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How Did F Scott Fitzgerald Use Feminism In The Great Gatsby

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Benorah Tweh Mrs. Frantzen 11 Honors Block 3A 25 March 2024 The Abstract View of Feminism in The Great Gatsby Feminism is often mistaken for a flat idea. There are the strong independent women and the ones that have confided in the “rules” that society has made for them. Though the concept of feminism is clearly more than just that, society often falls victim to putting women into those two categories, when there is always a middle ground. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, provides a more complex viewpoint on feminism. The women within the novel participate in activities that are seen as slightly rebellious, but on the flip side it is easy to see them as succumbing to the limitations that were put upon women in this time. Through Jordan’s …show more content…

During this time period, most women didn't choose their husbands let alone openly discuss their discomfort and unhappiness within their marriages. Myrtle doesn’t seem fearful about discussing her affair in public or opening up about the issues within her marriage. This solo event shows her rebelling against the social standards and norms that were placed upon them, but in a bigger picture it is clear that Myrtle is helpless. She can’t leave her husband because she has nothing to fall back on. Though the man she married is not the provider she dreams of, he is all she has. If Mr. Wilson wanted, he could leave Myrtle, and he wouldn’t face any financial distress, but she would never have that same pleasure. Daisy, in comparison to Jordan, is not as strong or independent. She is a self-centered housewife who seems to have no control over her life. Though Daisy carried herself as if she is this powerful woman, she truly is not. Fitzgerald writes, “ ‘Toms got some woman in New’”( Fitzgerald15). Jordan makes this comment on the fact that everyone knows about this affair, everyone, including Daisy. Daisy can’t do anything about the affair, it …show more content…

This is an extreme representation of disrespect, the fact that Myrtle had no issue with calling proves that she also knows how powerless Daisy is in this situation. Though she might feel disrespected, she can't do anything about it. She has all this money and “power”, but it is not hers, it belongs to Tom. Since everything she owns belongs to Tom, she can’t do anything about his affairs, so she just stays with him. Daisy finds comfort in the societal standards, she stays and tolerates them because that benefits her. This is not to say that Daisy is completely powerless, she plays into the roles of society for her own benefit, which is slightly empowering. She is completely aware of how society is structured, and uses her “cluelessness and innocence” to her advantage to help her get further in life. Unlike the other women, Daisy is able to be completely careless and selfish, because of her role. In a simple view, Daisy would look like a foolish woman, but in a more abstract view it is clear that she is wiser than it seems. The Great Gatsby, a story of trials and tribulation, filled with dynamic characters depicts

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Her self-absorption in what she says is different than the tone describing Daisy as someone asking “helplessly” about “What do people do?”(Fitzgerald, 10), referring to herself as not a person. This chapter reflects the distance she has from the world around her and how money consumes her by Fitzgerald's tone about her.

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Have you ever read The Great Gatsby, and if you have, have you ever analyzed it? Personally, I have specifically analyzed the female characters in The Great Gatsby, and the author's message to the readers about feminine power. Daisy, Myrtle, and Jordan are the three main characters in The Great Gatsby and they make up the majority of the story. Fitzgerald’s, the author of The Great Gatsby, message to the readers about feminine power is that women are better off without a man. This is his point of view because he believes that a man will drag a woman down, and she won't be able to reach her full potential.

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Daisy Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson remind me a lot of eachother, they both are so in love with men that aren’t theirs. They are strong and could get through life without them, but for some odd reason they think that they need a man. In the end one dies, and one leaves the city that her and her “secret” affair shared. Either way they are sad, and desperate for attention whether it be from their husband or the man they are cheating with. Daisy knows Tom is seeing a woman from New York, she just doesn’t know or doesn’t care to know who.

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Have you ever wondered what the stereotypes of women were in the 1920’s? Well, in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book, The Great Gatsby, there are three different types of stereotypes for women. In this book, a man named Nick Carraway moves near a billionaire who goes by the name Gatsby. Gatsby hosts many parties which include many different types of people, such as gold diggers, golden girls, and the new women. Throughout this book, Nick gets to meet all three types of these girls, and gets to spend time with them.

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With the influence of the dress, her personality had also undergone a change. The intense vitality that had been so remarkable in the garage was converted into impressive sophistication,” stressing Mrs. Wilson’s incongruity with her surroundings. Even in an elaborate dress, Myrtle is tainted with remnants of her lower class origins and her husband’s garage, but undergoes a feigned transformation in personality. The “continual rustle” accredited to her dress, making it seem bothersome and obnoxious, further develops Myrtle’s incompatibility with the life of people of Tom’s social rank. During this occasion, one of the other women discusses her mistake of almost marrying a man that was below her socially.

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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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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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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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Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby efficiently depicts the lives of women residing in the East Coast during the 1920’s and makes a clear point of establishing definitive gender roles. Fitzgerald’s work is not an inherently feminist doctrine and focus more on fiscal responsibilities of white individuals, allowing the modern reader to get a more accurate sense of women's roles in society. The Great Gatsby is especially significant in this essay because Fitzgerald is the only male writer discussed and the novel has a male narrator and main character, therefore providing a unique insight on women’s responsibilities and their role at this point in time. The 1920’s were the beginning of a new revolutionary age for women and The Great Gatsby is an iconic piece that is seen as a reflection on this time

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He refers to her as “this woman” when he describes how she “rushed out at [them];” his attitude towards this person he just ran over was less than of her being a human being and more like she was some stray animal destined to be roadkill. Between these three characters, they are all part of a web that was the vision of women in the 1920s. In a particularly powerful interaction between Daisy, the typical, submissive, beautiful woman; and Jordan, the accomplished, defiant and trouble seeking woman; we see these two personas mingle on an extremely hot summer day. Daisy is whining and crying about how she sees no future in the unbelievable heat, showing her strong tendency for overreaction and her inability to see beyond now. Jordan, however, replies to her, saying to Daisy to not be “morbid” and that “life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall”, showing her progressive

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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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Baker’s physical description completes the physical stereotype of masculine women; Nick describes Jordan as slender, small-breasted, and that she threw her body “backwards at the shoulders like a young cadet” (14). In similar fashion, Jordan has the one female role that challenges Fitzgerald’s conventional image of women. At the outset, her name is ambiguous, as Jordan is recognized as being a typically masculine name. Most importantly, Jordan has independence through her own financial stability. Yet Jordan’s bold and modern style is neglected, and she is regarded inferiorly.

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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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