ipl-logo

The Women In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

978 Words4 Pages

The Women of Gatsby Fame, fortune, and future- the promise of a post-war fantasy, for men at least. In America, the 1920's was the dawn of an era where women received voting rights, yet women were still socially and fiscally suppressed. The man always had the final say and ultimate approval from society. Women were often forced into relationships based upon money and status, rather than love. Because it is set in the 1920’s, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, provides a look into the struggles women faced due to their social and financial status. The feminist lens draws attention to how women are perceived based upon their financial status as seen through the characters of Daisy, Myrtle, and Jordan. Daisy exemplifies the upper …show more content…

Her financial success relied on her family and her husband Tom, who she married for stability so she could maintain her lavish lifestyle. At the small soiree held at the Buchanan, Tom stated, “'Her voice is full of money'” (Fitzgerald 92). Tom married Daisy due to her status and prior generational wealth, due to societal standards during this era Daisy was to marry up or at her level, nothing below. That is also the reason why Daisy stayed with Tom in the end and did not choose Gatsby. She knew Tom's money was everlasting, while she might have had a deep love for Gatsby, his money was new and unreliable. She was born into a well-off family which made life easier yet still impossible, which made her more appealing to a man like Tom. She was a pretty and pure little thing that he could add to his collection, and Daisy knew she did not …show more content…

When her daughter was brought into the picture she wished that, "she’ll be a fool — that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool" (Fitzgerald 16). The mentality instilled by society for women to be "beautiful little fools" is damaging and sadly Daisy felt the need to conform to it. Daisy lived in a microcosm of wealth in the East Egg. Daisy boisterously claims, "I’ve been everywhere and seen everything and done everything”. “Sophisticated — God, I’m sophisticated!” (Fitzgerald 16). Her last line of sophistication is her showing herself to her husband. Her reassurance of her wealth states her underlying insecurities about money and where it comes from. When Daisy was forced to decide between Tom and Gatsby, she knew that Gatsby's money was dirty from bootlegging and ultimately stayed with Tom. To maintain her pure idyllic she has built for herself through marriage and old money, she stayed with Tom. The harsh reality of Daisy's life was that due to women's place in society in the 20s she could not be ungrateful or else her entire life could be pulled out from under her. In the end, she got out unscathed for her killing of Myrtle due to the men in her life shielding her from the harsh reality of issues like death because she was this angelic womanly figure. Women today must face accountability for their actions that Daisy is out of simply due to the time period and her

Show More
Related
1357 Words | 6 Pages

Daisy was torn between love and wealth when she had to choose between waiting for Gatsby or marrying Tom. After receiving a letter from Gatsby, “She wouldn’t let go of the letter. She took it into the tub with her and squeezed it up into a wet ball, and only let me leave it in the soap-dish when she saw that it was coming to pieces like snow [...] Next day at five o’clock she married Tom Buchanan without so much as a shiver, and started off on a three months’ trip to the South Seas” (Fitzgerald 81). Daisy was emotionally torn between her decision, but ultimately she decided to go with the man who will provide for her the most.

Read More
947 Words | 4 Pages

They were talking about her voice and Gatsby commented that “her voice is full of money” (pg 127). All Daisy wants is money, she married Tom because he could support her but she has and always will love

Read More
1070 Words | 5 Pages

Daisy “wanted her life shaped now, immediately-and the decision must be made by some force-of love, of money, or unquestionable practicality-that was close at hand” (151). Tom provides security when it came to money and he fit the status quo. Daisy is more concerned about her social status than love. She would rather be  high end and classy instead of waiting for someone she loves. Eventually Daisy and Gatsby reunite, but this relationship does not last.

Read More
1488 Words | 6 Pages

Daisy’s statement that a girl can only be a beautiful fool shows what kind of take Daisy had on society and life in general. Daisy wasn’t raised and or surrounded by the people that would think or act outside the box, she's more of an it is

Read More
1215 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More
493 Words | 2 Pages

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, he portrays the characters Daisy Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson as shallow and materialistic, revealing that women, at the time, only cared about money. With how he wrote women in The Great Gatsby, people can only assume that he was a huge sexist. He makes women seem like they are money hungry objects that would do anything to get what they want. When you start to read about Daisy Buchanan, she seems like a good person that had the love of her life go off to war. While he's in the war, she gets tired of waiting so she marries some rich guy that her parents approve of, not knowing that if she just waited a little longer, he would've come back to her.

Read More
658 Words | 3 Pages

Daisy is stuck in a loveless marriage with Tom, a seemingly just punishment for her crimes, given that Tom will likely continue to be unfaithful to her. Jordan is punished when Nick abandons her. The worst, however, is reserved for the woman who threatened the patriarchy the most - Myrtle Wilson. She violates patriarchal gender roles unabashedly and aggressively, despite the fact that she is from the lower rungs of society. Her husband all but disappears in her presence, and though she suffers abuse at Tom’s hand for stepping out of bounds, her ultimate punishment is that she is hit by the car and killed.

Read More
710 Words | 3 Pages

Daisy Buchanan is a quiet, classy woman, who has a very wealthy husband, Tom Buchanan. Daisy spent a very long time dating Gatsby, but wed another. Daisy did not love Tom when she was going to get married, “Tell ‘em all Daisy’s change’ her mine…” (Fitzgerald 81). However being peer pressured by her family, she went through

Read More
866 Words | 4 Pages

”(Fitzgerald, 62-63). Through many problems, Daisy decided to marry Tom and remained engaged for years because they "couldn't" divorce because of their faith. Those years bring many memories between them and Pammy for the future. The last reason why she stayed with Tom was because she wanted to get money, even though she truly loved Gatsby. Tom came from a wealthy family and inherited a large fortune, which allowed him to provide Daisy with the luxurious lifestyle she was used to.

Read More
984 Words | 4 Pages

“A woman of 1920 would be surprised to know that she would be remembered as a new woman” (Benner). Indeed, the majority of women were working as housewives, and many significant changes would take place in their appearance and attitude later in the 1920s. However, women were not given the same opportunity and equality as men. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, sets during the conflicts of the Roaring Twenties, describes a complex society with different gender roles. The Great Gatsby illustrates the decline of the American Dream by revealing the conflict between women’s subservient roles and their progressive resistance to social expectations in 1920s America.

Read More
2439 Words | 10 Pages

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel, The Great Gatsby, is full of themes of wealth, love, and tragedy. Also 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 the 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, seen in their behavior, beliefs, and their ultimate fate.

Read More
1171 Words | 5 Pages

It seems that once before, daisy was a genuine person who didn’t care about money, that is until Tom stepped into her life. Before Daisy met Tom, she was in love with Gatsby, but sadly he had to go to war. Daisy was actually in love with Gatsby for who he was. After Gatsby left, that’s when Daisy met Tom and eventually married him. Tom had all the money in the world and that is what pressured her into marrying Tom.

Read More
191 Words | 1 Pages

Students often have to sparknote to fathom the difficult text assigned in their English classes; however, George Orwell’s novel 1984 protrudes fairly simple to understand. Orwell purposely utilizes his writing skills towards more simple and important diction– rather than complicated and unnecessary speech. He believes against the eloquent, masked writing and goes for a more modern, common speech. Orwell even wrote in his essay on the English language to never put a long word where a short one could fit and to never use a foreign text to intimidate the reader. For instance, Shakespeare’s play Hamlet contains sentences such as “'Tis bitter cold, And I am sick at heart.”

Read More
430 Words | 2 Pages

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).

Read More
1471 Words | 6 Pages

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, the main idea, the American Dream is demonstrated through the presence of material items and the objectification of women. First, society is portrayed in a flashy way, hinting that guests at Gatsby’s parties only cared about his wealth. Each guest embodied the idea that this is what they wanted to achieve. By coming to these parties, they were able to live their American Dream through Gatsby without even really knowing him. Women are prevalent in this novel as their connection to men controlled their destiny.

Read More

More about The Women In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

Open Document