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Fitzgerald's Portrayal Of Women In The Great Gatsby

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What Makes a Woman? In the age of the Roaring Twenties everyone was embracing a carefree, post- war lifestyle. Women began challenging social norms, becoming independent, promiscuous, and overall breaking free of the control of men. However, F. Scott Fitzgerald decides to place women in a more in a more male-dependent role in The Great Gatsby in which they embody negative qualities of women in the 1920s. 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). …show more content…

Throughout the novel it becomes clear that Jordan has no problem lying if it results in her favor. During chapter 3, Nick recounts an instance at a party in which Jordan, “left borrowed car out in the rain with the top down, and then lied about it”(62) not only emphasizing her dishonesty, but the carelessness that goes along with her damaging someone else’s property. At Nick’s first party at Gatsby’s mansion he learns that Jordan had cheated in a golf tournament but dismisses it based on his belief that, “dishonesty in a woman is a thing you never blame

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Daisy Buchanan is an important character in the novel, "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald, as she is the goal for which Jay Gatsby strives. Although she adds to the themes, she is described as "an empty shallow fairly tail princess who never grows up". The following essay will discuss this quote by analysing: firstly her relationship with Gatsby; secondly her relationship with her husband, Tom Buchanan; lastly her carelessness and in consideration for others. After five years of being separated. Daisy and Gatsby reunite and Daisy rediscovers her love for him.

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Finally, there is Daisy Buchanan, one of the most badly portrayed female characters by F. Scott Fitzgerald, she was characterized as selfish, unfaithful, and materialistic. The author of the Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald, paints a very negative picture of the female characters in this novel by given them characteristics that are bad to society. One of the female characters who was portrayed negatively was Myrtle Wilson, she was characterized as an unfaithful, unintelligent, and materialistic woman in the novel. The author of the Great Gatsby gives several negative

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726 Words | 3 Pages

She’s seen, and often treated as an object, portrayed in an increasingly objectified and shallow manner. Daisy being described as a flower shows that she is wanted by Gatsby more for what she is, what looks like, and the challenge that she represents, than herself as a person. Women in general throughout the book are admired, and praised fro their beauty, they become parts of the scenery to be viewed, yet are not respected. This imagery, used by the men in the novel, implements a condescending and patronizing tone towards the female, showing the women as inferior to

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I mean it was careless of me to make such a wrong guess. I thought you were rather an honest, straightforward person.” (177). Furthermore, Jordan is extremely hypocritical of Nick, and brushes him lazily aside. Daisy is also careless with her relationships after discovering of Gatsby’s existence nearby; as she bounces between Gatsby and Tom claiming to love both until a conflict is reached and she is forced to choose.

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480 Words | 2 Pages

Relief from the trenches. Rebellion in the streets. The American Dream. And shorter skirts. The 1920s is an age of change where you chose to exchange the corsets and ankle-length dresses of a Victorian age for tassel skirts, pixie cuts, and scandalous smoking as newfound “dames” in society.

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In The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays women as overemotional, irresponsible, and that they are unable to be successful without being married to a wealthy man. F. Scott Fitzgerald bases the character of Jordan off of an icon women aspired to be from the 1920’s known as the Flapper. A flapper was a woman who was typically careless, and went against what was expected of women during this time period. The Great Gatsby was published in 1924, right in the middle of the 1920’s.

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A thorough analysis of The Greats Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, demonstrate a woman named Daisy is pressured to act according to the current era ethics. Daisy is portrayed as an ideal woman from a quick glance, however she is far from the current norm and she contains flaws that do not come from the mold a woman is expected to be shaped from in the modern era. It becomes conspicuous in a statement from Gatsby that Daisy priorities wealth over love. “’She never loved you, do you hear?’ he cried.

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Many people think that boys in our culture today are brought up to define their identities through heroic distinctiveness and competition, specifically through separation from home, friends, and family in an outdoors world of work and doing. Girls, on the other hand, are brought up to define their identities through connection, cooperation, self-sacrifice, domesticity, and community in an indoor world of love and caring. These views of different male and female roles can be seen throughout the literature read this semester in Humanities Literature. Gender roles continue to change throughout time as they are exaggerated by society. In fact, this can be seen in comparing the film A League of their Own and the novel The Great Gatsby.

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“There are emancipated women abound in The Great Gatsby, especially at the parties. However, although many of them appear to be emancipated, they depend on men.” The Great Gatsby is placed in the midst of the 1920s, a time where new social and sexual freedoms were more acceptable than prior times. The women in this novel seem to be emancipated.

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Women were thought to be a man’s object who had no say in what they wanted and had to live up to men’s ideals. These ideals shaped women and how they behaved and were distinguished amongst society. A woman who came from money for example was thought to be so wholesome and unadulterated as well as dazzling in appearance; Fitzgerald was able to portray this through his character Daisy Buchanan. Daisy perfectly mimicked these standards. In her adult years, she wasn’t allowed to have a voice or be her own person.

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Have women always controlled where the power truly lies within society? In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s romantic novel, The Great Gatsby, he portrays an interesting role of women as represented by the characters Daisy, Jordan, and Myrtle. These women wield a unique power and influence that they use at their own advantage given their social position within the early 1920s. Fitzgerald’s authorial intent seems to show that women play a key role in the development of this story because they represent the American Dream during the roaring 20’s.

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1566 Words | 7 Pages

The Dream of women is the American Dream Women, for a long duration of history, were suppressed by society and men. Many have been denied equal treatment and were told that it was “a man’s job.” Their aspect of the American Dream has mostly been ignored or held in respect with men’s American Dream. However, advancements had been made in society and gender equality. Women in today’s time and society can achieve the American Dream because they can work hard to achieve success, popular views have changed to accept independence in women, and many have reached respectable positions that were once thought to be only for men; however, they still are treated with inequality in many aspects of life, but are able to rise above the discrimination and reach the American Dream.

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1194 Words | 5 Pages

This gives the reader an insight on what women were viewed like in the early 1900s. Daisy thinks women are not smart, but just for looks. They are not supposed to question men but rather be a good thing to look at and bear children, none of which takes any intelligence. Feminism is shown in how Daisy is glad the baby is a girl because she is a fool and will listen to men like she is supposed to and not question them. In one article it states “Daisy allows herself to be bought-like a piece of property in an economic transaction” (Beaty, “Feminism in The Great Gatsby”).

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250 Words | 1 Pages

“I hope she’ll be a fool a beautiful little fool” (Fitzgerald 21). The Great Gatsby commences with the main characters, Nick, is off to New York to visit his cousin his Daisy. Nick discovers different affairs between his cousin and her husband Tom that create problems throughout the book. The is of feminism is necessary in Fitzgerald’s book. Feminism is the portrayal of women’s rights on the basis of the equal right of sexes.

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The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, has several women with strong characteristics. Such as Myrtle, Daisy, Jordan, Catherine, and Mrs. McKee, But the leading women were Myrtle, Daisy, and Jordan. Daisy, Myrtle, and Jordan have a great deal of differences and similarities. The two ways they are different is how they interact with men and how they are looked upon by men.

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