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Theme Of Women In The Great Gatsby

Decent Essays

“The Great Gatsby”; written in the heart of the 'roaring twenties' is a fictional piece that embodies many themes and ideas that reflect the nature of the time period that it describes. A thoroughly explored theme is the roles of women in the early 20th century and how society views and treats them. Author, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote three main female characters into the text, which all have important meaning in the book. The following analytical essay will thoroughly assess Fitzgerald’s text and how he portrayed women in his book, “The Great Gatsby”, judging their roles in three main categories: ‘gender roles', ‘male possession’ and ‘sexism’.

The 'Jazz age'; a term coined by Fitzgerald was a significant time regarding womens rights. In …show more content…

In the scene it is evident that Daisy has a little to no say on the matter, which is very bizarre considering how much general influence she has. Fitzgerald makes it clear that Gatsby feels as if Daisy is his possession and not Toms. An extract from the text says this; “Your wife doesn’t love you,” said Gatsby. “She’s never loved you. She loves me.”. Throughout the scene it's apparent that Daisy is reluctant to agree nor disagree as she is in a very difficult position, but none of this is taken into account by Tom nor Gatsby as they don't care. This desperate fight over one women says a lot about how women were viewed at the time by society. They were often viewed as 'toys' of men and that men can always speak on behalf of them and control them.

Due to time period in which “The Great Gatsby” was written: the 1920s, the text is littered with sexist themes and ideas as it was common for such views to be present in western culture at the time. At the time of the text, the last ten years saw the allowance for women to vote in the United States so it is unsurprising that many men treat women unfairly in comparison to men. The most clearly obvious character whom is sexist, is Tom Buchanan. His aggressive nature and his one eyed personality makes him a sexist, racist and narcissistic individual, which shows throughout different scenes in the text. It is evident that Tom views women as possessions

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