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Examples Of Patriarchy In The Great Gatsby

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America’s version of the perfect and traditional women has been present throughout history. Instead of valuing the potential and power of women, their talents have been diminished or seen as less than men. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, he presents his female character’s through the eyes of male characters in order to spread awareness of the differences between men and women’s viewpoints on gender roles. The characters, Daisy, Myrtle, and Jordan all receive different treatment from the men due to either their physical appearance or stereotypes that are present in the early twentieth century. F. Scott Fitzgerald uses his writing to expose the patriarchy’s misogynistic views by describing the untraditional emotions and opinions of …show more content…

Scott Fitzgerald’s descriptions of female characters as inherently sexist, Fitzgerald purposely uses Daisy’s character as a way to educate others on women living under the patriarchy. Fitzgerald depicts Daisy as the perfect young woman living in what others see as the American Dream. Her style and subservient personality alludes to the idea that she is content with her position in society. However, when Daisy explains to Nick that “ [she] hope[s] she’ll be a fool — that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool,” she reveals her bitter attitude towards women’s role in society (Fitzgerald 16). Daisy wants her daughter to be oblivious to all the heartbreak and distress she, as a woman, experiences on a daily basis. Instead of raising her daughter to be emotionally intelligent, she wants her to fit society’s expectations of women: simple and obedient. Daisy believes that it is better to conform to what society wants and be content with that, than to have to hide her true self from others. Furthermore, The Lehigh study adds to Fitzgerald descriptions of her by saying, “while Daisy conforms to a shared, patriarchal idea of femininity that values subservient and docile females, she also understands these social standards for women and chooses to play right into them” (Lehigh University). Daisy chooses to maintain her identity as “America’s golden girl” instead of standing up for herself because of fear. Men would perceive her differently if she were to call out Tom for his affair or choose to live her life for herself and not others. Fitzgeral uses Daisy’s fear to display the constraints women have been forced to fit into their whole

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She also implies that women have a hard role to play in life and it is better to take the easy way out. Daisy wants her daughter to be ignorant because if her daughter is unintelligent she won’t know how the real world works and that there are other men to marry than just men like Tom. 5 “She never loved you, do you hear?” he cried “She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me. It was a terrible mistake, but in her heart, she never loved anyone except me!”- (Fitzgerald 151).

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Daisy Buchanan is a prime representation of a “new woman” through her usage of manipulation. This is evident in chapter When confronted by both her husband Tom, and previous lover Gatsby, Daisy is put into conflict. Daisy is asked by Gatsby, who she is having an affair with, whether she had ever loved Tom and after assuring Gatsby she didn’t Daisy says, “I did love him once — but I loved you too… ‘Even alone I can’t say I never loved Tom,’ she admitted in a pitiful voice. ‘It wouldn’t be true” (102). This demonstrates how Daisy uses her charm to manipulate the men around her.

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Daisy shows her struggles with the social status of women through her daughter and relationship with Tom. Jordan proves that being a “new” women of the 1920s comes with a price of judgment and accusations of dishonesty. Myrtle seeks to become a member of the

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Daisy's moral ambiguity and lack of accountability are showcased in her affair with Gatsby, her willingness to escape responsibility for her actions, and her ultimate betrayal of Gatsby's dream. Through Daisy, Fitzgerald critiques the moral decay and hollowness of the upper class, suggesting that wealth and status do not equate to happiness or

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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.

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“‘All right,’ I 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’” (Fitzgerald 17). Daisy in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a woman caught between two men vying for her love. Neither wants it just for the fact of her love but for the achievement of their life goals and the unraveling of this story reveals the truth about the realization of the American dream which relies entirely on the complacency of women.

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In conclusion, Fitzgerald demonstrates through the character Daisy, how in the 1920s, society saw women as objects because of their

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In Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Daisy is portrayed as a modern woman; she is sophisticated, careless and beautifully shallow. Daisy knows who she is, and what it takes for her to be able to keep the lifestyle she grew up in, and this adds to her carelessness and her feigned interest in life. In all, Daisy is a woman who will not sacrifice material desires or comfort for love or for others, and her character is politely cruel in this way. Daisy’s main strength, which buoyed her throughout her youth and when she was in Louisville, is her ability to know what was expected of her and feign cluelessness.

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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.

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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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The era’s “perfect woman”, Daisy Buchanan, is a bubbly, conflicted woman whose choice is between two men: her husband, Tom Buchanan, and her former lover Jay Gatsby. Since Daisy’s character was written in the 1920s, women’s characters were based on the traditional women of the time period, and many women then were still seen as objects and as less desirable than men. When Daisy is invited to Gatsby’s mansion, her first sight of him in many years upon seeing his expensive clothing, she is so overcome with emotion that she begins to weep “with a strained sound” and begins to “cry stormily” showing her true reaction to something as petty as material objects (92). She continues, claiming that

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1557 Words | 7 Pages

“I hope she’ll be a fool--that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, beautiful little fool”(Fitzgerald 17). This line, stated by Daisy, accurately demonstrates the perception of women during the 1920s. Women were seen as objects and deemed incapable of intelligent thought. In The Great Gatsby, author F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays women based on similar stereotypes from this time period. Daisy Buchanan, Myrtle Wilson, and Jordan Baker are all prominent female characters in the story whose behaviors and actions, although different, showcase the common desires and struggles of women at the time.

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1191 Words | 5 Pages

Freshwater is one the rarest and most demanded resource we possess. Freshwater has been called the oil of the 21st century (Liveris), only 3% of the water on the earth is drinkable however 2.5% of that water is locked up in glaciers and in the atmosphere (USBR). That leaves us with 0.5% of all the water in the world as available to consume currently. As we use this water throughout our life our water footprint is steadily increasing. Sometimes we realize we are using too much water, whether it’s taking too many showers or leaving the water on while you’re brushing your teeth.

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1399 Words | 6 Pages

Myrtle is accustomed to living an underprivileged life where feminine power engulfs her, but Tom is too egotistical to allow Myrtle to speak with such authority to him. Similarly, Gatsby’s need for assurance from Daisy pressures her into revealing to Tom that she never loved him (Fitzgerald 132). Deep down, Daisy knows that she truly did love Tom once, but Gatsby’s assertiveness and persistence drives her over the edge to telling Tom that what the two of them shared meant nothing to her. Daisy’s attribute of being a pushover is revealed immensely because she refuses to stand up for herself. Daisy is used to enabling Tom to constantly control all aspects of her life, and that leaves her powerless in society.

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430 Words | 2 Pages

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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