how women are presented in the great gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald said of The Great Gatsby that it ‘contains no important woman character’. How are women presented in The Great Gatsby, and how can this be compared with the presentation of women in Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men? Initially, it appears that the women characters are seen as inferior and are significant only in the relationship to male characters. A distorted view could be shown as both texts are written by male narrators. F.Kerr said that Fitzgerald felt “women are so weak, really- emotionally unstable- and their nerves, when strained, break… this is a man’s world.” This insinuates that neither ‘The Great Gatsby’ or ‘No Country for old men’ contain an important female character.
In The Great Gatsby, Daisy’s life is defined entirely by her relationship with men. The line “Dinner with the Tom Buchanans,” enforces the unimportance of women characters because it suggests that Daisy’s identity is only as Tom’s wife, not as an individual in her own right, which fits with the Patriarchal society of the time. Fitzgerald uses Daisy, Jordan and Myrtle as props to reveal the male character’s personalities “tell em all Daisy’s changed her mind” shows Daisy’s main role within the novel is to be the object of Gatsby’s desire. The character of Daisy also realises how little control she has over her life when she says “the best thing a girl can be in the world is a beautiful little fool.” This confirms Fitzgerald’s statement of no important females because it simply implies women believed their roles in society weren’t important and had accepted the reality of living in the shadows of men. The noun ‘fool’ is a person who lacks judgement which reflects Daisy’s life as she is dictated by Tom and was easily persuaded to marry him. It indicates that Daisy is aware of her unimportance as a woman and corroborates Fitzgerald’s statement. Furthermore, the adjective ‘beautiful’ means looking pleasing at sight which was how Daisy first met her husband
In The Great Gatsby, Daisy’s life is defined entirely by her relationship with men. The line “Dinner with the Tom Buchanans,” enforces the unimportance of women characters because it suggests that Daisy’s identity is only as Tom’s wife, not as an individual in her own right, which fits with the Patriarchal society of the time. Fitzgerald uses Daisy, Jordan and Myrtle as props to reveal the male character’s personalities “tell em all Daisy’s changed her mind” shows Daisy’s main role within the novel is to be the object of Gatsby’s desire. The character of Daisy also realises how little control she has over her life when she says “the best thing a girl can be in the world is a beautiful little fool.” This confirms Fitzgerald’s statement of no important females because it simply implies women believed their roles in society weren’t important and had accepted the reality of living in the shadows of men. The noun ‘fool’ is a person who lacks judgement which reflects Daisy’s life as she is dictated by Tom and was easily persuaded to marry him. It indicates that Daisy is aware of her unimportance as a woman and corroborates Fitzgerald’s statement. Furthermore, the adjective ‘beautiful’ means looking pleasing at sight which was how Daisy first met her husband