The Negative Portrayal of Women in Works Such as The Great Gatsby

Myrtle yearns to be with Tom and live in his wealth but is prevented from doing so by Tom and Daisy. For instance, when Daisy tries to leave Tom for Gatsby, Tom does not exactly dismiss Myrtle, “…but there is no question that she would eventually be discarded” (Donaldson). Myrtle is so infatuated with Tom, she forgot that he can just as well choose Daisy over her. He has the upper hand, as a rich man with control over women especially when it comes to his relationships. While to Tom, Myrtle’s gender has made her just one of his possessions, to Myrtle, Tom’s rich and high status as a man has made him her only path to a higher class. Due to her infatuation with Tom, she often becomes jealous and possessive when she finds a threat to their relationship. Myrtle is so overcome with desire for Tom that she cannot stand the thought of him with another women. Even when she sees Tom in the car with Jordan Baker, Myrtle’s, “… eyes, wide with jealous terror, were fixed not on Tom, but on Jordan Baker, whom she too to be his wife” (Fitzgerald 125). Myrtle is so convinced that Tom is hers, when in reality, she is really Tom’s. Myrtle has almost forgotten the fact that as an inferior women, she has little control over the situation. The reality is that Tom was in control of the relationship and used Myrtle for his lustrous desires. Tom’s rejection of Myrtle causes her to become overrun with jealousy. In

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

Even though the 1920s is the era of women’s rights, women are still treated poorly. Even woman in the middle class are looked at with expectations. In the article it stated, “she concludes that although there were changes in women’s lives, their achievements were, limited, with ‘progress in some spheres… matched by disappointment and defeat in others’” (Hannam 64). This relates to Myrtles situation because even though she is not in the eyes of society she is expected to obey her husband and do as she is told. Myrtle does not always do as she is told around her husband, George Wilson. She is not the perfect female with him. She actually acts a little more masculine and aggressive to show she is not weak, but around her lover, Tom Buchanan, she becomes a more weak and obedient female. That would be approved by society if they were actually married. She changes how she conforms to the expectations of society depending on who she is around. She really does not control her own life like Jordan, but she also is not forced by society to do something she does not want to do like

Mrs. Myrtle Wilson's reality was that she was a lower class, somewhat undesirable woman who dreamed that she could somehow elevate her status. The fantasy world that she created when she was with Tom lasted only momentarily and reality hit her mercilessly. Her desire to be a part of the elite class compromised her integrity; she was so desperate to fit in that accepted whatever treatment Tom was giving her. Chasing a painful dream and allowing herself to be abused, reality still had not sunk in for Myrtle when Tom broke her nose when she said what he did not want to hear (Fitzgerald, 41). She was married to a gas attendant, whom she did not appreciate, who was nothing like Tom and could not provide her with the lifestyle she yearned for. She blatantly disrespected him in conversation with her sister and Nick, saying, "I thought he knew something about breeding but he wasn't fit to lick my shoe (Fitzgerald, 39)." Each time Tom picked

Myrtle Wilson, also married, hides her love affair from her husband, George Wilson. She is extremely unhappy with her husband claiming when they met, "[she] thought he knew something…but he was not fit to [even] lick [her] shoe" (39). It is evident how important class and wealth is to Myrtle. Once she found out her husband was not rich she became utterly dissapointed. But when she first met Tom, "he had on a dress suit and patent leather shoes and [she] couldn 't keep [her] eyes off him" (40). She is immediately attracted to Tom’s obvious wealth. Myrtle claims Tom Buchanan is the love of her life, that being said she uses Tom to escape the “Valley of Ashes.” She longs to live the American Dream amongst the wealthy, but struggles to keep up with the

In "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald, he shows women, treated and presented as worse than men, and are rather disregarded and neglected by the male characters. Even Fitzgerald describes and creates the traits of the women in the book in a negative manner.

Myrtle Wilson and Tom Buchanan aren’t committed to their marriage with their spouse. These two characters are both having affairs, an intimate relationship with each other. A quote to support this is, “There is always a halt there of at least a minute, and it was because of this that I first met Tom Buchanan’s mistress” (2.24). This quote shows how Tom Buchanan isn’t ashamed of having a mistress that

Myrtle Wilson is obsessed with leaving her poor life behind her by being with Tom but unlike Gatsby, her attempts are fruitless. She attempts to make herself seem an upper class person like when she changed her dress before the party in chapter two. She believes her husband is beneath her and talks of all low statuses as if she isn’t 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." (42)

Tom Buchanan is a man who has achieved any achievement you could possibly ask for by the age of twenty one. He has accomplished anything he wants to accomplish in his life, lots of awards, lots of money, a beautiful wife a child, he has worked long, hard and honestly for what he has, however, he has what to live for now? While that is very impressive and something he will remember the rest of his life, it can also be depressing.In consequence, Tom wants to find some excitement in life or simply something to do to fill a empty space in his life, that person is Myrtle Wilson. Although Tom seems to be a respectful gentlemen, we learn that he has little respect for women. When Nick visits Tom and Daisy’s house for the first time, Jordan tells Nick in private, “‘You mean to say you don't know?" said Miss Baker, honestly surprised. "I thought everybody knew." "I don't." "Why−." she said hesitantly,

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.

Myrtle also adds to this stigma. She longs for a life that is fun and glamorous, but reality is she is the wife of a pump mechanic, meaning she will never have access to mobility in class or status. She is a lower class woman, which led her to engage in an affair with Tom Buchanan; it is the closest she will come to feeling higher up socially. Myrtle will do just about anything to be a part of the upper class despite the consequences. There was even a point in time when Tom physically hits her, breaking her nose and yet she still stayed with him just to continue lavishing in this fantasy she so eagerly wanted to become real (Fitzgerald, pg 37). That scene and the dynamic of her and Tom represent the subordination of the lower class and the mistreatment of women within the lower class.

As opposed to the other women in the novel, Jordan Baker is treated a little bit differently by the author, as she has certain masculine characteristics. She is a professional golfer who cheated her way to the top. She has masculine habits of drinking and smoking. She does not marry and is not yet willing to devote herself to a man, unlike the other female characters. She is self sufficient and is actively involved in her own interests. Jordan is harsh, cynical, and represents a new type of woman in the 1920's. The name "Jordan" also happens to be a unisex name. Jordan has made it to the elite status and will do whatever she has to in order to stay there, including lying. "She was incurably dishonest" (Fitzgerald 63). In this way, she does have similarities to Daisy and Myrtle. She is selfish and isn't concerned about anyone besides herself. Nick observes this as he watches the way Jordan drives. "'You're a rotten driver... suppose you met somebody just as careless as yourself.' 'I hope I never will. I hate careless people.'" (Fitzgerald 63). In this quote, the reader can see how Jordan is extremely selfish and indifferent. She likes to drive fast and she doesn’t care about the repercussions to other drivers. Jordan is very haughty, arrogant, and condescending, and looks down upon others who she considers to be below her. "'You live in West Egg,' she remarked contemptuously." (Fitzgerald 15). In this quote, the reader can see that Jordan is judging Nick for living on

Wilson gives to Myrtle his complete trust in the same way he provides Myrtle with what she asks for, but she abuses it. She takes her husband for granted while at the same time, she gazes at Tom sitting on a pedestal she has made for him. Tom is the man that can make Myrtle's every fantasy come true, but also the man that will lead to her early death. Myrtle is seen to be a fun and floozy mistress, but not as a real wife. She, as superficial as it may be, is not someone that Tom could take to parties and introduce to his parents. Myrtle controls Wilson, while Tom manipulates her simply for enjoyment. For example, Tom tells Myrtle that the reason they could never wed is because his wife, Daisy, is Catholic and she would never stand for a divorce. In this scene, Catherine, Myrtle's sister, tells Nick Carraway, the narrator, about the reasons why Tom and Myrtle may never come

As Myrtle’s relationship with George Wilson deteriorates and she is disenchanted with his limited lifestyle, she desires more and thus when she meets Tom he offers her this. In some distorted way, Myrtle thinks that Tom will leave his beautiful wife Daisy and marry her, Tom doesn’t truly see the relationship between Myrtle and himself being a true relationship, he just believes she is someone he can call upon unannounced and use her for a sexual relationship. But Myrtle has other plans for the two of them. This is made clear when he breaks Myrtle’s nose we she mentioned his wife’s name: “‘Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!’ shouted Mrs. Wilson. ‘I’ll say it whenever I want to! Daisy Dai-‘Making a short deft movement, Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand” (Fitzgerald, 1926)This harsh action implied by Tom, really puts Mrs. Wilson in her place, making her come to her sense of what she can and cannot say. This reaction from Tom signifies that it is not a pure love existing between them. Further, Myrtle’s desire for the material goods Tom can provide shapes her conception of their alleged love, which is evidently greatly distorted as shown through Tom’s treatment of her.

In The Great Gatsby, Myrtle is given no respect and is being treated like an object. This happened in the chapter 2 when Tom takes Nick and Myrtle to party in a hotel in New York with others. Later in the party Myrtle and Tom comes out of a room arguing about Daisy.“Some time toward midnight Tom Buchanan and Mrs. Wilson stood face to face discussing, in impassioned voices, whether Mrs. Wilson had any right to mention Daisy's name. I’ll say it whenever I want to! Daisy! And Da-” Making a short deft movement, Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand.” This quote explains how women like myrtle are being abused by Tom and he is treating her like an object despite not having a healthy relationship. This paragraph is important because it talks about how in F. Scott’s novel The Great Gatsby Myrtle is given no respect and is being treated like an object despite being a women.