feminism in the great gatsby essay

What is the role of women in 'The Great Gatsby'?

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M.A., English Literature, California State University - Sacramento
B.A., English, California State University - Sacramento

Key Question

What is the role of women in The Great Gatsby ? Below, we’ll review the role of women in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and introduce three of the novel’s main female characters: Daisy, Jordan, and Myrtle.

Historical Context

The Great Gatsby is filled with characters who appear to be larger-than-life, living the American Dream in the Jazz Age of the 1920s. The 1920s was also a period of increased freedom for women, as young women of this generation distanced themselves from more traditional values. However, in the novel, we don’t hear from the female characters themselves—instead, we primarily learn about the women from how they are described by the two main male characters, Jay Gatsby and Nick Carraway. Read on to learn about the main female characters in The Great Gatsby .

Daisy Buchanan

The female character we usually think of in The Great Gatsby is Daisy. Daisy, Nick’s cousin, lives in affluent East Egg with her husband, Tom, and their young daughter. Daisy is mentioned by Nick here: "Daisy was my second cousin once removed, and I'd known Tom in college. And just after the war I spent two days with them in Chicago." Daisy appears almost removed, as an after-thought, of an importance only as the wife to Tom. Later, we learn that Daisy was previously in a romantic relationship with Jay Gatsby, and that many of Gatsby’s actions have been designed as a strategy to win over Daisy.

In the novel, the male characters find Daisy’s voice to be one of her most remarkable and notable features. According to Nick: "I looked back at my cousin, who began to ask me questions in her low, thrilling voice. It was the kind of voice that the ear follows up and down, as if each speech is an arrangement of notes that will never be played again. Her face was sad and lovely with bright things in it, bright eyes and a bright passionate mouth, but there was an excitement in her voice that men who had cared for her found difficult to forget: a singing compulsion, a whispered 'Listen,' a promise that she had done gay, exciting things just a while since and that there were gay, exciting things hovering in the next hour."

As the novel progresses we learn that Daisy is the reason that Jay Gatsby has built up his opulent, lavish lifestyle. She's the reason, the hope-for-a-future that makes him dare to dream, and even dare to reinvent himself (from the small-town farm boy to the successful Jay Gatsby).

Jordan Baker

Jordan Baker is a close friend of Daisy from childhood. We learn that Jordan is a relatively well-known golfer, as Nick recalls having seen her picture and having heard of her before meeting her: “I knew now why her face was familiar—its pleasing contemptuous expression had looked out at me from many rotogravure pictures of sporting life at Asheville and Hot Springs and Palm Beach. I had heard some story of her too, a critical, unpleasant story, but what it was I had forgotten long ago.”

Jordan and Nick meet at a dinner at the Buchanans’ house. When the two meet, Daisy speaks of setting up a relationship between the two of them, and later they do indeed begin dating.

Myrtle Wilson

Myrtle Wilson is Tom Buchanan’s mistress, who Nick describes as vibrant and charismatic. When Nick first meets her, he describes her as follows: “Her face… contained no facet or gleam of beauty but there was an immediately perceptible vitality about her as if the nerves of her body were continually smouldering.” Myrtle is married to George Wilson, who runs an auto shop in a working-class area outside of New York City.

Narration in The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby is told from the perspective of Nick, whom many scholars have considered to be an unreliable narrator . In other words, Nick’s way of reporting on people and events in the novel may be biased, and an “objective” reporting of what really happened in the novel (or an objective description of the female characters in the novel) could potentially look different from how Nick has described the situation.

Study Guide

For more resources on The Great Gatsby , review our study guide below:

The Great Gatsby Overview
Review: The Great Gatsby
Themes in The Great Gatsby
Famous Quotes from The Great Gatsby
Questions for Study and Discussion
Key Terms and Vocabulary
'The Great Gatsby' Characters: Descriptions and Significance
'The Great Gatsby' Overview
'The Great Gatsby' Plot Summary
The Great Gatsby and the Lost Generation
F. Scott Fitzgerald's Inspiration for 'The Great Gatsby'
Critical Overview of "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald
'The Great Gatsby' Themes
'The Great Gatsby' Quotes Explained
'The Great Gatsby' Study Questions
Why Was "The Great Gatsby" Banned?
The Lost Generation and the Writers Who Described Their World
What Movie Adaptations Were Made of 'The Great Gatsby'?
The Life of Zelda Fitzgerald, the Other Fitzgerald Writer
49 Unforgettable F. Scott Fitzgerald Quotes
Top Conservative Novels
What Is a Foil Character in Literature?

Women’s Role in “The Great Gatsby” by Fitzgerald Essay

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The patriarchal ideology before the 1920s confined women to care for their men and children. Women were always expected to be submissive to their husbands and objectified as sources of pleasure. Fitzgerald’s work, The Great Gatsby, portrays women as people who hold little power, are emotional and fragile, and are only considered valuable when they are used as commodities. Tough the marginalization of women is evident in the novel. It further portrays their ability to take charge and pursue their lives’ desires by leveraging the little power of their beauty. Daisy, Myrtle, and Jordan’s character traits play the role of encouraging women to liberate themselves from patriarchal norms and motivate them to pursue their dreams. However, the tragic end of Myrtle cautions them to be more careful in their pursuit (Fitzgerald 103). Though the women in the novel are depicted as careless, treacherous, and selfish, the author uses them to underscore the power of the will to rebel against societal norms in pursuit of happiness.

Fitzgerald represents Myrtle as a figurative prisoner of social class at the beginning of the novel. Her marriage to George subjected her to abject poverty, misery, and suffering. Though she was depressed about her situation, societal norms of remaining faithful to her husband imprisoned her, and she could not escape. When she finally gets the courage to step out to be a rich man’s mistress, she finds herself in yet another prison. The metaphorical prison she finds herself in is the false hope that Buchanan will divorce his wife in her favor. Buchanan saw Myrtle as an object of pleasure and had no intention of marrying her (Fitzgerald 77). It takes courage and a tough stand against society for people to liberate themselves from such prisons. Myrtle’s decision to cheat on her husband to get a better life shows that people must be ready to bend societal norms to get out of figurative prisons.

Decisions made in life are multidimensional, and whatever decision a person takes, they must face the consequence. Myrtle’s mistake in her pursuit of happiness was believing that Tom Buchanan loved her and expected him to marry her after he divorced Daisy, considering men’s characters in the patriarchal era (Fitzgerald 69). As patriarchy dictated, Tom considered Myrtle an object of pleasure. However, she proved society wrong by choosing a man to marry because he was promising and later ditching him when she felt he was not living up to her expectations. Her willingness to abandon her marriage for posh life is evidence that pursuing happiness can make a person go against societal dictates.

Jordan Baker is a professional golfer whose character and integrity are questionable, and she uses lies and dishonesty to pursue her dream of a wealthy lifestyle. The author uses Jordan to represent ambition and what people can do to achieve them. She rose to be a successful golfer in the middle of a patriarchal regime that did not acknowledge women in professional and leadership positions. She further rebelled against the societal norms of being submissive to men and focused on achieving her dreams. Unlike Myrtle, who viewed men as the source of wealth and success, Jordan does not give a ‘damn’ about men and engages in deceit to achieve what she wants. She openly disregarded the social norms by doing what only men were expected to do, such as smoking and drinking in public, driving cars, and listening to Jazz music (Fitzgerald 46). The American dream is manifested in her pursuit of happiness, equal opportunity for success, and social mobility. Though she used dubious means and went against societal norms to achieve her dream, her persona encouraged women not to be limited by patriarchal norms and to pursue their dreams.

Daisy Buchanan is a beautiful young woman aware of the patriarchal norms limiting women in society. She is upset when she gives birth to a girl because women have no place in society other than becoming beautiful little ‘fool.’ She plays a critical role in teaching women to conform to society and still pursue their dreams. Though Daisy was in love with Gatsby before he went to war, her decision to marry a wealthy man (Buchanan) shows women have the liberty to choose whatever makes them happy. When Gatsby comes back, he is obsessed with winning her love back by getting involved in criminal activities to make money and impress her (Fitzgerald 17). She plays a significant role in teaching women to take advantage of their beauty and men’s desire to improve their lives. Daisy shows that women can reverse the patriarchal norms and control men if they take charge of their beauty. Her principal role in the novel is to show women that despite being despised in society, they can use their beauty to achieve their ambitions of a posh life.

In the 1920s, women were considered objects of pleasure for men and were only confined to domestic roles. The inability of many women to go against societal norms left them imprisoned in social classes and oppressive marriages. Scott Fitzgerald presents three women in the novel who show resilience to pursue their happiness despite being prisoners of different situations. Myrtle, a prisoner of a social class, makes a solemn decision to be a rich man’s mistress to achieve her dream. Daisy uses her beauty to achieve her objectives, while Jordan goes against societal norms and pursues whatever makes her happy regardless of what society thinks of her. Given these points, the role of the women in the novel is to empower others to liberate themselves from the limitations of societal norms.

Fitzgerald, Francis Scott. The Great Gatsby (1925) . na, 1991. pp. 68-103

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IvyPanda. (2023, February 18). Women’s Role in "The Great Gatsby" by Fitzgerald. https://ivypanda.com/essays/womens-role-in-the-great-gatsby-by-fitzgerald/

"Women’s Role in "The Great Gatsby" by Fitzgerald." IvyPanda , 18 Feb. 2023, ivypanda.com/essays/womens-role-in-the-great-gatsby-by-fitzgerald/.

IvyPanda . (2023) 'Women’s Role in "The Great Gatsby" by Fitzgerald'. 18 February.

IvyPanda . 2023. "Women’s Role in "The Great Gatsby" by Fitzgerald." February 18, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/womens-role-in-the-great-gatsby-by-fitzgerald/.

1. IvyPanda . "Women’s Role in "The Great Gatsby" by Fitzgerald." February 18, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/womens-role-in-the-great-gatsby-by-fitzgerald/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Women’s Role in "The Great Gatsby" by Fitzgerald." February 18, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/womens-role-in-the-great-gatsby-by-fitzgerald/.

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The Great Gatsby

Analysis of the great gatsby through the feminist theory anonymous college.

The aim of this paper is to write an analysis of The Great Gatsby by Francis Scott Fitzgerald which was published in 1925. The first part of this essay is written based on a close reading. In the second part the feminist theory is applied to the concept of The Great Gatsby . Scott Fitzgerald was an American writer of The Jazz Age (which he named) or The Roaring Twenties. He belongs to the Lost Generation which is a generation of authors who lived thought the First World War. ‘They were considered to be “lost” due to their tendency to act aimlessly, even recklessly, often focusing on the hedonistic accumulation of personal wealth’ (Longley, 2019). What is typical for the Lost Generation is: ‘decadence, distorted visions of the “American Dream,” and gender confusion’ (Longley).

The main theme of this novel is money and the way how they can change people’s personality and goals in life. Characters have corrupt personalities and bad motivations in their lives. These motivations lead to wrong decisions and actions with which they hurt each other. I have decided to apply the feminist theory because the roles and rights of women in America are changing at this era. This influenced the society and the literature as well. My aim is to...

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Home / Essay Samples / Literature / The Great Gatsby / Role Of Feminism in The Great Gatsby

Role Of Feminism in The Great Gatsby

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Topic: Literature Review , The Great Gatsby

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