The Great Gatsby Research Paper

The empowerment of the women in The Great Gatsby.

What can make a woman empowered? For women to be empowered, they speak for themselves, behave as their own person and are less reliant on the men in their lives. Women in the 1920s were a lot less empowered than today's standard, many women were confined to their stereotypical gender roles. When examining the roles the female characters play in The Great Gatsby, it’s shown that the empowerment portrayed by some of the women is very much related to their financial status and social class. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald the women are only empowered as long as their wealth is not being threatened and their status allows it as seen through Daisy's relationships, Myrtle's change in self,

In The Great Gatsby, a character whose empowerment is explored, and clearly has direct correlation to her wealth and status, is Daisy Buchanan. We are able to see this when examining Daisy's relationship with Tom Buchanan and Gatsby. Earlier in the novel Daisy is clearly somewhat captive in her marriage, with a cheating spouse, unable to do anything or let it bother her. She plays into her traditional role of not only a woman but an old money woman. She is somewhat regretting her decision to marry Tom because he was old money. We never saw her speak for herself before meeting Gatsby, she seems to believe that all she can do is please the men around her. Daisy even accounts how after her daughter was born and she found out the gender she said “I'm glad it’s a girl”. And hope she’s a fool- that’s the best thing a girl can be, a beautiful little fool” (p.18). Daisy saying this seems as though she is hoping that since her daughter will grow up to be an old money woman and will face most likely the same struggles, she hopes she is a beautiful fool, able to live a good life with her looks and not have to

In The Great Gatsby we see Myrtle Wilson, a woman from the low income town also referred to as the “valley of ashes” who is having an affair with Tom, a very wealthy old money man from the East Egg. Myrtle lives a very mundane life in the valley of ashes, but when she has the chance to go out to the city with Tom, she is able to experience the freedom that can come with wealth. When Tom and Nick go to the city with Myrtle, we quickly see Myrtle's demeanor change as she begins to ask Tom for things, like a puppy being sold on the street even saying at one point “My dear, i’m going to give you this dress as soon as i’m through with it. I’ve got to get another one tomorrow. I’m going to make a list of all the things I’m going to get” before listing the things she wants Tom to buy. They go shopping, drinking, and Myrtle speaks for herself and says what she wants. This change in wealth affects her greatly, causing her to talk down on people in the same social class as her. Although the wealth she's enjoying from spending time with Tom seemingly makes her more empowered, she really is not. Myrtle does discuss the struggles in her marriage from the beginning, but at the end it all leads back to her need for luxury and in exchange for this luxury she actually sacrifices any empowerment she could have from her life,