In a carefully crafted novel written to bring attention to the male characters, there are three women that remain essential to the plot of the book. These three women, Daisy Buchanan, Myrtle Wilson, and Jordan Baker, all come from a cut of the same cloth in a lot of ways; however, they remain different in many ways too. Daisy Fay, the daughter of wealthy southerners, had very intimate relations with Jay Gatsby, the servant of a rich man but had no money. However, in the end she married Tom Buchanan, a wealthy businessman. For five years she remains fairly content with her marriage. She later regrets her marriage and has an affair with Jay Gatsby. Myrtle Wilson, the wife of an automatic mechanic, George Wilson. Although, she has a steady marriage
In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Daisy Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson have many similarities and many differences. Both women are unhappy with their lives, both are greedy, but both women live very different lives. Both Myrtle and Daisy are unhappy with their lives and try to escape from them. Daisy Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson are also very greedy people in similar, but also in different ways. These women do whatever they want at the risk of their own lives as well as other people’s lives. Nick states, “They were careless people…” (Fitzgerald 179). The lives of Daisy and Myrtle are at the same time very different, almost opposite, even. Daisy and Myrtle are both selfish people who do not care about how they are affecting others,
Fitzgerald’s opposing name Daisy is associated with a literal daisy — white, light, pure, innocent, and beautiful. However, she is the opposite of what she is presented to be. She is a merely a selfish, shallow, and hurtful woman. Myrtle is associated with a shrub that is far less delicate than a daisy which compares myrtle being less wealthy than Daisy. Overall, the characters of Daisy and Myrtle are far more similar than the reader would believe — both are selfish and irresponsible in terms of love, beauty, and money — each playing a role in life to acquire
Daisy, Jordan, and Myrtle represent three similar but different young women who, even though they are supposedly not the “main” characters, direct the theme and significance of events. Daisy Buchanan is a young woman who comes from
She loves me” (Fitzgerald 130). When the information of the affair is released Tom has a fit and completely loses it and try’s to put an end to the relationship by showing daisy that Gatsby is bootlegger and a gangster. Tom’s reaction compared to Daisy’s shows how the two genders are so differently treated in society. Even though Tom is cheating on Daisy he still doesn’t like the ideas of Daisy with another man, showing that even though Tom can see other people, because he’s a man, Daisy can’t because she’s a woman. Myrtle Wilson is another woman in this book who is having an affair outside of her marriage.
The observed strain on Daisy and Tom’s relationship is visible to the reader from the beginning of the novel and even their lavish lifestyle and plethora of alcohol cannot change it. Tom and Gatsby’s continuous struggle over Daisy shows her as a prize not a person. Myrtle and Catherine are sisters who represent another set of contrasting
Two characters from The Great Gatsby named Myrtle and Daisy may have many differences, but they also have many similarities. Both women were in an unhappy marriage had an affair. They were both abused, but each woman was abused in a different way, Myrtle was abused physically and Daisy emotionally. Myrtle is Tom’s mistress, she and Tom own puppy and an apartment together in New York, where they threw a wild party with plenty of booze and drunk people. “The apartment was on the top floor, a small living-room, a small dining-room, a small bedroom, and a bath” (Fitzgerald 20). Daisy, on the other hand, is Tom’s wife, they had a daughter and an extravagant mansion that overlooked the bay, "Their house was even more elaborate than I expected, a cheerful red-and-white Georgian Colonial mansion, overlooking the bay" (Fitzgerald 6). At their parties, it only consisted of Tom, Daisy, Jordan and Nick. No one at this party got wild or drunk, the only wild thing was when Myrtle, his mistress called
They carry the façade of wealth and happiness, when in reality; they both are unhappy with their marriage and are seeking other partners. Neither of them can take responsibility for their actions, especially Daisy, who kills Myrtle Wilson. Instead they flee into their wealth and leave without a trace. The Buchanan’s traveled cross country because Tom wished to get into the bonding business. Therefore they followed the American dream and headed East, only to be met with difficulties. Tom had met an automotive shop owner’s wife, Myrtle, who desired to be rich, and fell in love. Daisy was originally heartbroken, and upset with her marriage. When they had delivered the Buchanan’s daughter Daisy wept and wished for her to grow up and become “a beautiful little fool” because in the 1920’s world, that’s all a woman can achieve with the American dream. Since knowing about her husband’s affair, Daisy immediately falls back in love with Gatsby once the couple is reunited but can never admit that she once loved Tom also. This becomes a major issue for the estranged couple, and leads to Daisy recklessly driving home from town one day in Gatsby’s car. She crashes into Myrtle Wilson, killing her instantly. Instead of taking responsibility, Daisy flees from the crime scene. The repercussions cost Gatsby his life, but neither Daisy nor Tom attend his funeral and eventually travel away, without telling a
The minor female characters that often get look over looked are Mrs.Mckee and Catherine. These two women make a little difference in the book, but that is why it could be easily overlooked by the reader. Catherine is Myrtle’s sister who talks with Nick at Gatsby party. Nicks says that she is ‘slender’. She is around her thirties as most would say. Catherine is highly independent, more than Daisy, because she does not rely on a man such as Jordan. She talks to Nick about the relation toward Gatsby and Kaiser Wilhelm, the ruler of Germany during World War I. No one truly seemed to cared because they by passed her statement. She does not drink except at the notice that her sister died. That might be because of the confusion and mixed emotions.
The Great Gatsby, by F Scott Fitzgerald, is a critically acclaimed novel set in 1920’s America. The Roaring Twenties was a transitional period for women. Apart from gaining institutional rights (suffrage), the era also represented new philosophies of sexual freedom and social rebellion for women, mirrored in Fitzgerald’s portrayal of the “flapper” women in the novel. Nonetheless, the emancipation of women was rife with setbacks. In the patriarchal societal construct, female characters in the novel (Myrtle, Jordan, Daisy) are reduced to subordinate roles, as decorative sexual objects for men. In the consumerist and morally decadent society of the Jazz Age, female characters are corrupted by materialism. As the female characters are punished
The Roaring Twenties, a time of huge parties and huge changes. The fictional book, The Great Gatsby explains the twenties as one wild and carefree time period. One of the main characters in the book, Gatsby, throws these extravagant parties, where people from all over New York come to witness them. Women buy fancy dresses, men wear lavish tuxedos, everyone drinks, everyone dances, and everyone has the best night of their lives. While Gatsby’s lifestyle may exaggerate the dazzling twenties a little bit, the majority of these stories hold true to their glory.
“I’m p-paralyzed with happiness” is just one of the stereotypes of a woman in the 1920’s. In Scott F. Fitzgerald's, The Great Gatsby, there is an often ignored view of the women’s perspective. It brings attention to how women have no expectations to go far in life, or have a reason for life besides, to reproduce. The absurd thing is that the women don’t have any interest to break out of the stereotype, and try to make a life for themselves. Throughout the story, Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker, and Myrtle Wilson are treated as possessions rather than humans.
The 1920's were a prosperous time many thought, but ultimately crime and credit led America head first into the Great Depression. Books about this time have been written and read, however only one has really stood the time and is still popular today. With some knowledge and a good guess you can realize I am talking about The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Gatsby is a guy with no family and has made money through an illegal business. Then Gatsby falls for Daisy Buchanan who is married to Tom Buchanan.
Daisy's superficiality extends to her personality. She is fragile, unstable and a confused character. While talking to Nick she said: “...I woke up with an abandoned felling and asked the nurse right away if it was a boy or a girl. She told me it was a girl, and so I turned my head away and wept. 'Alright,' I said, '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 fool” (Fitzgerald 21). They also married their husbands for different reasons. Myrtle says she married George because she thought he was a gentleman. She also thought he knew about good “breeding.” On the other hand, Daisy married Tom because rich girls had to marry into money and good social status.
The Great Gatsby was published during the Roaring Twenties; a time regarded as “a boisterous era full of jazz and wild youth” (dictionary.com). The wild youth likely refers to the modern women of the time, known as flappers. These women discarded the patriarchal norms of their parents and chose to blaze a new trail; one where women were free to take charge of their lives, and not be constrained by the men of their time. The most notable female characters in The Great Gatsby are women whom one would consider to live the flapper lifestyle; however because of their lifestyle choices this women are made a mockery of through the words of F. Scott Fitzgerald. “I’m glad it’s a girl.
In The Great Gatsby, Midwest native Nick Carraway arrives in New York in search of the American dream. Nick, moves in next door to millionaire Jay Gatsby and across the bay from his cousin Daisy and her husband, Tom. Thur the book there were many difficult things that had to be figured out between both Daisy and Gatsby. To the relationship that they had in the past before Gatsby went to war. Nick becomes drawn into the captivating world of the wealthy and he had to be between all of the cheating and craziness