Essay 2 Fitzgerald depicts women both stereotypically and respectively. Mostly, he does not prove to be a feminist because he gives each female character several negative characteristics. Fitzgerald includes different messages about women using Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker and Myrtle Wilson. Daisy Buchanan is described as beautiful and sophisticated; but she is also shallow and big-headed. Almost everyone in the novel seems to envy Daisy, she is described as the “golden girl”, a perfect image of a woman. Fitzgerald provides Daisy with the male stereotypical trait of being sophisticated. Most women are made out to be dumb and unintelligent, foolish even. Fitzgerald also gives Daisy the stereotypical female traits of being gorgeous and shallow. Daisy’s voice is mentioned quite a bit; it always seems to impress people. Though at one point, Nick realizes what is so attractive about her voice, ““Her voice is full of money,” he said suddenly. That was it. I’d never understood before. It was full of money-- that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it..” (F127). Therefore, Fitzgerald is showing that even though some women seem perfect, they have their flaws. …show more content…
Jordan is also a well-liked character. She has several feminine traits like being thin, independent and attractive. She also has a little bit of a sex appeal, which is stereotypical of women. However, Jordan is dishonest; she is a liar. Jordan is a pro golfer and she is known to have cheated in a tournament. At a party Nick recalls, “Jordan Baker instinctively avoided clever shrewd men and now i saw that this was because she felt safer on a plane where any divergence from a code would be impossible. She was incurably dishonest. She wasn’t able to endure being at a disadvantage,” (63). Thus, Fitzgerald made her character to symbolize that powerful women are not usually completely
F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby which reflects the extravagance of the roaring twenties. Fitzgerald grew up facing adversity, but gained success from his publishings. Just as Gatsby’s reign of wealth and fame came to an end, Fitzgerald soon became an alcoholic. Fitzgerald wrote his third novel, The Great Gatsby, based off his own life experiences. Throughout his life he faced many obstacles that are mirrored in the lives of the characters in the novel. Growing up, he was constantly aware of the lack of privilege and wealth surrounding his family. Nick faces the same struggle to fit in socially because he lacks wealth and social status. Similarly, his relationship with Zelda was tainted by his adultery which he acknowledges as acceptable for men, but not for women. The sexism that Tom’s character exudes shows Tom’s underlying morals. The Great Gatsby resembles a reflection of
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.
“Being a woman is a terribly difficult task, since it consists principally in dealing with men” (Joseph Conrad). In the Novel, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the wife of George Wilson, Myrtle, has been cheating with the married man Tom Buchanan. From time to time they escape to an apartment Tom owns, behind each of their spouses backs. As time goes on Daisy, Tom’s wife, obtains the knowledge from Jordan that her previous lover is just across the bay and waiting to see her again. Daisy begins going behind Tom’s back with Jay Gatsby, tangling the characters in a mess of relationships. Throughout the book, women take important roles and change the story, even ultimately leading to Gatsby’s death.
Unlike the other two main female characters, Jordan seems uninterested in typical female pursuits and conducts herself in a masculine manner. In fact, Fitzgerald describes Jordan as “a slender, little breasted girl with an erect carriage that she accentuated by throwing her body backwards at the shoulder blades just like a youthful cadet” (Fitzgerald 11). According to Fitzgerald, women who act masculine also look masculine themselves. Since Jordan possesses almost none of the desired feminine qualities in her personality and manner, Fitzgerald declines to give her any physical feminine qualities also. In doing so, Fitzgerald insinuates that women who do not pursue feminine hobbies are not real women, but instead are unattractive, androgynous pseudo-men. In addition to her physical male qualities, Jordan also professionally plays golf which is a traditionally male-dominated sport. Describing a tournament that Jordan played in during the summer, Fitzgerald writes, “There was a suggestion that she had moved her ball from a bad lie in the semi-final round. The thing approached the proportion of a scandal—then died away” (Fitzgerald 57). Not only does Jordan commit the offense of moving into the male sphere, but she also cheats and lies to get ahead. Clearly, Fitzgerald believes that women are not naturally talented enough to take part in masculine activities, and
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 is the most significant female character in The Great Gatsby. F Scott Fitzgerald writes her as the most significant female because she is most like his wife, Zelda (Donaldson). Daisy is Gatsby’s motivation for wealth and why he wants to accomplish so much. He has longed for her because she has always been unattainable. Fitzgerald, like Gatsby was often rejected by women in a class higher than him (Donaldson). Zelda was Fitzgerald’s motivation for writing The Great Gatsby and many other works (Donaldson). It was a way for him to express his frustration and love for his wife. Zelda was the main female role in Fitzgerald’s life, much like Daisy is for Gatsby. Fitzgerald writes his relationship in order to cope with what is happening
The quote that best describes Jordan Baker is, “Let’s get out…this is much too polite for me” (45). The bad qualities of Jordan Baker are she is deceitful, derisive, and contemptuous. Jordan’s good qualities are she is a strong and supportive woman. Fitzgerald developed Jordan Baker throughout The Great Gatsby because she is an example of how people prey on other people for money. In addition, Jordan Baker is important because she represents a new type of woman in her time.
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.
Fitzgerald comments on the changing role and attitudes of women of the 1920s in America. He shows this through the characters Daisy and Jordan. Daisy and Jordan both drink, smoke and drive, and associate freely with men. Daisy's flirtatiousness is an example of this, along with her drunken state in the first chapter when she says 'I'm p-paralysed with happiness'. Daisy also shows the attitude Fitzgerald felt was common in this society, when talking about her daughter.
In the story The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the role of the female characters Daisy, Jordan and Myrtle find themselves in conflict with society’s expectations of them. However, they each negotiate the conflict and resolve it. By examining Daisy, Jordan and Myrtle’s roles, one can contemplate how they went about resolving the issue.
Jordan's androgynous name and cool, collected style masculinize her more than any other female character. However, in the end, Nick does exert his dominance over her by ending the relationship. The women in the novel are an interesting group, because they do not divide into the traditional groups of Mary Magdalene and Madonna figures, instead, none of them are pure. Myrtle is the most obviously sensual, but the fact that Jordan and Daisy wear white dresses only highlights their corruption.
From the start of the book we can see that women in the book are
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.
Throughout time women have been written as the lesser sex weaker, secondary characters. They are portrayed as dumb, stupid, and nothing more that their fading beauty. They are written as if they need to be saved or helped because they cannot help themselves. Women, such as Daisy Buchanan who believes all a women can be is a “beautiful little fool”, Mrs Mallard who quite died when she lost her freedom from her husband, Eliza Perkins who rights the main character a woman who is a mental health patient who happens to be a woman being locked up by her husband, and then Carlos Andres Gomez who recognizes the sexism problem and wants to change it. Women in The Great Gatsby, “The Story of an Hour,” “The Yellow Wall Paper” and the poem “When” are
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. “Guided only by Nick’s limited view of her, readers often judge Daisy solely on the basis of her superficial qualities” (Fryer 43). What the reader sees through the eyes of Nick only appears as a woman whose impatience and desire for wealth and luxury cost her the love of her life, Gatsby. Nick’s narrow perception does not allow one to see that “…[Daisy’s] silly manner conceals a woman of feeling or that her final ‘irresponsibility’ towards Gatsby stems from an acute sense of responsibility towards herself” and that Nick “…clearly does not understand what motivates her” (Fryer 43). One can easily view Daisy as a victim. Fitzgerald distinctly exposes Daisy’s need for stability, which, according to Fitzgerald or perhaps the mentality of the time period, can only be found in a man. “Her need for stability was immediate, and she attempted to satisfy that need through something tangible, something close at hand” (Fryer 51). This “need” that Fitzg...