Femininity In The Great Gatsby

Known as the "Roaring Twenties", the 1920's were a celebration where people longed for normalcy following WW1. This decade was characterized by prosperity, leisure, technological advances consumerism, and modern values. Many people became rich and wealthy. People inhearited "old money" and some found ways to obtain "new money". This decade was also when women's rights became an important topic of debate. Femals began to re-invent themselves from the idea of the "traditional" woman. Women were beginning to work, pursue educations and careers; they were drinking openly, accompanying men while being unmarried, cutting their hair short and purposefully downplaying their femininity. In 1925 F. Scott Fitzgerald published his novel The Great Gatsby,
which follows the lives of Jay Gatsby and Nick Carraway in the summer of 1922. The novel takes place in Long Island in the fictional West and East Egg. In The Great Gatsby, the 1920's are portrayed as a time of fame, glamor exitement and wealth. It was a time when women had just begun reclaiming their identities as women and when they were recognized as an influence on the American Culture. F. Scott Fitzgerald uses women as characters to build the American Dream by showing their beauty, status and personality and by showing how society views women. Daisy Buchanan symbolizes beauty.
She is described as a captivating, young girl that leads others on with her naive and innocent presentation. "Her face was sad and lovely with bright things in it, bright eyes and a bright passionate mouth..." (Fitzgerald 9). She builds the American Dream by showing the beauty and happiness of her life. She is the perfect ideal for what a young woman of wealth should be. She comes from a well-know, wealthy Southern family and is expected to act like it. She was expected to marry in her 'class', establish a sense of security, gain social status, create a home for her family and have children as she was supposed to. However, Daisy showed faint resistance towards her expected lifestyle and the oppression she faces daily. While speaking whith Nick about her daughter she says, "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 little fool," (Fitzgerald 17). Daisy isn't as daft as society would believe her to be, she knows first-hand that the only way her daughter will make it during a time like this is to be a "fool". During this time, society prefferred women to be simple, eloquent, obideant and naive. They also did not value educated women. Because of her not wanting her daughter to wish for more than she could have, Daisy wanted her to become a "beautiful little fool". Daisy is a product of her raising and has expectations set for her as a woman in the 1920's. She tries to please
everyone around her. She marries Tom, who is wealthy and approved for her by society over Gatsby, who she truly loved, because he was a poor, kinless boy from the Midwest. Society influences who she is as a person and takes away her choices. On the other hand, Jordan Baker isn't anything like Daisy.
The very first encounter we have of her we can instantly tell that she is different. She is a golfer, just like Tom had been at University, she is cynical, strong and mysterious in her appearance and demeanor. "She was a slender, small-breasted girl, with an erect carriage, which she accentuated by throwing her body backward at the shoulders like a young cadet. Her gray sun-strained eyes looked back at me with polite reciprocal curiosity out of a wan, charming, discontented face" (Fitzgerald 11). She is considered to be one of the more "progressive" women of this decade. She dressed more boyish than most, hoping to become more equal to men. Because of her being a more aggressive and modern woman she was criticized for being that of a feminist character. With that being said, Jordan was brought up in the same class as Daisy, she just wasn't okay living like that. Jordan became her own person instead of giving into her peers preseption of her. She chose a career over a family, which was a rare occurance during this time, she is free to come and go as she pleases and has
self-satisfaction. Myrtle Wilson isn't Daisy Buchanan or Jordan Baker. She's not the rich socialte or the progressive modern woman. She's a plain, full-figured woman in her middle thirties. "...and in a moment the thickish figure of a woman blocked out the light from the office door. She was in the middle thirties, and faintly stout, but she carried her surplus flesh sensuously as some women can. Her face, above a sopotted dress of dark blue crepe-de-chine, contained no facet or gleam of beauty, but there was an immediately perceptible vitality about her as if the nerves of her body were continually smouldering." (Fitzgerald 25)
Myrtle is married to George Wilson who is a mechanic and used car salesman. She resents him because he is not wealthy and therefore lacks the status she thinks she deserves. She is also cheating on her husband with Tom Buchanan. In her relationship with her husband, Myrtle is in control and shows no respect towards him whatsoever, however, with Tom she becomes more submissive and feminine. Her character changes depending on the situation and the people around her (lower class vs upper class). Because Myrtle comes from the working, middle-class she didn't have a definite upbringing. She believes wealth and status is what makes a person happy, so she does what she needs to in order to survive and be happy, i.e. having an affair with Tom. However, that do not work out in her favor. Daisy, Jordan and Myrtle are each expected to be a certain type of woman due to their upbringing and the time. Both Daisy and Myrtle are products of the class they were raised in and struggled with the expectations. Niether were happy in their life and both resorted to having affairs. Jordan, however, wasn't as willing to conform as Daisy and had an easier time than Myrtle in becoming the woman she wanted to be.