ipl-logo

The Women In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

1650 Words7 Pages

Surviving A Mans World Envisioning a world where a lover is the only means of escape from an abusive and untruthful marriage, this was the reality for many women of the 1920’s; and the even darker reality for the women of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. There were only a handful of women in the 1920’s who were able to maintain a comfortable life without a man, leaving many women heavily dependent on their status and men to provide for them because they did not have equal opportunities. This is bitterly true for Daisy Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson. The women are both trapped in cruel marriages to men they don’t love because they have no other choice, or they risk a life of hardship. This forced proximity encourages the women to cheat …show more content…

Myrtle, Tom’s mistress, calls him at dinner time while Daisy, Nick, and Jordan are all sitting at the table. Daisy is brutally embarrassed, she is forced to lift her happy facade of a perfect life and confront the darkness of her marriage while her closest friends and family watch; even though everybody knows he is cheating on her. Jordan points out “‘She might have the decency not to telephone him at dinner time. Don’t you think?’” (Fitzgerald 15). Even though everyone is horribly aware of Daisy’s situation, she must stay with Tom to protect their reputation. If Tom and Daisy’s reputation were ruined, it would be extremely difficult to uphold their lavish lifestyle. Daisy must do her job to uphold her reputation so that her family does not suffer, she cannot leave him without the threat of losing everything she has ever known. When Tom drags Nick with him to spend the day with Myrtle, it’s clear that Nick is uncomfortable with them together. Eventually, they end up in Myrtle’s apartment where they get wildly drunk with her sister and a few others. Myrtle’s sister tells Nick “‘Neither of them can stand the person they’re married to.’” (Fitzgerald, 28). Myrtle and Tom are both cheaters …show more content…

Myrtle wants to escape her life of poverty and cosplay with a rich woman in Manhattan so she can feel good about herself and her life. However, Tom cheats on Daisy because she is a mere status object to him, and he does not truly love her. By being with Daisy, he can improve his reputation and become more powerful by using her family to make possible connections to aid him in his professional career as well as his social life. Although Daisy and Myrtle are both aware of their place in society as women, they go about it in different ways. Myrtle knows she is poor, low class, and has no real power or influence in high society; but that doesn’t stop her from dreaming about a life like Daisy’s where she can spend money frivolously in her own apartment and live a hedonistic life without worrying about money. As she explains the story of how she and Tom met, she ends with “‘You can’t live forever, you can’t live forever.’” (Fitzgerald 30). Myrtle is perfectly aware that this relationship with Tom has no substance, but it allows her to indulge in her fantasies where she can be whatever she wants to be. She knows her life is short, and as a woman her chances are limited so she uses Tom to live her life to the fullest extent, even

Show More
Related
516 Words | 3 Pages

Nick, Tom, and Myrtle all went to New York to an apartment to get dressed because they were going to throw a little get together. Catherine, Myrtle’s sister, tells Nick that the reason the both of them haven’t gotten married to each other is because Daisy is “keeping them apart. She’s a catholic, they don’t believe in divorce” (Fitzgerald 33). Once Myrtle’s husband Wilson finds out Locke 2 about the affair he beats her heavily. People from across the street hear her yell “Beat me!

Read More
1472 Words | 6 Pages

Tom takes Nick to his apartment in the city shortly after they pick up Myrtle. Fitzgerald develops Myrtle to be controlling when Tom tells Nick that “‘Myrtle’ll be hurt if [he doesn’t] come up to the apartment'’”, even when Nick openly exclaims that he is not interested in coming along (28).

Read More
1498 Words | 6 Pages

But in reality, Tom doesn't want to be in a long distance relationship with Myrtle, Instead, he’s treating her like a possession in the palm of his hand. With Myrtle’s tires burned out, It’s time to focus on the last

Read More
472 Words | 2 Pages

Tom fail to maintain his image of a successful man with a perfect family who came from wealth when he has an affair with Myrtle, who is George’s wife as Myrtle’s dream to be as same level as the upper level people is achieved when she with Tom. In order to make her fantasy alive, she having an affair with Tom who is rich and famous. Tom is used by Myrtle as a means of pursuing her dream. Myrtle says, “The only crazy I was when I married him. I knew right away I made a mistake.

Read More
1075 Words | 5 Pages

This ultimately shows that she is not satisfied with what the men in her life have to offer. She found love with Wilson, but it wasn’t enough. Then, she used Tom for money, but she eventually wanted more from him. Myrtle's sister, Catherine, goes on to explain how neither Tom nor Myrtle can stand the person they're married to. Catherine says, “If I was

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
792 Words | 4 Pages

While talking about her relationship with her husband, Myrtle says, “The only crazy I was when I married [Wilson]” (Fitzgerald 35). Though Myrtle is talking about her husband, Wilson, her comment also reveals an important dynamic of the relationship between Tom and Myrtle. Myrtle reveals that she regrets marrying her husband because he had little money. This regret shows itself through the relationship between Tom and Myrtle. Tom, a wealthier man, holds a greater status and power than Wilson, a poorer man.

Read More
536 Words | 3 Pages

She is not who we thought she was, as she is careless about others, except herself. Moreover, we soon realize that the social classes are worlds apart. Myrtle, the mistress of one of the main characters, is a victim of how much social standing can affect a person. “Myrtle is a victim of the selfish exploitation of the upper classes, but she is not a sympathetic character, being herself hard and heedless of others' feelings. ”(“Myrtle - Characters - Higher English Revision - BBC Bitesize”)

Read More
838 Words | 4 Pages

To satisfy his own desires, Tom holds an affair with the woman in exchange for Myrtle’s unabashed use of his wealth and resources. “Tom is the first sweetie she’s ever had” (39) primarily because he can provide financially; any whim of Myrtle’s is readily bankrolled by the Buchanan pocketbook. Myrtle falls in love with Tom’s money and the power behind it, wishing to marry him to secure her social status and newfound “impressive hauteur” (35). However, Tom sees her only as a brief object of pleasure, and does not reciprocate the desire to wed, going so far as to lie that his wife Daisy “is a Catholic and they don’t believe in divorce”

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
2397 Words | 10 Pages

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel, The Great Gatsby, is full of themes of wealth, love, and tragedy, as well as a subtle but powerful representation of gender. 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 both man and society’s 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, which is shown through their behavior, beliefs, and ultimate fates and their personalities display both powerful and potentially harmful stereotypes of women at this time.

Read More
1553 Words | 7 Pages

In the novel, “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Daisy who is the wife of Tom and the cousin of Nick expresses her negativity towards her life and the society that other women just like her live in. In articles, The Grotesque Rose: Medieval Romance and The Great Gatsby by Jerome Mandel, The Resisting Reader: a Feminist Approach to American Fiction by Judith Fetterley, Beneath the Mask: the Plight of Daisy Buchanan by Sarah Beebe Fryer, each author explains how Daisy is unhappy in the society she is living in. Daisy is very unhappy in her marriage for many reasons and these reasons impact the lives of people who she loves very much. During the 1920s, Daisy who was a very wealthy woman was treated unfairly, she was expected to act like a object, she had certain gender roles to live by, and also it was not common for her to show emotion about her marriage problems. Daisy has always been a wealthy woman from a very rich southern family, she has always shown power throughout her life even though she feels as a woman so powerless.

Read More
1010 Words | 5 Pages

Tom’s desire for Myrtle has compromised any moral values he may have had, but also serves to show that he and Myrtle were truly made for each other. While Tom is using Myrtle to stifle his desire, Myrtle is using Tom to achieve her desire of entering into the upper class, even if that means sacrificing her morals by cheating on her

Read More
1399 Words | 6 Pages

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.

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

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

Open Document