Essay on How Women Are Portrayed in the Great Gatsby

Bright and booming streets would make it seem as if the world was at its peak, people thriving; yet the dark truth of it all is women had little; the only thing that made them worth something was their husbands worth. This gave them reasons to rebel, which is why flappers came about; a symbol of the liberation they craved. Either way, the stereotypes of women never end, either you are promiscuous or you behave. In The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, you can surely see a difference in how women are displayed. Being portrayed as selfish, untrustworthy, and ignorant. It is easy for Fitzgerald to write and view women in this simplistic way because of how he grew up seeing women treated during the period he was in. Women were expected to take care of the children, provide support for their husbands and stay at home and keep up with the house. While it does not excuse the way he writes about women in this misogynistic way, it is easy to understand his reason for doing it, being that it is what he knows. Female characters like Myrtle, written to be wild, sultry and avaricious, and then there is Daisy is a submissive and obedient housewife, allowing her husband to do as he pleases, two completely opposite ends of the spectrum, yet both display a stereotypical view of women that we even have today. Even many of the male characters, being overly dominant throughout the story, feed into the roles these women play. Men are written to be all, end-all, violent, and aggressive, almost leading them to have these behaviors, like they control and rule the women of this story.

Before understanding how the women are written in this book, it is important to see how the men play into the sexist writing, like Tom Buchanan, for example. Tom is very arrogant, aggressive, and most obviously, a womanizer. Despite his views on women acting out and how he interacts with them, he very hypocritically says, “I may be old-fashioned in my ideas, but women run around too much these days to suit me. They meet all kinds of crazy fish.” (Fitzgerald 80). His aggressiveness is very apparent, being loud and obnoxious about his racist and sexist views, antagonizing Gatsby, and even going as far as hitting Myrtle. “Making a short deft movement, Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand.” (Fitzgerald 30). The fact that no one took action against Tom says a lot about men in general and how Tom sees himself as superior and able to take such action. Gatsby is not very innocent himself, viewing Daisy as a status symbol. While some parts of Gatsby love Daisy, he also is infatuated with her image and value as an upper-class woman

Daisy Buchanan is being that upper-class woman, she is glamorous and wealthy, as Gatsby says, “Her voice is full of money” (Fitzgerald 92). Despite Daisy having these gorgeous traits about herself, she is also portrayed as very foolish, dependent, sensitive, and also easily manipulated. The era they lived in, being the 1920’s, was very patriarchal, not allowing women to work, letting their husbands make decisions, and keeping quiet, and Daisy did just that. She knew her role as a woman and as Tom’s wife, unfortunately. It is obvious Fitzgerald writes Daisy with the intention of her having to pick a man, which neither of them are very pleasant. When, alternatively, Daisy could have chosen herself, cutting out the aggression and obsession that was brought into her life. While Daisy talks to Nick about her daughter, she says, “I’m glad it’s a girl, and I hope she’ll be a fool. That’s the best thing a girl in this world can be. A beautiful little fool,” (Fitzgerald 16). Daisy wishes she was blind to Tom’s foul ways.

Myrtle Wilson, a rather promiscuous and flat character, those two traits alone say a lot about what Fitzgerald thought of while writing her character. She craves money and is willing to do whatever, for it, even cheat on her husband. Myrtle states. “I married him because I thought he was a gentleman, I thought he knew something about breeding, but he wasn’t fit to lick my shoe.” (Fitzgerald 29). Implying the only reason she married George was because she thought he would make her money. She is willing to get drunk and sell herself out just to feel as if she has that high social status from being with Tom, and each time it is a short-lived illusion. While trying to get away from her husband to get to who she thought was Tom, she said, “Throw me down and beat me, you dirty little coward!” (Fitzgerald 105). Showing how desperate she is for this false love and money.

In conclusion The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald displays sexism in multiple different ways, both girls being mistreated due to patriarchy. Society shoves them down, making them feel the need to be worth something great, to where they end up going to great lengths trying their hardest to achieve an ideal persona for a man and themselves. Daisy believes she has to be dumb enough in order to be blind to the chaos that her husband brings, and Myrtle strives so hard for something greater than herself that she will never obtain. Fitzgerald makes them both seem like they are the problem when In Daisy's case, she was made to seem pure in the beginning, as if she was later corrupted by the drama from the men in her life, “Daisy and Jordan lay upon an enormous couch, like silver idols weighing down their own white dresses against the singing breeze of the fans” (Fitzgerald 89). As for Myrtle, she was solely written to be a promiscuous homewrecker, as if there were a set few categories women could be in for entertainment purposes. Both women, oppressed and unfulfilled with their roles as the missus and mistress.