What Are The Roles Of Women In The Great Gatsby

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“She’ll be a fool – that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool” (Fitzgerald 17). In the novel, The Great Gatsby, this is what Daisy hopes for her daughter. Unfortunately, being a woman with a voice and a sense of freedom is reprimanded more than a beautiful little fool. Instead of blaming the female characters for their emptiness or recklessness, there is more to be said about why they act this way and how this is viewed in the perspective of men in the novel. The actions of Daisy, Jordon and Myrtle are not necessarily spiteful until it hurts or belittles the male characters. Daisy Buchanan, the upper class socialite and love interest of Gatsby, is honored for the way she appears and carries herself, but once she makes her own choices, she becomes deceitful and untrustworthy in the eyes of men. …show more content…

Men find themselves drawn to Daisy and her alluring tone when she speaks. While the image of money is so captivating, money causes problems of envy and greed in this materialistic society they live in. Upholding Daisy as a golden girl, an ideal that is unrealistic, portrays Daisy as only an object of Gatsby’s affection. After Daisy chooses not to reject Tom’s love for Gatsby’s, Gatsby frustration is expressed to Nick as he says, "You must remember, old sport, she was very excited this afternoon. He told her those things in a way that frightened her – that made it look as if I was some kind of cheap sharper. And the result was she hardly knew what she was