Susan B. Anthony once said “The true republic: Men, their rights and nothing more;
Women, their rights and nothing less.” This is her point of view on the way women were
thought of during the 1920s. She recognizes the large gap between women and men’s rights.
During this time though, many changes had began. Women just got the right to vote, therefore
gaining more independence of their own which they did not always know how to use. This is
also when the trend of a flapper began. Views changed from politics to social lives, hem lines
were raised, and risks were taken. The confusion of this time for most men is easily seen in The
Great Gatsby. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, women are portrayed as a minor role
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She
is shown as selfish and not trustworthy. Nick Carraway, the narrator, realizes this also. While
running into Tom after Gatsby’s death he makes the comment “you know what I think of you”
(179). This is Nick referring to his anger towards tom and daisy for betraying Gatsby. Daisy was
supposedly in love with Gatsby, until she killed Myrtle and knew that Tom could keep her from
getting caught. She left Gatsby behind in the dust, and let Tom blame him for the murder of
Myrtle. Myrtle, before her death, is another example of being unfaithful. She lies to Wilson
regularly about going into town with Tom, she is happier with Tom. If it was not for the
inconvenience of getting a divorce she possibly would have. Instead though, she decides to
build a web of lies and live by them. Wilson does not even realize he is being betrayed until he
finds the expensive dog collar. Myrtle “trie[s] to tell [him] something funny about it, but [he]
knew it was something funny” (158). He came to the conclusion then that he had always been
suspicious of; myrtle had not been faithful to him. Women were thought of as deceiving during
this time period, as it was reflected into The Great Gatsby.
The way that men thought of women during the 1920s is shown all throughout this
novel. The way men saw them, the way they saw themselves, and the way they were struggling
to
Gatsby’s claim to love Daisy is nothing more than wanting to complete his collection of the grand prize being a trophy wife. It became apparent to Nick that Gatsby wanted to repeat the past in order to win the award of a perfect woman. While reminiscing, Nick realizes Gatsby’s desire was that, “He wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she go to Tom and say: ‘I never loved you.’ After she had obliterated four years with that sentence they could decide upon the more practical measures to be taken. One of them was that, after she was free, they were to go back to Louisville and be married from her house- just as if it were five years ago” (Fitzgerald 109). Gatsby’s relentless need to ‘get the girl’ blinds his ability to comprehend Daisy’s feelings of the situation. His want to shatter the Buchanan’s marriage
that she loved Gatsby but that she had loved Tom at the time of their
Myrtle Wilson: At least you didn’t marry him. I married him. And that's the difference between your case and mine. I thought he was a gentleman, but I was completely wrong.
Tom told George, Myrtle’s husband that it was Gatsby’s car that hit her. So George, seeking revenge, killed Gatsby.
Characters that show this is when Myrtle Wilson is having an affair with Tom Buchanan, Gatsby lies about the man he really is, and how Gatsby also lies about who really killed Myrtle. Myrtle deceives her husband, George, by having an affair with Tom Buchanan and she made it very clear she did not want to be with George since she was constantly talking down on him.
“Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less.” This is a famous quote from a woman named Susan B. Anthony. Anthony was the women’s suffrage leader in the mid 1800’s. She helped, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, form the national women’s suffrage movement. The women’s suffrage movement lasted a whole 72 years, but before the suffrage movement in 1884, women have virtually little to zero rights.
She aches to be part of an elite class like Daisy, but instead, she is married to a man who is hard working and honest but does not have the passion that she craves. Wilson, Myrtle's dumb witted husband, owns a garage. Because Wilson is a passive aggressive character, he does not want to admit to himself that his wife would cheat on him, even though Tom makes it apparent that Myrtle is more his wife or "property" than she will ever be to Wilson. For example, when Tom visits Myrtle at the garage Myrtle orders Wilson to fetch some chairs while she gives her true lover a warm greeting.
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.
The fact that women couldn't vote should that were unspoken flaws in the constitution. The women's strife changed the women's were thought off from there on. The women of america stand up to fix the discrimination against and prove themselves more than the stereotype. Even today the gender gap between men and women aren’t closed but women's have came a long way, for example, women can work the same jobs as men, have the same education, and if these milestones got its first major jump from the women's movement and reforms in the 1920’s and even leading up the women's winning
Women were not equal to men during the era of the 1920’s. In “The Great Gatsby,” Fitzgerald represents a negative, misogynistic, stereotypical view of the various types of women during the era of the 1920’s. During the that time, women were not portrayed in a positive light., By writing a book centered around that time period, it causes one to wonder the message Fitzgerald was trying to illustrate about women and what he was saying about society as a whole. Fitzgerald represents the view of women within the 20’s by depicting each character as a representation of the many stereotypes occurring within that era. The main characters Daisy, Myrtle, and Jordan each display pertinent roles within the story representing how women’s roles were
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
Gatsby was murdered by Wilson, because he thought that Gatsby was the one that hit his wife and killed her. Tom is a main contributor to Gatsby’s death because Myrtle was his mistress. Tom was the one that suggested he drive Gatsby’s car to town with Jordan and Nick. Myrtle saw them that day and Nick noticed “her eyes, [which became] wide with jealous terror were fixed not on Tom, but on Jordan Baker, whom she took to be his wife” (125). On the way back home, Gatsby and Daisy were driving the yellow car, which was the car that Tom was driving earlier. Myrtle ran out in front of the car as if “she wanted to speak to [them], [thinking they] were somebody she knew” (143). She ran thinking that it was Tom and that he would stop but, it wasn’t.
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.
stance that they are second-class citizens if they are citizens at all. . The fight for suffrage
In the 1920s and 1930s, women may have been able to vote, get a job, and be more independent, but that doesn't mean they wanted to. They earned lower pay and worked in harsh conditions, in the 1930s. They were also criticized for taking jobs away from the men. Many of the thoughts about how women should live still carried over from past years. In theory, they may have had more rights, but did not exercise them all (Working Women in the 1930s).