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Women In The Great Gatsby

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F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby describes the American Dream through the unique perspectives of the characters. The story closely depicts life in the roaring twenties and follows the protagonist Nick Carraway through his various experiences with the title character, Jay Gatsby, in his attempts to win over Daisy Buchanan, the love of his life. However, Daisy chooses to marry her husband, Tom Buchanan, over Gatsby for his extreme wealth. Tom is hypocritical, arrogant and controlling, constantly forcing his own patriarchal ideals onto other people. He values loyalty in women yet has been caught having various affairs. One of his mistresses, Myrtle Wilson, cheats on her husband with Tom for his money because of her dissatisfaction …show more content…

Although Daisy is seen being able to act independently and making her own decisions, she is unable to do so whenever she is faced with a choice that would leave a lasting impact on her life. The two decide to confront Tom about their relationship after weeks of planning. However, when the time comes, “she hesitated,” and when Gatsby started to pressure her into confessing, Daisy realized that “she had never, all along, intended to '' leave Tom for Gatsby (Fitzgerald 132). After weeks of preparation, Daisy ultimately fails to make the choice to change her life and chooses Tom over Gatsby. In this instance, Daisy has complete control over her future through her choice between Tom and Gatsby. However, with her agency, she instead decides to appeal to both of them out of fear of losing the happiness that being with Gatsby brings, and the wealth and status that Tom provides her with. She is especially conflicted because in a male dominated society, it is harder for a woman to achieve the same amount of success as a man. Including her unemployment, Daisy is unable to support her wealthy lifestyle by herself. In the end, Daisy is unable to take action and make a definite choice between the two. By the end of the novel, instead of going to Gatsby’s funeral and taking responsibility for killing Myrtle, Daisy “retreated back into [her] money,” avoiding the situation entirely, “and let other people clean up the mess [she]had made.” (Fitzgerald 179). To avoid the responsibility of owning up to her actions and resolving her conflicts with Gatsby, Daisy moves out with Tom despite her unhappy marriage with him. Despite all of her experiences, Daisy continues to stay with Tom and her life reverts to how it was in the beginning. Daisy’s need for luxury and material comforts over anything else prevents her from ever

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The underlying question is; Why did Daisy choose Tom over Gatsby? Even though Gatsby had everything; a large mansion and new money, Daisy still chose the egotistical Tom over him as he represents old money and has a high social and economic status. One can infer that Daisy finds Gatsby too demanding as he forcefully insists that she makes an announcement that she never loved Tom. As a result, she decides to stay with Tom to maintain her status quo. I feel that this was a very selfish move, as she did not take Gatsby’s feelings into consideration.

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Her lies were brought together, and she could not give up her two supplies of the high life, and love. While Daisy is very human and feels sadness and joy within this story, it becomes evident at the end that she is incredibly manipulative. Readers follow her love life between Tom as well as Gatsby through this story. It adds an air of anxiety and suspense because no one knows who she will choose, or of she will even choose at all. The heartbreak and selfishness that her lies add to this

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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.

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Daisy cuts Gatsby off and marries Tom. Tom and Daisy's… enthusiasm to maintain their glamorous, entitled lives makes the people in their lives expendable. Though Daisy seems to have loved Gatsby in her own way, “[...] her mother had found her packing her bag one winter; and say goodbye to a soldier...” (76) she still gives him the boot. When he enters her life once again, she again sacrifices him to secure her own comfort.

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In F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, "The Great Gatsby," Daisy Buchanan is one of the primary characters, and throughout the story, she remains a static character. Despite experiencing various events and encounters throughout the book, Daisy's personality, beliefs, and behavior remain unchanged, which ultimately contributes to the book's themes and tragic ending. Daisy's lack of development is evident from the beginning of the book. Her introduction is through Nick Carraway's narration, who describes her as "...a beautiful little fool," suggesting that she is not a complex or intellectually curious person. Her primary motivation seems to be her own pleasure and convenience, as seen in her decision to marry Tom Buchanan, a wealthy and socially prominent man, despite her love for Gatsby.

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In the novel Gatsby and Daisy love each other deeply, but her marriage with an extremely wealthy man gets in the way. At first Daisy makes the strong decision to follow her heart and love Gatsby, despite her marriage. Eventually, Daisy faces a choice of strength, where she follows her heart even though it may lead to difficulty, or the easy road, where she will go back to her passionless marriage for the money. She decides to take the easy way and goes back to Tom displaying how her strength only lasted her so long until she actually had to make a final

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Fitzgerald in the novel, uses careless individuals who would destroy everything and everyone and yet still manage to retreat back to their money. Daisy Buchanan, the ‘golden girl’ is rather dishonest and deceitful throughout the novel. As she starts having her affair with Gatsby, she creates unrealistic expectations in Gatsby head about their future together. As Gatsby is having drinks at the Buchanan’s, Tom leaves the room and Daisy kisses Gatsby and declares, ‘I don’t care!’ At this point, the audience realizes that Daisy is and always was in love with Gatsby and that she was prepared to leave Tom.

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In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, he depicts the downfall of Jay Gatsby’s dream to be with who he sees as flawless–Daisy Buchanan. Through Nick Carroway’s perspective, Daisy is the center of increasing tensions and conflict between characters in the novel. While some literary critics might argue that Tom Buchanan is the worst character in comparison to the idealism of Daisy, the reality is Daisy is the worst character because of her detrimental actions to relationships and because of her desire for wealth and status. Daisy destroys her relationship with Gatsby, Tom, and even her cousin Nick. After remeeting Gatsby, Daisy begins to go “over quite often–in the afternoons” to Gatsby’s home (114).

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After all the arguing, at the end she turns to Tom so the whole situation can be over. She fails Gatsby and doesn 't do the one thing she had to do to make Gatsby happy. All she had to do was tell Tom she didn 't love him and everything would go as planned. She is so dumb, Tom cheats on her all the time but she had the decency to stay with him and still tell Gatsby to his face that she loves Tom too. Tom is a pig and the things he does are disgusting, but Daisy had a chance of retaliation and she didn 't take it.

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She chooses the extravagant lifestyle that Tom is capable of providing instead of patiently waiting for her true love. The self-centered desires she displays demonstrates the lack of authetic love she promised Gatsby. Instead, she marries Tom “without so much as a shiver”, demonstrating her hedonistic mindset (76). Since Tom treats Daisy with minimal care, she thoughtlessly dives into an adulterous affair with Jay Gatsby. With no severe intentions towards marriage, she always “ought to have something in her life” to fulfill her heart (79).

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Tom demonstrated dissatisfaction through his affair with Myrtle Wilson, wife of George Wison. Tom was obviously not satisfied to have just Daisy, and so sought out a mistress to satisfy his desires. Myrtle was not his only mistress. Tom confessed, “ Once in a while I go off on a spreee and make a fool of myself, but I always come back, and in my heart I love her all the time,” (Fitzergald 131). Clearly, Tom was dissatisfied with just having Daisy, and wanted to have more women than just

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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.

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In the present time, Daisy is moved on and married, with a child in a beautiful grand home. Her relationship with Tom can be speculated to be based on her wanting to gain his finances or that he can support her like no one else can. Daisy portrays an idealistic vision of herself, and , throughout the story, shows a selfish and narcissistic persona at times. Daisy and Gatsby

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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.

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5. Summary of your Key Leadership Strengths and Areas for Development My main leadership strengths reside in using a combination of several leadership styles. I use directive style when working on tight deadlines maintaining firm assertiveness, however, I deploy affiliative style in creating professional relationships that are necessary to work in teams.

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