What Is Daisy's Role In The Great Gatsby

In "The Great Gatsby" characters like Daisy and Myrtle portray the restrictive gender roles throughout the 1920's. Revealing that these characters are limited to live to their full potential, Fitzgerald ultimately supports the restraints of the patriarchy. He presents Daisy as a “good girl” and Myrtle as a “bad girl”, eventually leading them to the same future of relying on a male figure. Daisy conforms to the restrictive gender roles of the 1920’s, while also challenging the limits of these roles. Female roles are defined as obedient, fragile, and oblivious. When she replies to Nick with ““That's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.” (17 Fitzgerald ) she reveals that she understands the social norms. Daisy may

When Myrtle says “Daisy”! Daisy. Daisy!.. I'll say it whenever I want to! Daisy!” (37 Fitzgerald) “It demonstrates that she is disobedient towards the male supremacy. Disobedience was classified as a “bad girl” throughout the 1920’s because of their restrictive gender roles. The expectation of a female and male relationship is that the male is to be in charge of the female, and Myrtle is not compliant with Tom. Her not obeying Tom is seen as an act of rebellion, which is one of the qualities of a “bad girl.” In addition, she is also characterized as a bad girl because of her affair with Tom, because “patriarchal men sleep with and then discard “bad girls””. While Myrtle is having an affair with Tom, she still stays with her husband, but when she ran out to Gatsby's car thinking it was Tom, it was a step back into the traditional patriarchal society of women needing men. The societal view that “Traditional gender roles define women as naturally emotional, weak, nurturing, and submissive.” (Lois Tyson 142) exemplifies how Daisy and Myrtle are similar in their representation of damsels in distress throughout the