traditional social constrains.However, this leads to the issue of the negative representaion of women in the novel. It is noted that none of the main women in the Great Gatsby is portrayed in a good light. There is Daisy, who is beautiful, but also extremely shallow and materialistic- seeing that she only married Tom for his wealth.Next, readers meet Jordan, Daisy’s friend. Jordan is portrayed as extremely independent and self- sufficient. However she is also seen to be a little detached, this is highlighted when Nick’s first description of her was that she was ‘motionless, and with her chin raised a little, as if she were balaancing something on it which was quite likey to her’, and we can infer that Jordan has an air of aloofness that makes her seem rather unapproachable. There is also Myrtle, Tom’s mistress. Myrtle and Daisy are binary opposites in terms of appearance, however, Myrtle like Daisy, is extremely materialistic. Myrtle chooses to have an affair with Tom while fully knowing that he was married because he was able to provide her with material things she could never afford. Furthermore, she insults her loving husband, and claims that he is ‘not fit to lick [her] shoe’ simply because he was not rich. Here, readers can clearly see that Myrtle is a woman with loose morals who is completely
In the novel, The Great Gatsby, the two central women presented are Daisy Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson. These two women, although different, have similar personalities. Throughout the novel, there are instances in which the reader feels bad for and dislikes both Daisy and Myrtle. These two women portray that wealth is better than everything else, and they both base their lives on it. Also the novel shows the hardships and difficulties they have in their marriages. They are never satisfied with what they have, and are always longing for more.
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.
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, women are used as trophies, forced, by society, to compete in a world dominated by men. Fitzgerald portrays these women as money hungry, willing to do anything to get ahead. Such as Daisy Buchannan, who marries her husband for the mere fact he has money, or Jordan Baker, who cheats on her golf tournaments to win, and last, Myrtle Wilson, who has an affair because she does not like her social status. This novel shows greatly how Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker, and Myrtle Wilson compete with the superficial world that they live in and disregard their own happiness for the sake of status.
Daisy Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson are two key characters in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Like the other characters in the novel, they each have their own circle of life, but they overlap in serious ways.They both allow their wealth or attraction to wealth to corrupt themselves which leads to significant carelessness. While Daisy Buchanan allows her wealth to corrupt her into becoming careless, Myrtle Wilson allows her attraction to wealth cause her to become corrupt and careless as well.
On one level The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald comments on the careless gaiety and moral decadence of the period in which it was set. It contains innumerable references to the contemporary scene. The wild extravagance of Gatsby's parties, the shallowness and aimlessness of the guests and the hint of Gatsby's involvement in crime all identify the period and the American setting. But as a piece of social commentary The Great Gatsby also describes the failure of the American dream, from the point of view that American political ideals conflict with the actual social conditions that exist. For whereas American democracy is based on the idea of equality among people, the truth is that social discrimination still exists and the divisions among the classes cannot be overcome. Myrtle's attempt to break into the group to which the Buchanans belong is doomed to fail. Taking advantage of her vivacity, her lively nature, she seeks to escape from her own class. She enters into an affair with Tom and takes on his way of living. But she only becomes vulgar and corrupt like the rich. She scorns people from her own class and loses all sense of morality. And for all her social ambition, Myrtle never succeeds in her attempt to find a place for herself in Tom's class. When it comes to a crisis, the rich stand together against all outsiders.
The characterization of both Jay Gatsby and Myrtle Wilson as dishonest reveals the omission of morals for a chance at success desired by many Americans. After Tom Buchannon, Daisy’s husband finds out about Jay Gatsby’s relationship with his wife, he tries to convince Daisy that Gatsby is not who she thought him to be, by revealing that “[Gatsby] and this Wolfsheim bought up a lot of side-street drug stores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter. ” ( 133). The accusatory tone used by Tom with the words “drug stores” and “grain alcohol”, which were both extremely illegal during the time, characterizes Gatsby as dishonest because he owned a lot of these illicit stores to gain his wealth. The author uses Gatsby’s dishonesty to emphasize that individuals were