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

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How would you act if you were a woman during the 1920s: an age of economic prosperity, carefree living, flappers, and jazz? In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, each female character symbolizes a different aspect of the influences of society. The book follows the story of a self-made millionaire who aspires to reunite with his past lover, but as tensions increase we learn of his true motives. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, the existence of the corruption of the elite, social standing, and modernism within the cast is indisputable. In addition, each character represents an idea of society and contributes to the story's overall message. Likewise, the first female character introduced in the novel is Daisy Buchanan who acted spoiled and …show more content…

She is not who we thought she was, as she is careless about others, except herself. Moreover, we soon realize that the social classes are worlds apart. Myrtle, the mistress of one of the main characters, is a victim of how much social standing can affect a person. “Myrtle is a victim of the selfish exploitation of the upper classes, but she is not a sympathetic character, being herself hard and heedless of others' feelings.”(“Myrtle - Characters - Higher English Revision - BBC Bitesize”) The mistress tries to cast herself aside from her social class and tries to stand out on purpose. She does this because she wants to leave the land where she is limited to her environment, “The valley of ashes is bounded on one side by a small foul river, and, when the drawbridge is up to let barges through”(Fitzgerald). Better said, another main female character is Jordan Baker, a higher-middle-class golfer. Jordan is a pathological liar who lies because it has become a habit. “I suppose she had begun dealing in subterfuges when she was very young in order to keep that cool, insolent smile turned to the world and yet satisfy the demands of her hard, jaunty

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She doesn’t one-hundred percent fit in anywhere. She is married to a low class man yet is a mistress to a rich man with a high class reputation that was once a well-known and notorious football player. She switches between classes just like she switches her outfits. 16. Myrtle behaves in such a superior manner towards her husband and in the city apartment because she wants to fell that holds a high class role.

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According to Helen Lawrenson, “If a woman is sufficiently ambitious, determined and gifted - there is practically nothing she can't do.” Women in history have been limited and bound in different aspects of their lives in the past. They are confined to meet certain and precise standards for marriage, to raise a family, and also in the work field. In The Great Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker, and Myrtle Wilson, all women living during the flapper 1920’s style that embodied the real women of the time which F. Scott Fitzgerald (got?) his characteristics from.

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When the idea of the 1920’s comes up the first thought is “the roaring twenties” with parties, wealth, and dancing. Often the issues of the time are forgotten. However, The Great Gatsby stands as a window into the social system of the 1920’s. With references to racism and prohibition, Fitzgerald created a story that gives a sense of society at this time. However, the most evident issue is the sexism often portrayed.

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Myrtle has a sickening obsession with living a luxury life and being the wife of a man who has respect in the community. With her current husband, she is not receiving that and is instead living a poor life in the Valley of Ashes. She tries to pretend like she fits in with the people of East Egg, ordering others around and becoming agitated when she has to “keep after them all the time” (Fitzgerald 32). Myrtle tries to order people around who she thinks are lower in status all in hopes of “[attempting] to craft a commodity aesthetic that aligns her with

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Myrtle, as a woman of the 1920’s, should be a paragon of feminism and independence, however, she is used by Fitzgerald in order to show how unrealistic these ideals truly are. As a lower-class female living in the valley of the ashes, Myrtle has no chance of achieving the goals of the ‘new woman’ of the 1920s, and consequently, must try to gain upward mobility by seducing Tom Buchanan. She believes that as his mistress she will be able to overcome the barriers between her lower-class life and her upper-class dreams, but in the end, Tom only treats her as a glorified pet he can treat however he wants. This is seen when Tom, “[breaks Myrtle’s] nose with his open hand.” P.g.30.

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The main female character in the novel would be Daisy Buchanan.

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In “The Great Gatsby” Fitzgerald presents editorial on an assortment of topics, — equity, control, insatiability, treachery, the American dream. Of the considerable number of subjects, maybe none is more all around created than that of social stratification. The Great Gatsby is viewed as a splendid bit of social discourse, offering a clear look into American life in the 1920s. Fitzgerald deliberately sets up his novel into particular gatherings in any case, at last, each gathering has its own issues to battle with, leaving an effective indication of what a problematic place the world truly is. By making unmistakable social classes — old cash, new cash, and no cash — Fitzgerald sends solid messages about the elitism running all through each stratum of society.

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F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel, The Great Gatsby, is full of themes of wealth, love, and tragedy. Also during the time this book was written, women’s suffrage had begun, so women were taking their first steps towards equality with men. The three main women characters in the novel: Daisy Buchanan, Myrtle Wilson, and Jordan Baker, all have things in common but can be vastly different; they reflect the view of women in the early 20th century. The Great Gatsby portrays the characters Daisy, Myrtle, and Jordan as stereotypes of women during the 1920s, seen in their behavior, beliefs, and their ultimate fate.

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Women in Fitzgerald’s literature cannot achieve their goals; it does not matter if they belong to the “old” or the “new” school, nor the upper or lower stages in the social scale. It is hard to determine if the woman’s question was as Fitzgerald depicts but, anyhow, he is mirroring the society where he lives in many different aspects. As a male author, he probably cannot provide a complete view of this topic. Notwithstanding, he masters the narrative technique to portray 1920s’ American society and his work can be considered as a faithful chronicle of that

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Through use of comparison between Daisy Buchanan, Myrtle Wilson, and Jordan Baker, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s message about women and feminine power is that having a man deprives the women of their power, ranking higher in social standards deepens the wound of selfishness, and being deceptive

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If society were more accepting towards independent women, there would have been a possibility for deeper characterization in Fitzgerald’s novel, with more enriched complexities rooted in the plot without the shackles of patriarchal

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Fitzgerald depicts the women of the novel as deceitful, sexual beings that are naturally subordinate to men through Daisy, Jordan, and Myrtle. Daisy exemplifies the naturally inferior role of women relying on the wealth of men in their lives to take care of them. When Daisy talks about her daughter she claims, “a fool–that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool”(21) establishing women’s subordinate role in which they are ignorant to the affairs of their husbands and expected to rely on their beauty to carry them through life. When Daisy is accused of infidelity with Gatsby in the hotel, Gatsby claims that Daisy is attracted to men of wealth and, “only married [Tom] because [Gatsby] was poor and she was tired of waiting for [him]”(137).

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In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, the main idea, the American Dream is demonstrated through the presence of material items and the objectification of women. First, society is portrayed in a flashy way, hinting that guests at Gatsby’s parties only cared about his wealth. Each guest embodied the idea that this is what they wanted to achieve. By coming to these parties, they were able to live their American Dream through Gatsby without even really knowing him. Women are prevalent in this novel as their connection to men controlled their destiny.

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