In The Great Gatsby women are seen on both ends of the social spectrum; and yet are reduced to the bottom of the superiority complex by male characters and attacks itself. Men and women don't make each other better; they just make each other worse. Women in The Great Gatsby are mostly there to entice and subvert men. Without women messing things up, life would be a lot better. The novel finds this freedom unacceptable in women, as it is made clear in the unsympathetic portrayal and punishment of all three characters, Daisy, Myrtle, and Jordan.
Daisy Buchanan is distinguished as a spoiled brat and a remorseless killer. Although Myrtle’s death is accidental Daisy doesn’t stop the car and try to help the injured woman, instead she speeds off and let’s Gatsby take the blame. Once she learns that Gatsby wasn’t always rich, she retreats behind the protection of Tom’s wealth and power, abandoning Gatsby to his own fate, thus on top of her other sins, she’s a phony. She also lacks the ability to exceed social standings as she proclaims “That’s the best thing a girl can be in the world” (Fitzgerald 17).
Jordan is shown as a liar and a cheat. She is caught lying about “having left a borrowed
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Daisy is stuck in a loveless marriage with Tom, a seemingly just punishment for her crimes, given that Tom will likely continue to be unfaithful to her. Jordan is punished when Nick abandons her. The worst, however, is reserved for the woman who threatened the patriarchy the most - Myrtle Wilson. She violates patriarchal gender roles unabashedly and aggressively, despite the fact that she is from the lower rungs of society. Her husband all but disappears in her presence, and though she suffers abuse at Tom’s hand for stepping out of bounds, her ultimate punishment is that she is hit by the car and killed. Although her sins are less severe than Daisy or Jordan in the way she hurts other people, she’s punished the most