Oppression Of Women In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

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Recommended: The scarlet letter, critical analysis

In literature, women are often portrayed as background characters, or as people that have little to do and act as a conscience of a man. Women have always felt oppressed; may it be by marriage or society. Literature reflects a world where women are prisoners based on their gender roles and the expectations of society. One reoccurring theme is that women are prisoners of marriage. Daisy Buchanan, from The Great Gatsby, is in an abusive relationship with her husband Tom. While he does love her, he often makes choices for her and their monetary wealth dictates what both of them can say and how they both may act in society. Daisy wants her daughter to be “a fool, because that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world”, so that she does not …show more content…

Females are seen to act a certain way, and if they step out of line “they should have put a hot brand of iron on” them, in order to teach them that going against the normality of society is wrong (Hawthorn 45). Hester Prynne, from The Scarlett Letter was shunned by society for being an adulteress. She is branded with a scarlet “A” for adulteress and her sin is personified as her baby. Hester’s story is used as a precautionary tale so that young women would not step out of line, lest they become like Hester. In The Crucible, Mary Warren is punished by the girls of the town for not going along with the crowd. She is wrongly framed for sending her sprit out out possess a bird. Just for not going with everyone else, she is seen as having been “conquered by Satan” (Miller 95). In Puritan times, this would have been an anomaly, and everyone is aghast when Abigail Williams, the leader of the girls, accuses Mary of sending her spirit out. Furthermore, when Janie’s second husband dies, she “starched and ironed her face” so that she could give the townspeople what they want to see, which is a grieving widow (Hurston 83). If she had done anything other than give them what they wanted to see, she might have been accused of doing something awful to her

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