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Gender Lens In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

598 Words3 Pages

Gender Lens
Daisy, a high-status woman, is constrained by her position, which influences her actions and choices.
Due to her high status, she's constricted from society. In the 1920s, society put pressure on women to behave a certain way. Daisy was under more pressure than those in middle or lower classes due to her high status. High-class women in the 1920s needed to be ladylike, marry someone from their social class and comply with their husbands. Debutante was a way that wealthy families could present their daughters when of age, to find a husband who is suitable. Often times the suitors would have to be wealthier than the women’s family. In Daisy’s case “She was just eighteen…and by far the most popular of all the young girls in Louisville” (74). She was expected to marry someone extremely wealthy given her background. When more details emerged about …show more content…

Tom cheats on Daisy multiple times in the novel, even when he tries to hide it from her. Daisy, as a woman, is unable to express her true feelings to Tom; instead, she must keep them to herself. When Daisy failed to keep Tom from interacting with his mistress she tries to forget about it. According to Daisy, “It couldn’t be helped! …cried Daisy with a tense gayety” (15). Daisy is unable to pursue her desired actions because she must comply with her husband. Even though she despises that her husband cheats on her and wishes she could leave him she knows in her head and heart that she cannot. When Daisy was at Gatsby’s house and saw all of his beautiful shirts, she is described as sobbing. While sobbing she commented on the shirts “ It makes [her] sad because [she have] never seen such-such beautiful shirts before”(92). Daisy realized at this point that no matter what she did, she would never be able to leave her husband. No matter how much she despises him and is unhappy with her life, she cannot leave Tom without societal

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Historically, women have had to overcome much harder challenges than men to be recognized. This was no different in the 1920’s where, amongst the glitz and glamor, women still dealt with hypocritical thinking. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald critiques the lack of power that women had by showing hypocritical and harmful thinking towards women like Daisy and Myrtle, and how this mindset is still prevalent within society. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, the character of Daisy Buchanan is used to portray the hypocrisy between women and men during the time period.

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Since divorce is frowned upon during the 1920s, Daisy stays with Tom despite his infidelity and aggressive personality. As a result, viewers can assume Daisy’s perception of herself may be overshadowed by insecurity and inadequacy despite the fact she is far from it, considering the fact she is still extremely wealthy and beautiful. Ok come back to this paragraph cuz idk what im saying anymore. It is common knowledge that women in the twenties were often objectified. Men viewed women as things, not people, and that the main purpose of women was to be objects of the male gaze.

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Daisy is put on a pedestal by the men around her; she is viewed as a “prize” that must be won and a decorative ornament rather than a person they genuinely love. Compared to this, in modern-day society, other qualities such as intelligence and independence are also indicators that many look for in others. However, in the story, “Daisy’s physical beauty and social gifts. [ensures] her social success: she is “by far the most popular of all the young girls” in town; hordes of “excititives” find her desirable and seek her attention” (“Chapter 8 The Great Gatsby: An Unusual Case of Mate Poaching”). This causes Daisy to have to prioritize such shallow qualities in order to secure financial and emotional security via her spouse.

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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.

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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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