Stereotypical Women In The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby takes place in the “roaring twenties” aka. the Jazz age. The 1920s was a period of increased freedom for women, as young women/flappers started to move away from traditional values. This decade was arguably the most important for Women as they were gaining more and more rights in society. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald focuses on three very different but stereotypical women, Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker, and Myrtle Wilson, who all have one focus, obtaining their version of the American Dream. These women wield significant influence and power on not just the other characters, but on the whole novel itself.
Before the 1920s, women were expected to be the housewives for the family. They were expected to raise the children, keep

Jordan dresses in the flapper-style and does not depend on any man whatsoever. Jordan is a very close friend of Daisys from childhood and is a well-known golfer. Unlike Daisy, who lives a conventional life of marriage and doesn’t even drink alcohol, Jordan represents a sort of “new women” in the 1920s. After meeting her for the first time, Nick says, “I knew now why her face was familiar—its pleasing contemptuous expression had looked out at me from many rotogravure pictures of the sporting life at Asheville and Hot Springs and Palm Beach” (Fitzgerald 18). Nick sees Jordan again at one of Gatsby’s extravagant parties. The two begin to have a somewhat romantic relationship and start to build up their friendship. However, these feelings Nick had for Jordan eventually vanished when he saw how easily she could move on from Myrtle’s tragic death and how she was acting similarly to Tom and Daisy’s behavior. During a phone call, Jordan is upset with how Nick treated her the night of Mrs. Wilson’s death and he asks, “How could it have mattered then” (Fitzgerald 155). As seen throughout the novel, Jordan constantly lies to protect herself from the cruelty of the world. “Jordan Baker instinctively avoided clever, shrewd men, and now I saw that this was because she felt safer on a plane where any divergence from a code would be thought impossible. She was incurably dishonest” (Fitzgerald

Myrtle Wilson is the wife of George Wilson, a poor garage owner, and the mistress of Tom Buchanan. The Wilsons live in the Valley of Ashes, which is between Manhattan and West Egg, and can be described as depressing and very run-down. Throughout the book, Myrtle constantly wants to get out of her poor situation. This is her American Dream; to move out of her poor home and to live in a wealthy area with a man like Tom. Myrtle regrets marrying George, and tells her friend Catherine that it was a huge mistake, “The only crazy I was when I married him. He borrowed somebody's best suit to get married in, and never told me about it, and the man came after it one day when he was out.” (Fitzgerald 35). What Myrtle values most is money and she quickly realized George could not provide this for her. Myrtle expected George to have the same passion of moving up in society as her. While all three women can be seen as victims throughout the novel, Myrtle most certainly has the worst ending. Myrtle dies because of her American Dream and her desire for Tom to accept her into his rich life. Myrtle Wilson is the lower class woman of the 1920s pushing to be