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Women In The Great Gatsby

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As the father of modern psychology and psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud once declared, "The great question that has never been answered and which I have not yet been able to answer, despite my 30 years of research into the feminine soul, is: 'What does a woman want?'" F. Scott Fitzgerald expounds on this question in The Great Gatsby with his three leading female characters Daisy, Jordan, and Myrtle. By Fitzgerald juxtaposing these three women magnifies the similarities and differences of their societal roles, exposing that money was one of the roots of evil in the 1920s.
Fitzgerald manipulates his words to propound on each of these significant women’s virtues. Each woman is considered beautiful by the parameters of her own societal class. Daisy …show more content…

Daisy is known as being the wealthy golden girl that has no distress. “Her voice is full of money” (127). Which implies that since she was brought up having material wealth, she speaks with a sense of refinement and perfection. When Daisy calls her daughter, Pammy, into meet her guests, Pammy says she got dressed before luncheon only "...because your mother [Daisy] wanted to show you off”’ (123). Daisy only views her daughter as an object. Clearly, Daisy’s world revolves around only her and allows Pammy in when there is time. Differently, Jordan is part of the high class and unmarried. She is portrayed as being deceitful on two different occasions. Once Jordan neglected to put the top up on the rental car and lied about it. In addition, during her first major golf tournament, there was an issue where it was suggested that she had moved her ball from a bad lie in the semi-final round (62). A clear difference between Jordan and Daisy is Myrtle. Myrtle is from the Valley of Ashes, the sketchy part of town. Desperately wanting to better her situation, she chooses to be with Tom. Myrtle just wanted the title of being wealthy, despite the abuse. By Fitzgerald choosing to contrast each character by enforcing different societal backgrounds, exemplifies the inequality of each

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1677 Words | 7 Pages

Since Daisy had always been rich, she was viewed as more valuable to men. Looking in from the outside, you would think that Daisy’s life was perfect. She seemed to have everything she desired. Wealth did not equate to happiness. Daisy was given financial stability, rather than earning it.

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430 Words | 2 Pages

They may look beautiful on the outside, but they are empty on the inside. They lack morals and compassion and only see themselves. Daisy is one of these hollow characters. She is mainly concerned about her own appearance and materialistic things, but doesn’t care about others. Daisy is not capable of true love.

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871 Words | 4 Pages

In the novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays women in an extremely negative light. The idea Fitzgerald gives off is that women are only good for their looks and their bodies and that they should just be a sex symbol rather than actually use their heads. He treats women like objects and the male characters in the novel use women, abuse women, and throw them aside. I believe that Daisy, Jordan and Myrtle are prime examples of women in The Great Gatsby being treated poorly.

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She is wealthy, has short hair, does not dress like most women, and she plays golf. " 'Jordan's going to play in the tournament tomorrow'" (23). Her characters goal would be to spend more time with Nick. The theme would then be loved. The value of her character adds love to the novel with Nick, but also tells a part of Tom and Daisy's love story.

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1421 Words | 6 Pages

Daisy shows her struggles with the social status of women through her daughter and relationship with Tom. Jordan proves that being a “new” women of the 1920s comes with a price of judgment and accusations of dishonesty. Myrtle seeks to become a member of the

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616 Words | 3 Pages

She suddenly becomes a less virtuous person then she appeared to be. For instance she is fully aware of her husband's infidelities, and still she does nothing about it. This is because he has money and power and she enjoys the benefits she receives from these things, meaning she is willing to deal with the affairs. These different instances provide evidence that Daisy is a stereotypical woman at this

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309 Words | 2 Pages

Daisy knows that in the world she lives in women are seen for their looks and ability to have a good time, rather than their success

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1154 Words | 5 Pages

Jordan’s physical appearance shows her as a “blonde and very athletic, physical, tan, and angular” (Best Character Analysis). In contrast, Daisy is described as a more fragile figure with dark hair and she is married, unlike Jordan. In the book, Daisy is perceived as one of the most socially acceptable woman of the time. During the 1920’s, women were expected to marry, especially wealthy women. Staying home with the children was the main job of women during this time.

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985 Words | 4 Pages

Daisy’s attitude with her daughter, whom she undoubtedly had under careless circumstances, has a sickening stench of disregard for human life. “With a reluctant backward glance the well-disciplined child held to her nurse’s hand and was pulled out the door” (117). Daisy brings out her daughter only to show her off to Gatsby, and once her mission is complete, Pammy is to be sent back to her confinement with the nurse. Such lack of respect for human life is also shown when Daisy is to choose between hitting the car, creating minimal damages to human life, and hitting Myrtle, causing a definite destruction of human life. Daisy is careless in the manner with which she takes a life, and continues her own without regard.

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2439 Words | 10 Pages

He refers to her as “this woman” when he describes how she “rushed out at [them];” his attitude towards this person he just ran over was less than of her being a human being and more like she was some stray animal destined to be roadkill. Between these three characters, they are all part of a web that was the vision of women in the 1920s. In a particularly powerful interaction between Daisy, the typical, submissive, beautiful woman; and Jordan, the accomplished, defiant and trouble seeking woman; we see these two personas mingle on an extremely hot summer day. Daisy is whining and crying about how she sees no future in the unbelievable heat, showing her strong tendency for overreaction and her inability to see beyond now. Jordan, however, replies to her, saying to Daisy to not be “morbid” and that “life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall”, showing her progressive

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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.

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484 Words | 2 Pages

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, characters have very distinct identities that develop throughout the book and many inferences are needed to understand the characters. One example of this is Daisy Buchanan. Daisy Buchanan cares greatly about wealth and is a very careless person. Throughout the novel, many of her decisions are due to her greed and carelessness, even though those decisions may not be the best decisions for her. Daisy displays her greed throughout the novel; she marries Tom Buchanan because of his wealth.

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1399 Words | 6 Pages

Through use of comparison between Daisy Buchanan, Myrtle Wilson, and Jordan Baker, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s message about women and feminine power is that having a man deprives the women of their power, ranking higher in social standards deepens the wound of selfishness, and being deceptive

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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).

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806 Words | 4 Pages

Men would do anything for Daisy at the drop of a hat. Daisy Miller is just a misunderstood girl that was not used to European standards for a woman. She just wanted to be noticed. Daisy was a foreigner and she did not know how to properly act or how to be classy around the people that have always held such high standard in Europe. Although Daisy went about being noticed in perhaps the wrong way, the Europeans, however, were not used to American customs as well.

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