Women In The Great Gatsby

How and why is a social group represented in a particular way? Since its earliest days, literature has been employed a means to represent and portray various social groups in various ways. Subsequent to the 21st century, women were generally the victim of such manipulation, represented and marginalized in literature to fit the societal standards bestowed upon them. Works such as The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald convey the women and their role in society through characters and miscellaneous literary features, often with the intent of disparaging the social group. By investigating the portrayal of women and their role in the novel The Great Gatsby and understanding as to why this group would have been marginalized can be arrived. Using …show more content…
Daisy is portrayed as the embodiment of society’s stereotypes about women, as she is beautiful yet shallow and confused. In the beginning of the novel daisy is quoted saying, “I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool, that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.” In this quote daisy is referring to the birth of her daughter and puts forth a commonly accepted concepts for its time. The taught that a woman cannot really make anything of herself and that being beautiful and a fool will allow her to not understand how she is being marginalized by society and therefor live a happier life. Much of which embodies the historical context of the 1920 and seemingly a girl, no matter her class in society, is less off than a man. But if Daisy’s character and role is related to the plot it seems as if Fitzgerald decided to portray women as shallow and confused to heighten the plot. Considering the fact that Daisy choosing Tom for his wealth instead of Gatsby, it is only when Gatsby returns and displays his wealth that her feeling begins to change. In this way representing women through society’s view of the “perfect” woman Fitzgerald is able to utilize the character traits to further the plot of the …show more content…
The author conveys this new image of the 20th century woman through the character Jordan Baker. Jordan is characterized as cynical and quite masculine at times, representing a shift from the traditional role found in Daisy and Myrtle. This can be seen when she quotes, “This is much too polite for me.” Referring to a conversation she had at a party. Jordan’s participation is activities which would normally be deemed as manly, such as playing golf and not wanting a relationship. Are two ways in which Fitzgerald defies the role of women and conveys a sort of empowerment of women through Jordan. That she is seemingly independent and level-headed. Yet Jordan’s contribution to the main plot isn’t as great as Daisy’s or Myrtles role in the final climax and therefore Fitzgerald might be tempted to portray a different role of women through Jordan. As seemingly the whole plot originates from Daisy choosing to conform to society’s values of how a woman should act at the