Examples Of Infidelity In The Great Gatsby

Infidelity: Chaos and Deceit

Through the eyes of a 1920s woman living in a boisterous era of growing freedom, marriage was a stressful and oppressive way of life; to avoid it, women turned to infidelity as an escape. According to Oxford Dictionary, infidelity is “the action or state of being unfaithful to a spouse or other sexual partner.” Kate Chopin’s 1894 short narrative “The Story of an Hour” focuses on Louise Mallard celebrating the liberty she gains after her husband’s death, which explains a married woman’s unexpected feeling of joy as a result of separation. Proving the small importance women placed on marriage, Scott F. Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel, The Great Gatsby, emphasizes Daisy Buchanan’s romantic relationship with Jay Gatsby although

Mallard and Daisy challenge the ideology of marriage. When Louise Mallard sits contemplating her life, she comes to an exciting realization and exclaims words of freedom (Chopin 637). Because she realizes that her marriage is an oppressive cycle, Louise looks beyond the grief and portrays emotional infidelity as she betrays the despair that she is expected to feel in response to her husband’s death. Adultery is represented physically in The Great Gatsby, as Daisy interacts with Gatsby and flirts with him, the two of them beginning an intimate relationship. When Gatsby meets Daisy’s baby girl at a luncheon, Daisy and Gatsby stare at each other and she continuously compliments him in Tom’s presence (Fitzgerald 125). With the liberal attitude that Daisy embraces, she suggests that she does not want to be with her husband Tom because she is driven by the appeal of Gatsby’s parties and the new, unconventional value on liberty. This casual interaction is symbolic of how married women and men carried on with physical infidelity, which ultimately allows Daisy to fulfill her desire of being with another man. By taking control of their lives, Mrs. Mallard and Daisy abandon feelings of guilt and seek happiness without the confines of