The 1920’s was an era of change and growth with no regard for morality. The novel The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald written in 1925. Tells the story of a young, wealthy man named Jay Gatsby as he tries to win back his former love Daisy Buchanan, amidst the immoral and chaotic roaring 20’s. This decade presented plenty of challenges for women looking to navigate through a male dominated society. However, characters Daisy Buchanan and Jordan Baker are able to overcome this challenge through manipulation and Independence.
In society, emotion is the main contribution to the strengthening and harm to the human condition. The influence that women have in the two texts display how love defines the rash actions that one may display for what they desire. Gatsby’s love for Daisy Buchannan along with the influence that she brings to his life, leads him into a downward spiral which then ends in his demise, the influence of Lady Macbeth on Macbeth tests his desires and lust for power. Obsessions and persisting those obsessions are what creates both stories of Macbeth and Gatsby and entail the main incentive for power or for love. Through self-destruction and illusion, the two texts display obsessions and their impossible and illusionistic outcomes.
In today’s duplicitous society, men often pursue the “perfect woman”. This woman is construed to be; fit, provocative and ravishing. However, in greatly distinguished American novel, The Great Gatsby, the men have strayed from stalking women for their looks. Instead, Gatsby chases Daisy to achieve her as a prize of his bounty and any affection Gatsby demonstrates toward her, is simply to appease to her sense of status and wealth. The author F. Scott Fitzgerald, exhibits Gatsby’s these feelings for Daisy through the clever usage of connotation, symbolism and metaphors.
Long Island in the 1920s was an experience for people to live a lavish lifestyle and have dreams that they would become rich. The Great Gatsby focuses on the elites of our society, who lived in the West and East egg. Women at this time were very money based. When applied to The Great Gatsby, the feminist lens highlights the true motivations behind the decisions women made in the roaring 1920s through the characters Daisy, Myrtle, and Jordan. Daisy is usually described as materialistic and is very desperate to have a lot of money.
The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, has been hailed for its moral significance. The novel’s disdain for corrupted wealth, and its ability to illustrate the “costs of fantasy,” have transformedthe literary work into one of America’s “Great Books. ”However, Fitzgerald’s sexist overtones and objectification of women rescind its “great” status and thus its name to merely “The Gatsby. ”The moral significance of The Great Gatsby is marred by its treatmentof women. Alone, the objectification of women seen in the novel is not enough to assume Fitzgerald’s view of them, but his own words are.
Women in The Great Gatsby Throughout the 1920’s, the role women played in society was changing. Fitzgerald shows this in The Great Gatsby by the characters: Daisy, and Jordan. The morals and iimages of the woman changed. During this time period females began to go against the “norms” of society.
Reader’s perception is one of the most essential aspects of a novel, this refers to what the audience brings to the novel and determines whether a book is transcendent. The perception can be affected by several factors such as the format, the language and the message of the novel in general. A book can be interpreted differently according to culture, ideology, and even gender. The novel, The Great Gatsby written and published by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1925, is faced with reader-response criticism by two different social groups; feminist, that want to achieve equal cultural and social representation for women, question the treatment the women in book receive by the men, yet view the novel as an example of the empowerment of females in during the 1920’s. Then Marxists, who analyse class relations, social conflict and social transformation, interpret the book by analysing the representation of a materialistic elite class and the struggle of the middle class to fit into their world.
(Fetterley 72) In other words, this article “Emancipated Women of The Great Gatsby” by Ivan Štrba is saying how Women in the story are entitled of just being called as an “object”. This shows that because having a Daisy characteristics in the story is good for a lot of things they can do with the character and they can just blame the Women for being pretty and causing the Men’s failures. This is important
“A woman of 1920 would be surprised to know that she would be remembered as a new woman” (Benner). Indeed, the majority of women were working as housewives, and many significant changes would take place in their appearance and attitude later in the 1920s. However, women were not given the same opportunity and equality as men. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, sets during the conflicts of the Roaring Twenties, describes a complex society with different gender roles. The Great Gatsby illustrates the decline of the American Dream by revealing the conflict between women’s subservient roles and their progressive resistance to social expectations in 1920s America.
Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby efficiently depicts the lives of women residing in the East Coast during the 1920’s and makes a clear point of establishing definitive gender roles. Fitzgerald’s work is not an inherently feminist doctrine and focus more on fiscal responsibilities of white individuals, allowing the modern reader to get a more accurate sense of women's roles in society. The Great Gatsby is especially significant in this essay because Fitzgerald is the only male writer discussed and the novel has a male narrator and main character, therefore providing a unique insight on women’s responsibilities and their role at this point in time. The 1920’s were the beginning of a new revolutionary age for women and The Great Gatsby is an iconic piece that is seen as a reflection on this time
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.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel, The Great Gatsby, is full of themes of wealth, love, and tragedy, as well as a subtle but powerful representation of gender. 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 both man and society’s 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, which is shown through their behavior, beliefs, and ultimate fates and their personalities display both powerful and potentially harmful stereotypes of women at this time.
In this the year, which marks, the centenary in which, women won the right to vote; this essay will be to ‘Discuss the presentation of the women in ‘The great Gatsby’. One cannot understand the writing of ‘The great Gatsby’ without considering the era in which it took place. The role of women first started to change after the First World War in United States of America. Before this war, women did not enjoy universal suffrage. However, that was to change.
2.2. THE GREAT GATSBY Considered as Fitzgerald’s masterpiece, The Great Gatsby offers a similar point of view about women in the 1920s. In this novel, there are three remarkable female characters. The first of them is Daisy Buchanan, the leading female character.
Feminism is clearly evident in The Great Gatsby and can be shown by the contrast between the independent women such as Jordan Baker and Catherine and the dependent women, Daisy and Myrtle. They are different in their approach to their relationships even though their character qualities are similar.
