Forget Gatsby, the Girls are Prettier (in the Literal Sense because Fictional Book Characters cannot be judged on Physical Appearance)
A glowing house belonging to Jay Gatsby can be seen from across the bay. Loud music and laughter bombards the air. To some readers, the parties and dramatic exchanges might be the centerpiece of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, but if a reader takes time to fully think about and analyze the novel, they will find that many of the characters are symbolic of real women of that time period. Daisy, Jordan, and Myrtle, strong female characters, break society’s expectations of women in the 1920’s through their actions, thoughts, and dreams while shaping and influencing the outcome of the novel.
Perhaps the
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Even though she knows that he is seeing another women, she pretends that everything is alright and that her family is perfectly normal. Although she might follow societies implied rules, she herself even believes that women are slighted in society by its views and expectations. When asked about her daughter, she said, “I hope she’ll be a fool—that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool” (Fitzgerald 21). She hopes that her daughter will be viewed as beautiful and pretty by society so that she will be treated right. She also hopes that her daughter will be a fool so that she cannot she how society treats and objectifies women. On the other hand, throughout the duration of the book, Daisy begins to reject the idea of keeping to herself when she begins to see Gatsby. Although Daisy is married, she has a brief fling with Jay Gatsby who she was in love with many years ago. During this short period of time, she begins to think for herself. She gradually starts to fall in love with Gatsby all over again as she sees him without the knowledge of Tom. However, when she is put under …show more content…
Myrtle is desperate to achieve her American Dream of wealth and prosperity, but she is pulled down by her marriage to George Wilson, a poor mechanic. In order to achieve her dream, she becomes a mistress to Tom Buchannan. Tom buys her many materialistic objects and pays for a special apartment in the city just for the two of them. In turn, Myrtle is just a sexual object and an item to Tom. Blinded by her foolish fantasies, Myrtle deludes herself into thinking that Tom is in love with her. The way she is treated by Tom expresses society’s acceptance of objectification of women and possession of a mistress. Society’s belief that wealth equals happiness influenced Myrtle terribly in her decisions and personality. When George finds out that she is seeing someone else, he locks her up in the upstairs and even goes as far as to tell her that they are going to move to get away from the person she has been seeing: “’I’ve got my wife locked in up there,’ explained Wilson calmly. ‘She’s going to stay up there till the day after tomorrow and then we’re going to move away” (Fitzgerald 143). Tom’s dominant behavior portrays that even though women were slowly gaining more rights, men were still treating them like they were not equals. After this encounter, Myrtle is emotional and still obliviously in love with Tom, so she breaks free from
Myrtle Wilson came from a working class family with a low social standing. Due to her family’s lack of money, Myrtle’s options were limited to marrying men of equal or lower economic status than herself. As a result, Myrtle married George Wilson, a poor car mechanic. In her relationship with George, Myrtle lacked control due to her status as a woman and was thus forced to listen to her husband. However, because of her lower status, Myrtle did learn to use her physical attributes to her own advantage. In other words, Myrtle knew how to exaggerate her physical beauty in order to attract men such as Tom Buchanan; who would pay her with money and expensive gifts in return. Thus, “there is a clear connection between the material disadvantages” Myrtle faced and her lack of morals; given “the paucity of her allotment of the fundamental decencies” (Voegeli). In other words, because of her lack of economic backing, Myrtle Wilson grew up as a woman of lower class with less options in life; which limited her social power and drove her to act unlike any high class lady. Thus, Myrtle’s only option for increasing her status was through material services such as her relationship with Tom Buchanan. All in all, Myrtle Wilson’s economic status limited her to the life of a low class woman and her power others in her
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.
Myrtle Wilson takes on the task of gaining social status and wealth in a corrupt way. Myrtle Wilson betrays her husband to climb the ladder of wealth. Tom Buchanan becomes used by Myrtle to acquire glistening mounds of wealth. “Myrtle Wilson does not have many material items. She has a loyal husband, but Myrtle wants everything else… She feels she deserves more; she feels that she deserves more; she feels she deserves Tom, his money, power, and influence” (Dawson). Myrtle Wilson’s intentions become obvious during The Great Gatsby. If Myrtle Wilson wanted love, she could have looked to her husband, George Wilson, who truly loved her. Her dream of wealth, however, dominated her desire of love. Myrtle could have easily ended her relationship with Tom due to his frequent violence if it was simply about love. Myrtle could endure the violence if it meant she could achieve her American
Myrtle’s ambition proves to be her fatal flaw in being the tragic hero. The goal of her ambition is to lead her to a higher social status. In pursuit of her ambition she expresses that her husband, George Wilson, serves as an obstacle since he is in the opposite direction of where she wishes to be. She expresses disgust in George for committing actions that are considered lowly by her standards. She was particularly unenthused with her husband after it is revealed that “he borrowed somebody’s best suit to get married” without telling her. (35) She expresses her marriage as regretful, which illustrates her ambition to strive for better, being Tom. Essentially it illustrates that she would rather be treated with little respect to achieve status, rather than to be treated with respect without status. Myrtle not only exudes her ambition through her pompous attitude, but also in the manner in which she carries herself. She is a young woman in her “middle thirties, and faintly stout, but (carries) her surplus flesh sensuously,” and although she is not attributed with beauty she is somewhat charismatic. (25) The way in which she carries herself may be considered sexual, and her persona is alluring for men such as Tom. Her seducing persona illustrates her ambition in being a temptress in order to move up the social ladder.
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.
But rather than confront Tom about this, Daisy chooses to be submissive, not voice her opinion and hope that her daughter will be a fool. This suggests that Daisy is critically aware of the place that women hold in the particular historical context, where being oblivious and ignorant towards a spouse’s actions – being a “fool” – is better than having knowledge of their wrongdoings and feeling as if speaking up about it will not alter the situation. Although she appears superficial at times, the audience should not dismiss the potential wisdom of her character. Although Daisy is talking about her daughter, in many ways, this quotation is autobiographical about Daisy subsiding to cultural expectations regarding women and not confronting her husband about his adultery. However, it is apparent that Fitzgerald views Daisy’s submissive and conforming nature negatively.
During the 1920’s women were fervently depicted as inferior to men and incapable of the success. In the novel The Great Gatsby female characters are subject to gender based stereotypes and blindly follow culturally accepted norms which dictate their place and position within society. The expectations placed upon the female characters to comply with the norms of society limit their potential to become successful in comparison to the male characters, who are successful in the 1920’s. Within The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald illustrates the female characters as socially and economically limited and dependant, due to the strong implementation of patriarchal roles of men in society. Women are confined
The relationship between Gatsby and Daisy is one of constant lies, and deceit. Gatsby falls in love with Daisy before he goes to the Army as a young man, and Daisy fell in love with him too. Yet Daisy is very materialistic and Tom, a very rich man came into place and Daisy married him instead of waiting for Gatsby like she had promised. Gatsby waited for Daisy but she did not wait for him, and instead married Tom just for his money. This shows how there relationship has been riddled with lies since the very beginning of the story.
When the leading female in the role, Daisy Buchanan, learns that the child she is giving birth to is a girl she says “I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool . . . the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool” (Fitzgerald 21). This shows how Daisy has given up at this point in her life and realizes that women will never amount to anything and that they have no role in society other than becoming someone's wife and or mother. Daisy Buchanan is fully aware of the role that women play during this time. She, unlike most women, knows of her own marginalization and admits that females are powerless and unimportant as they are living in a male-dominated society. The author's presentation of women is essentially very unsympathetic and unflattering. Daisy is also a character who is struggling with being in love with a man other than her husband, but knows that she cannot go out and have an affair. A literary critic Lihua Zhang states how The Great Gatsby is a, “Disillusion of American Dream . . . the way of dealing with true love and lo...
The gender issues in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby adhere to the traditional gender roles of a male-dominant society where women are sexually objectified and made inferior, while men are portrayed as the dominant gender. The narrator’s relationship with the female characters of the novel and their character traits reveal not only the established patriarchal society in the novel, but the chauvinistic attitude of the author as well. While feminine conformity to the ideal standards of women in a male-dominant society is reflected through characters such as Daisy Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson, male characters such as Tom Buchanan and George Wilson appear to represent the traditional man, thus satisfying the ideal gender roles of a male-dominant society. Though it appears that Nick Carraway’s admiration for masculinity allows him to suffer from his potential anxieties about his own masculinity, Carraway’s male chauvinistic mentality is certain because of his enforcement of traditional gender roles that exerts dominance over women in the novel. Carraway’s attraction to Jordan Baker’s masculine traits and his fascination with the socioeconomic status of men, such as Jay Gatsby’s and Tom Buchanan’s, display his conformity to the ideal, traditional standards of gender roles in a male-dominant society that explain his admiration for masculinity.
During the 1920’s, women challenged the traditional view of what a woman should be and a new category, the ‘modern’ woman’ was recognized and became a great influence on American culture. This ‘new woman’ challenged old standards for both beauty and behavior. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s female characters reflect those changing elements of beauty, independence, and personality. Daisy, Myrtle and Jordan each employ their unique beauty to captivate the men in the book, but each with a vision of the “American Dream” coming true for them. Ultimately the reader sees the corruption of the American Dream through these woman and their unique encounters with societal expectations.
In the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, we are presented with a fictional account of life in the 1920s New York. The decade was a time that begins with prosperity and a carefree living for many citizens of the upper class, nevertheless, the decade was also the worst of times for those who struggle in the lower classes. The story in the novel revolves around a man named Jay Gatsby that is trying to win back the love of his life, Daisy, from his past. The novel takes us through Gatsby's struggle to impress Daisy. “ I hope she did be a fool— that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool” (Fitzgerald 17).
Women have been consistently marginalized and devalued throughout history. In The Great Gatsby, the women’s characterization are limited to how the men in their life utilise them- a trophy wife and prize, a paramour, and a prize. These women are not allowed to develop independently; their importance is dictated by the men in their life. F. Scott Fitzgerald is not bringing awareness to the inequality of women in the Roaring Twenties, but perpetuating it through the lack of characterization the women undergo. Tom’s infidelity in his marriage clearly expresses his views about his wife, Daisy.
Looking at F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby through a feminist perspective, it seems apparent that the text supports and challenges the assumptions of a patriarchal society. Interrogating this text with a critical feminist viewpoint reveals that the men and women appear to be victims of social and cultural norms of the 1920s that was almost impossible to change. Although, some of the character’s attempt to redefine society and culture, more so the women in the text in order to renegotiate the gender norms. Jordan resists social pressure to conform to feminine expectations and, despite Daisy and Myrtle being more traditional in the way they live, they are both willing to have affairs. The female characters’ approach feminism in a multitude
The Great Gatsby is one of the few and best American novels that critique the American Dream. While on the surface it may appear as a classical tragic romance, it holds a much deeper meaning. Fitzgerald uses the novel to show the drastic changes which happened during the 1920s. At that time there was a social divide between the “old money” and the “new money”; despite both have immense amounts of wealth, the latter was looked down upon by former. One of the most iconic social changes of the 1920s was that of women.