In most cases, women tend to be the center of the problem. Always changing one thing or another. The great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, explores the modern views and beliefs of women. The Great Gatsby is told from the point of view from Nick Carraway. It is about a man named James Gatsby who is extremely rich and throws huge parties all the time. He acquired this wealth doing illegal business and gets killed at the end of the story. Throughout the novel, Fitzgerald focuses on women and the shift in their behavior. The change in behavior and fashion of modern women shocked the entire society at first. The traditional view of women was that more of the Victorian view of women: women did the farm work in the family, sew, take care of
Fitzgerald’s characters and his own personal beliefs seem to suggest that he is mocking the weakness of American family life during the 1920’s. Throughout the novel, the most prominent of Fitzgerald’s characters are involved in extra marital relationships. The fact that these relationships are seen so often, clearly suggests that Fitzgerald is attempting to portray a weak bond between married couples. The weak relationship between the Buchanan couple as well as the Wilson couple are proof that. In addition, it should also be noted that Fitzgerald’s relationship with his own wife, Zelda, who The Great Gatsby is dedicated to, was highly romantic and severely strong. Fitzgerald had endured to attain his love for Zelda, and was faithful to her for much of his life. However, the fact that Fitzgerald creates characters who seem to contradict his own beliefs, seem to suggest that he is making a mockery of the weak marital bond common in American society during the 1920’s.
In this novel Fitzgerald shows Tom and George’s negative philosophy’s towards women. He shows in The Great Gatsby how men can be heinous, but he also shows the positive treatment of women by men in the form of Nick and Gatsby’s characters. Fitzgerald is trying to portray that there are a lot of men that mistreat women in the world, but there are those select distinguished few such as Nick and
Throughout Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby,” the role of women can be examined to demonstrate anti-feminism. Initially, Daisy is viewed as an innocent, loving character, but once her true motives are revealed, it is clear that she is very corrupt, desiring only money and power. This is used to show the stereotypical female who lives under the man for his possessions, and lacks the self-respect to stand against the opposite gender. She is not the only female to act like this, there are many, but her case is the most important because it directly influences all of the main characters. Gatsby is also portrayed as a stereotype: the boy who wants his true love and will do anything and everything to get her, even be accused of murder. Once each character
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald took place in the 1920’s when the nation was undergoing rapid economic, political, and social change. Looking through different literary lenses the reader is able to see the effects of these rapid changes. The marxist lens reflects the gap between rich and poor while the feminist lens showcases the patriarchal society.
Richard D. Altick once stated, “a woman was inferior to a man in all ways except the unique one that counted most [to a man]: her femininity. Her place was in the home, on a veritable pedestal if one could be afforded, and emphatically not in the world of affairs”. This Victorian ideal completely changed after World War I. With the passage of the 19th amendment (guaranteeing women’s voting rights) females took on a more powerful, masculine role. This new, dominant place in society enabled women to gain power in their societies and especially over men. Women became newly carefree and because neither males nor females respected their morals, the society of the 1920’s grew to be extremely hedonistic. F. Scott Fitzgerald reflects the moral decline of the 1920’s throughout his novel The Great Gatsby. All of the female characters in The Great Gatsby come from different social classifications, but they still reject the exemplary Victorian etiquette and never hesitate to seize power. Daisy, Myrtle and Jordan are all corrupt women who are able to wield power over the men that they desire by using their positions in society.
Throughout this novel there are various situations when the issues of gender and societal roles are brought to the attention of the reader. Growing up in the 1920s gave Fitzgerald a personal insight into these issues, and his writings may bring to light his perception on the matters he was never able to voice. It is important to note that many of the characters in the book are similar to those in Fitzgerald’s own life. According to “The Class Consumerism of Fitzgerald’s Life”, Daisy, Gatsby’s love affair, and Zelda, Fitzgerald’s wife, are similar in their life style needs. Originally, Fitzgerald and Zelda planned to be married, but, when his success did not blossom, Zelda left him and would wait to marry him until his career took off. Similarly enough, in The Great Gatsby Daisy does not marry Gatsby becau...
The novel by Scoot F. Fitzgerald, “The Great Gatsby” is a well written synopsis of 1920s societal dynamic in America. The book follows the protagonist Nick as he describes the life and society in New York. He meets a man by the name of Jay Gatsby, who lives his life around only one desire to be reunited with love of his life Daisy Buchanan. Gatsby's quest leads him from a peaceful existence to WW I, from poverty to great wealth, from separation to the arms of the women he loves, and eventually to death. The author uses the story to portray the state and changes in the conscience of American Society at that time period. The stratification of societal class, the disillusionment with the idea of the American Dream, the preoccupation with wealth, the decays of morality with all the lies and deceits, the changes in women role and principles of marriage were all the part of Societal consciousness in the 1920s. Scott F. Fitzgerald effectively uses setting, plot, conflict, dialogue, and imagery in the novel to reveal societal stratification, disillusionment in the American dream, dominance of moral decays, changes in societal norms and values, as part of the conciseness of American society in the 1920s.
All together, The Great Gatsby sits as an example for Fitzgerald’s stereotypical roles for women and men in their societies in the twentieth century. Although Fitzgerald tried taking a couple of characters outside this theory, however, her ended up bringing them back to where they belong in the first place. In other words, Fitzgerald tried to get rid of the sexist and limited view that a reader might encounter while reading his novel, but failed in doing so because he ended up putting the pieces back exactly where they belong. Lastly, Fitzgerald proved to the readers through his characters that if a person tries to jump out of the place which he should be in, he or she will suffer the consequences for committing such an act.
e. Thesis – In the novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald shows gender roles, love, and money played in the 1920’s, while everyone is trying to live the American Dream.
The Great Gatsby highlights the vulnerability of women during the Roaring Twenties, an idea expressed in many of the female characters, but most obviously in the character of Daisy Buchanan. To Daisy, success means marriage to a wealthy man who will provide her with a lifetime of lavish living. She conforms to the societal norm as the beautiful wife of a wealthy man while ensuring a respectable reputation. For many years in history the traditional role of women included cooking, cleaning, and raising children. Daisy rarely performs any of these domestic duties. She barely interacts with her daughter and displays a lack of concern for her obligations as a mother. The jaded world in The Great Gatsby objectifies females, especially Daisy, ...
As Mark Twain once declared, “What would men be without women…” This quote is clearly illustrated in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s timeless masterpiece The Great Gatsby. The Great Gatsby is the tragic love story of a poor man who falls in love with a rich girl and spends the rest of his life getting rich to impress her; however, in the end he dies alone without his love fulfilled. Although Fitzgerald’s novel is mainly androcentric, he uses several females each unique in their personalities to highlight the male characters, and to show that although people may have different desires, motivations, and needs they are not that different from each other.
Fitzgerald writes, ”I hope she’ll be a fool–that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool,” (17). Women in literature are typically regarded as foolish, dating back to when Pandora was foolish enough to open her box. In fact, a woman is not so much a character as a literary tool whose purpose is to help develop the character of a man and whose only significance is tied to him, alone she is nothing. Women are portrayed as property to be purchased with material possessions, essentially selling themselves to the highest bidder. In Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s literary masterpiece, The Great Gatsby, he plays on the classic archetype of the role of the woman using symbolism and allusions to Greek mythology. However, Fitzgerald contradicts the insignificance by portraying women as not helpless, but feigning helplessness to manipulate and control men such that a man’s actions are not of his free will, but of hers.
F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, a socio-historical commentary, introspectively explores the self-struggle of Daisy Buchanan, an avant-garde feminist, who has been imposed by societal obligations and expectations, ironically she enforces the same "unacceptable" conditions upon her impressionable infant daughter. Effectively, Fitzgerald portrays Daisy as a symbol and catalyst of moral degradation of the societal norm.
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.