Gender Roles in the Roaring 1920s: An Examination of the Women of The Great Gatsby

Myrtle and Gatsby both share the same goal of acquiring money and being accepted into the Old Money crowd. Myrtle Wilson thinks that she is meant to belong in the rich crowd and that she is above the poor crowd. “‘I told that boy about the ice.’ Myrtle raised her eyebrows in despair at the shiftlessness of the lower orders” (32). Myrtle looks down on the lower class, even though she if part of the lower class herself, because she thinks that she is above them. She thinks that she should be part of the upper class so she uses Tom Buchanan to achieve that goal. Furthermore, Gatsby tries to be accepted into the Old Money crowd so that Daisy will accept him into her life. “‘Why don’t you- why don’t you stay for supper? I wouldn’t be

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, gender roles are used in a conservative way. The men are to make the money, buy the house, pay the bills and for everything else. The women are there to be the typical “house wife” and have the men buy them things. In the 1920’s men were more dominant over women so the women didn’t really have a high spot in society if they weren’t married to a wealthy man, or if they weren’t a professional athlete or a performer (actress, dancer, etc…). Myrtle Wilson, Jordan Baker, and Daisy Buchanan are an example of women that get dominated by men and prove men had the main role in society but one of them proves that women don’t necessarily need a man. They all prove that women have power, just in a different

Society’s expectations of women now and in the past cause a huge controversy and conflict amongst women. The main three female characters of the novel The Great Gatsby have many conflicts with society and what is expected of them as a female in the 1920s. They are expected to be the server of man and to not be their own person, but this was a conflict with them. Although Myrtle, Daisy, and Jordan show case their conflict with society, they negotiate that conflict with their personality and their mannerisms.

In the 1920’s, society underwent changes as the result of women's rights, prohibition, organized crime, and the infamous stock market crash of 1928. As women gained independant rights, men were furious about this despite the fact they had always been superior to women. In the novel The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby exemplify the treatment men had towards women in the 1920’s. Tom Buchanan, a prominent man who inherits his family’s wealth, is married to Daisy Buchanan, Tom takes advantage of his wife, by publicly taking other women out and treating them to his lavish lifestyle. Tom Buchanan will do anything to suppress his lovers to further the superiority he has over women. Fitzgerald’s use of Tom Buchanan

Women have been consistently marginalized and devalued throughout history. In The Great Gatsby, the characterization of women is limited to how the men in their life utilise them- a trophy wife, prize, and paramour. These women are not allowed to develop independently; their importance is dictated by the men in their life. F. Scott Fitzgerald is not bringing awareness to the inequality of women in the Roaring Twenties, but perpetuating it through the lack of characterization the women undergo.

During the 1920’s, women were objectified in society, yet began to show signs of independence by striving for equality between genders. In this time known as the Roaring Twenties, women began to use their voice desiring to live their lives how they chose. F. Scott Fitzgerald, a renowned author, displayed his perception of women attempting to prove their worth through his new book. One of the protagonists in the novel, Daisy Buchanan, challenges the gender barriers and threatens to paint a new image for women by choosing love over wealth. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald displays the modern women’s inability to obtain independence as they were perceived as incapable of making their own decisions and relied on traditional gender

In the lower class society, The Great Gatsby displays unhappiness in a number of ways and at a variety of extents, this is displayed though the eyes of Myrtle Wilson. Unhappy in her marriage and her position on the social hierarchy. George Wilson, Myrtle’s husband, gave an impressionable first encounter; this lead Myrtle to believe he was true gentleman worthy of her love and affection. She comes to find he is nothing short of

The Jazz age or the Roaring 20’s was a vital time for women in America. One reason this was a vital time was because on August 18, 1920, the 19th amendment granted women the right to vote. This was also a vital time because America was changing from a more conservative country to a liberal one. The female characters in Fitz Gerald’s’ The Great Gatsby embodies the way women were back in the 1920s. Women before the 1920s were only seen as caregivers. In this story, the women were the total opposite of that. They changed from things such as clothing, smoking, and dancing. Daisy, Jordan, and Myrtle were all portrayed as the “New Woman”. There was Daisy who married into money but had a secret lover. There was Jordan who was this independent woman

“Myrtle Wilson in The Great Gatsby is an example of the poor. Myrtle is Tom’s lover who is desperately trying to change her life as the lower class. Myrtle is not found with the class she was born into. She insists that she married beneath her, and tries to talk about the lower orders— as if she is not one of them: “‘I told that boy about the ice.’ Myrtle raised her eyebrows in despair at the shiftlessness of the lower orders. ‘These people! You have to keep after them all the time’". Unfortunately for her, she chooses to be Tom’s lover who treats her as a merely object.

Myrtle Wilson is the other partner in Tom Buchannan’s affair. She is of a simpler lifestyle living on the “edge of the wasteland…contiguous to absolutely nothing.”(Gatsby 24). Nick describes her “a thick woman” “in [her] middle thirties” (Gatsby 25), the average woman in that time. Once she and Tom get off the train, she immediately buys a dog, and then makes a point to buy a rather expensive dog as well. When she arrives to her sister’s house, where a party is taking place, Nick says that she “changed her costume” (Gatsby 30). Because a costume is also the attire performers wear, Nick is giving us the impression that all of this is a play, a facade to act wealthy when in fact she is not. Nick also says “with the influence of the dress her personality had also undergone a change. The intense vitality that had been so remarkable in the garage was converted into impressive hauteur” (Gatsby 30), again another indicator of her “performance” of a wealthy woman. Soon, she and Tom “discuss in impassioned voices” whether she had any “right to mention Daisy’s name” (Gatsby 37). Tom punches her after this, but still left the party with her. Myrtle is now a woman with no self-respect, due to her allowing a man, though he may be rich, to physically assault her, instead of having a man who truly cares for her not being well off.

The great Gatsby gives us an accurate insight into the 1920s zeitgeist regarding the role of women in society. America was in a state of an economic boom and rapid change. Society had become less conservative after world war one. The role of women was revolutionary during this time and although women had a lot more freedom now; they were still confined to their sexist role within society; Men were still seen as the dominant gender. Scott Fitzgerald illustrates the extremities of gender and social class, and the lack of independence this brought upon women. This essay will discuss the three major female characters and the ideas that Fitzgerald confronts of female stereotypes of the 1920s.

In this passage from The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway, Tom Buchanan, and Myrtle Wilson take a trip into New York City, where they visit her apartment. Fitzgerald uses Myrtles dog and apartment symbolize her and emphasize to the reader her disillusionment with the American dream and how the dream is not obtainable to all. Myrtles corrupt vision of the American dream is to gain monetary possession and to be seen as one of the upper class. However like her apartment and dog she is not upper-class or wealth, and never will be. The dog that she buys, and symbolizes her, is a mutt because Fitzgerald tells that the reader that it only has, “Airedale concerned in it somewhere”. An Airedale is a dog of upper class and the dog Myrtle buys only resembles

The Great Gatsby was written in 1925 to depict the American Dream. During this time, there was an ideal lifestyle for men and women. Ideally, women were meant to be housewives and men were meant to be the providers. Characters such as Daisy, Myrtle , and Jordan all represent different lifestyles and ways of obtaining the American dream. Daisy Buchanan, who uses her beauty to get what she wants. Myrtle Wilson is the mistress of Tom Buchanan, who is at rich man and she is poor ,but she was still able to use his money. Jordan Baker represents the “new woman” who does not live dependent upon a man and begins to dress in a different style.

In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald the pages I read were 35 -41. A party was held in the apartment that Tom rented for his meetings with Myrtle; in this party Myrtle changed herself into an elegant dress and began to act as a person with money and power. Her attitude changed and to her everything seemed perfect like it was her reality. In this section the plot that was shown was a conflict between Myrtle and Tom Buchanan. Tom Buchanan began to make fun of Mr. Wilson about how he may look pouring gas into a car and Myrtle wasn’t very pleased, but she made no fuss about it and later on in the party she brought in Daisy’s name. She said her name repetitively trying to also make fun of her, Tom Buchanan became furious and with

Fitzgerald has men perceive women in an objective way in his novel The Great Gatsby and uses this to show the false reality of the American dream and how it plays on the idea that in America “all men are equal”. During the 1920’s huge changes were made concerning the roles of women, like getting the the right to vote in 1922, feminist movements, Throughout history women have been negatively objectified and Fitzgerald paints a picture of that using his own values. He influences his readers to perceive The Great Gatsby with a bias that women have a “wealth” factor to them while contradicting the “American Dream” as it generally states men are created equal reaching more prosperity but leaving out woman. He also suggests that if a woman is unfaithful she is automatically at a flappers standard. But this roaring era was the first step in showing society that men are not the dominant half of the human species. The American Dream does so much to shape the perception of woman that people have in the society. Like before the 20’s how woman would only wear dark colors and it was not in good taste to wear something above the ankle. You can see the culture shift when rebellious woman start to attend Gatsby’s luxurious parties; “…and verandas are gaudy with primary colors, and hair shorn in strange new ways…”( 40). This sets the tone for a novel of female oppression, adultery & objectification of woman.