Women In F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby

The 1920’s were a time of great highs with luxury, celebrations, and aristocracy. However, during this time there was discrimination, greed, and corruption in America. F. Scott Fitzgerald explores these ideas and in his novel The Great Gatsby. The story takes place in New York as Jay Gatsby a rich, mysterious man who loves Daisy Buchanan. They were once madly in love and seemed destined for each other, but, they had to split up as Gatsby was serving in the war. While Gatsby is gone, Daisy marries a rich unmannered man named Tom Buchanan. This is all told from the point of view of Daisy’s cousin Nick Carraway, who is new to the big city of New York. At first glance, this novel seems like a simple story, but, there are bigger ideas and a larger premise hidden in the writing by F. Scott Fitzgerald. One premise in the book is the female characters have to behave in this superficial world to survive. Fitzgerald does this to show women are not valued right and are not entitled to …show more content…
Daisy symbolizes beauty and she is what men fight and strive for. Jordan is superficial and at the same times a mystery. Myrtle is seductive and is a forbidden temptation that men know is bad but still are attracted to. You can see in the novel Fitzgerald doesn’t like the female characters. Fitzgerald gives the female characters in the story thin personalities and makes characters such as Myrtle and Daisy unlikable. Fitzgerald also wants to show how the male characters fight for these women and that they’re trophies to the male characters rather than people. “Tom was feeling the hot whips of panic. His wife and mistress, until an hour ago secure and inviolate were slipping precipitately from his control.” (Fitzgerald, 7) Tom wants to control his women and also doesn’t want to lose one of his trophies. This contributes to Fitzgerald’s idea of the superficial world and also the way the men view the female