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.
Daisy Buchanan is the preeminent female character in the story. Her name, Daisy fits her exceptionally, she is bright and sunny like the flower. Daisy is best represented by the color yellow. She’s the story’s golden girl, the wife of wealthy broker, and the love of the mysterious Gatsby’s life. Grok describes the color yellow as “Deities with glowing halos and golden hair…But it also evokes a few negative responses in associations with dishonesty, cowardice, egoism, betrayal, and caution” (Grok). Daisy is described physically as a blonde, and back then the style along women was the flapper headband, like the glowing halo. In the story Daisy is dishonest, she cheats on her husband with Gatsby. Daisy is also a coward, she couldn’t leave Tom, her husband, who treats her like property for Gatsby, who truly loves and idolizes her. Daisy once tells Nick when telling him about her daughter, “I hope she’ll be a fool. That’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool” (1.17). Daisy is immensely obsessed with what people think of her, she likes being the girl who has this beautiful and graceful aura. This quote displays how she want’s her daughter to grow up to be just like her, the image of a weak foolish girl who lets men push her around. Betrayal is the emotion that Nick feels when she skips town instead of attending Gatsby’s funeral. Grok also writes that, “When paired with black, it suggests warning” (Grok). Gatsby is the color black, while Daisy is the color yellow. When the couple reconcile there is a multitude of trouble that eventually leads to the death of Myrtle, George, and Gatsby himself. Daisy isn’t just the bright ray of sunshine; she is also just as troublesome as Grok describes her, which is why th...
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
F. Scott Fitzgerald third book, “The Great Gatsby”, stands as the supreme achievement in his career. According to The New York Times, “The Great Gatsby” is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s. In the novel, the author described Daisy Buchanan as childish, materialistic, and charming. These characteristics describing Daisy is also description for the way women were seen during the 1920s.
Fitzgerald’s character Daisy was created as a girl who is sweet with the intent to help Nick out from the world and a traitor because she goes against the romantic side that Fitzgerald created for her (Washington). Daisy loves being surrounded by masculine men, who escorts away from a low class life to a bigger status in society, which puts her in a position where she is unable to control who she is around or what she looks like physically (Washington). She soon meets a man, Jay Gatsby, who also finds interest in her. Gatsby thinks that Daisy is one of the best things he has ever heard (Fitzgerald 128). Gatsby became very interested in her ever since he laid eyes on her.
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.
The exploring Fitzgerald's use of gender roles in the novel requires a certain amount of scholarly research. Including text searches throughout the book, reading scholarly criticisms about the novel and reading articles that present new ideas about Fitzgerald's work. Gender definition and patriarchal values is the main topic of Bethany Klassen's article entitled, "Under Control: Patriarchal Gender construction in the Great Gatsby." The quotes and ideas in this article are profound and bring on a whole new meaning to events, conversations and actions that take place in the book. For example she notes, " To place Daisy and Myrtle in the passive position necessary to Tom's ego, Fitzgerald employs imagery that denies them their humanity and transforms them into objects defined by their purpose to display Tom's wealth and power"( Klassen ). This passage in the article refers to the way in which Tom puts value on women not by personality or his love but as a material trapping. Not showing emotion towards his wife adds to Tom's persona. The article also includes opinions about the female roles in the novel. Daisy and Myrtle personify the typical female who is basically living to fulfill her husband's needs instead of getting a degree and making a living. The article continues to explain how during that time period, there was even a consequence for not fitting into gender roles. Referring to the tragic car accident, Klassen writes, " Because Daisy's affair with Gatsby places her in the car with him that night and because Myrtle's rebellion against her husband leads her to run into the road, both incidences of female empowerment structurally precipitates the disaster" ( Klassen ). This quote is extremely interesting because it claims that when women try to overcome being trapped by feminine stereo-types, it ends in disaster. This article is obviously beneficial to any person who is exploring gender roles in the novel.
She stayed home and did not go out much to be independent. In Tiffany Swenson’s Feminist Opposition: The Great Gatsby, she talks of Daisy’s perfect submissiveness, making her appear to be a wife anyone would want. “However, when Gatsby challenges Daisy to break free, ruin her life and submit to Gatsby instead, she returns to submission with Tom. Both choices given to Daisy are ones that require her to submit to a male figure rather than follow her own heart” (Swenson). Daisy is not a free thinker or worker. She is financially dependent, making it impossible for her to want to leave Tom. As a person, she was beautiful, glamorous, but also disloyal, and very shallow. Her shallowness lead to her motherliness, she only brought up her daughter as if to brag, but never actually took care of her child. This leads to society devaluing women. Daisy’s beautiful exterior, and unloving interior makes society think that these “New Women” are unfit to be good mothers, and with that, underrates family morals and
On September 24, 1896, a man was born who would to become one of the greatest authors in American history. Short story writer and novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of the classic American novel The Great Gatsby, used his experiences and relationships during the early 1900s to inspire his writing. In specific regards to The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald’s relationship with his wife Zelda directly corresponds to his creation of the character Daisy Buchanan, and informs his critique of the American elite of the 1920s. Zelda directly inspired Daisy; this can be seen through the similarities in their upbringings and in their personalities. Zelda and Daisy were each brought up in very wealthy, old-money families in the southeast. Both women were social-climbing women interested in marrying up the social ladder, and both were materialistic, attention-seeking, and recklessly uninhibited. Additionally, through his negative portrayal of Daisy in The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald’s critique of the American elite can be seen to stem from his relationship with his wife. It was the relationship with Zelda that led to Fitzgerald’s critique of wealthy America, and the character of Daisy directly represents her.
The definition of the word “mother” according to the dictionary is “a female parent,” (“Mother,” 2011) but the way society views a mother is more. A mother isn’t simply a woman who gave birth to a child, but a woman who can raise, comfort, and care for their child. A mother’s job changes depending on what social standing they are in and what time they live in. Because of the different social classes and time periods of Daisy and Ma live in, their roles as the mother in the novels The Great Gatsby and The Grapes of Wrath greatly differ in their responsibility in their family, their treatment of their children, and their family morals, with Ma outshining Daisy as a true mother.
The characters in The Great Gatsby enhance Fitzgeralds views of the American Dream and life of Old and New money. Daisy Buchanan is an Old Money debutante who was Gatsby’s love before the war. Not long after Gatsby returned, she married off to another Old Mone...
Daisy Buchanan, is depicted as this rich girl from Louisville, who only needs a man to take care of her and provide for her, however she also acts weak and innocent at other times. Jordan Baker, is a different story, she is independent, and she has disconnected herself from a man. Jordan Baker and Daisy Buchanan have this certain sex appeal. Daisy Buchanan said something about her daughter that was interesting, Daisy said “I 'm glad it 's a girl. And I hope she 'll be a fool – that 's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool." F.Scott Fitzgerald depicts a world, where women are more of a sex object rather than actual human being. Myrtle Wilson is yet another symbol of this. Myrtle Wilson is married to George Wilson. Through the whole novel Myrtle often said, that she is not happy with her husband. Myrtle starts sleeping with Tom Buchanan; who she thinks, that he will leave Daisy for her, however in Tom Buchanan mind, she is more of a fling, rather than an actual
The twenties came about like a roaring thunder. When thinking about the twenties, what comes to mind? Flappers, illegal booze, jazz and parties sound about right. Fitzgerald loosely documents the lifestyle he lived with his wife during that era in his novel “The Great Gatsby”. Fitzgerald does a great job at capturing the party lifestyle of the time, but he takes time to develop the female characters as well. Despite the roaring twenties being a liberating time for women, Fitzgerald’s shows through the different traits of the female characters, that woman still faced many challenges due to patriarchy and social class.
Throughout history, women have had to overcome many setbacks. They have gone through a lot of mistreatment in the process of changing the idea of how a woman should dress, act, and participate in activities outside of the home. The role of women changed drastically in the 1920s. This change presented women with new freedoms in the workforce, at home, and in fashion. Women who took advantage of the new opportunities and independence in the 1920s are known as flappers. The flapper lifestyle is seen most clearly through Jordan Baker, a professional golfer and friend of Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby. Through his characterization of Daisy Buchanan and Jordan Baker, F. Scott Fitzgerald highlights the changing role of women during the 1920s in The Great Gatsby.
In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald there are three primary female characters. Daisy, Jordan and Myrtle are all very different characters with different personalities. However, the women in this novel are portrayed in a negative way. They are portrayed as sex symbols, gold diggers and uneducated. F. Scott Fitzgerald also presents the women in this book as liars, shallow and not loyal. For the most part, the women in The Great Gatsby all share different characteristics of how women are treated in the 1920s. Some of the women in The Great Gatsby are stepping out of the patriarchy role while others are living their lives through their husband’s accomplishments.