Women in the Great Gatsby

The Flapper’s Path to Equality The Jazz Age in which Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby takes place, was a period of prohibition, immorality, and perhaps most importantly: women’s suffrage. Also known as The Roaring 20’s, this was a decade of transformation for American culture – women were beginning to be viewed as able and self-sufficient. Women were no longer encumbered by society’s views and could thrive in light of this newly found independence. Although the 1920’s was a revolutionary decade for the United States, there were still varying views about a woman’s role in society: men like Nick, Gatsby, and George Wilson had a great deal of respect for women whereas men like Tom treated them scantily. Whilst women were gaining basic liberties it was not an instant adaptation, rather it was a process that took several decades. Even today women can be viewed as heavily reliant upon their male counterpart in the form of the slang term “Gold Digger.” Throughout the book Tom Buchanan is the epitome of society that oppressed women and he was a devout believer that women were simply made for man’s pleasure. This is just one example of Tom’s many warped social views. A subtle reference to this oppression was when Jordan Baker “read aloud to him from the ‘Saturday Even Post’” (22). It may be faint but Fitzgerald points out that Tom thinks it is a woman’s role to do such tedious activities as reciting the daily newspaper. These subtle hints become blatantly obvious when Tom bellows, “Women run around too much these days to suit me” (110). He is clearly expressing his authoritative surface and believes that women should be kept in line and under scrupulous control. This ignorance is soon surpassed and becomes outrageous when “Making a short deft movement Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand” (41).

Resorting to violence, Tom breaks Myrtle’s nose for doing nothing more than exercising her freedom of speech. Tom is not the only character in the book that condescends upon women, but the protagonist of the story is guilty of sexual discrimination: “Dishonesty in a woman is a thing you never blame deeply” (63). Essentially Nick is either saying that being a woman is an excuse for being dishonest or that all women are dishonest – neither of these viewpoints are acceptable for a socially progressive man like Nick. It seems that throughout the book the women’s social and economic status mirrors that of their partner, and that is the sole reason that Daisy married Tom in the first place – for financial stability. This meant that the woman would be subordinate to their male counterpart surrender to a man’s every whim; in contrast, there are relationships like the one between Myrtle and George Wilson that conflict with this way of thinking. Fitzgerald mentions that “[George] was his wife’s man and not his own” (144). George Wilson was evidently kept under his wife’s belt and the authority in the relationship gravitates more toward George Wilson’s disloyal wife. Early in the book Mrs. McKee mentions that “I almost married a little kyke who’d been after me for years. I knew he was below me” (38). This statement was more than a little arrogant of her and she is very in control of how society views her as opposed to the customary male domination. Gatsby treated women with much more respect than most other men in the novel, despite their somewhat manly tendencies like when “he lit Daisy’s cigarette from a trembling match and sat down” (100). Gatsby was the embodiment of a very classy and respectful man and Daisy was in many ways the representation of a “Flapper.” Smoking was seen as very masculine for long before the Jazz Age and only during this period of

rapid change did it become acceptable. Gatsby won women over; unlike Tom who sees women as objects that he automatically has a warrant for: “As he left the room again she got up and went over to Gatsby, and pulled his face down kissing him on the mouth” (122). Not until the end of the book did Tom Buchanan realize that “His wife and his mistress, until an hour ago secure and inviolate, were slipping precipitately from his control” (131). The 1920’s was a decade that changed the culture of the United States forever and had these series of events not occurred, modern day America would probably be just as sexist as it was nine decades ago. Most of the female characters from The Great Gatsby fall under the modern label of “Gold Digger.” Their wealth was entirely dependent on who they married, not what they had achieved. One of the few characters that symbolize the movement for women’s suffrage is Jordan Baker as she was a famous golfer and she was completely independent; free from any many to do as she pleases.