Gender Roles In The Great Gatsby

In society today, not only are gender roles demonstrated in people’s daily lives, but are also demonstrated in tragedies. Tragedies tend to consist gender roles throughout their story line by showing how people in society must act on their behalf. Tragedies also provide an example of what modern day society looked like based on the time period it was written in. Social constructs also change over time, making tragedies something important that marks what society looked like at the time. With this in mind, tragedies such as “Oedipus Cycle” by Sophocles and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald enforce gender roles by showing gender inequality and enforcing certain emotions and actions amongst men and women. In specifically “Oedipus Cycle”, women are often given the stereotype of having less

Although Iocaste is considered to be a main character in the play, she is only considered to be the wife of Oedipus and has little say compared to Oedipus. The other two women in the play are Antigone and Ismene who only play the role of leading their blind father out of Thebes and are locked in a cave alive. In the play, Oedipus is one of the main rulers of Thebes since his wife Iocaste has little say on how to run the kingdom. This enforces gender stereotypes of how women are not supposed to have any say in the government and are only supposed to bear children and do household work. With Oedipus ruling over Iocaste, it also demonstrates how men have more power over women in the play. If there was not a gender inequality Iocaste would be co-running the kingdom and would have as much power as Oedipus has in society. Moreover, this also shows how men are in charge of the household in society by having Oedipus as a man run the kingdom. The author also enforces gender inequality by having women do certain actions. For instance, this is demonstrated when