Dissecting “The Great Gatsby” with Feminist Criticism

 Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” is a novel set in the time period of 1925, and the writing throughout the story is evident of the times. Using feminist criticism, one can dissect the writing of Scott Fitzgerald and understand society’s views of women in the 20s. During the time in which “The Great Gatsby” is set, feminism was still just getting off of the ground. Flashy, extravagant flappers come to mind, and their supposed frivolous nature, and the fact that such bold women were quite obscene in the eyes of the men of the era. Women were only recently able to vote, and even then it was controversial. The 1925 story of “The Great Gatsby” follows an ordinary man named Nick, and his accounts of his extravagant neighbor's attempts to win back his old flame, Nick’s cousin Daisy. The way that women are described and treated throughout the story in Nick’s narration, when viewed through the lens of feminist criticism, is evidence of the patriarchal values and ideals that structured society at the time.

 In the story, women are often treated with less respect than a man, which was common at the time. At one of Gatsby’s parties, when women begin to fight with their husbands, it is said that, "wives were lifted, kicking, into the night," (Fitzgerald, 52). This quote exemplifies the fact that the women were given no bodily autonomy during this time period.They were treated as children, were not allowed to express opinions, and were often seen as hysterical or emotional rather than simply a person expressing themselves. In contrast, no matter how emotional a man could get, they were still upheld as the superior sex. The violation of these women by physically picking them up and carrying them out of the party does not seem to phase Nick, or anyone for that matter. This shows that actions such as these were perfectly accepted and normalized during the times, demonstrating the disregard for a woman’s right to her personal self. One may raise the question as to the intention behind Fitzgerald’s writing of Nick’s perspective of such things. It could be that Fitzgerald simply thought in such a way that the happenings of such affairs felt normal and justified, or it could be that Fitzgerald was attempting to raise awareness to the issue by creating such an aloof narration of such events.

The theme that women were not to express themselves continues, when Mrs. Wilson speaks of Tom Buchanan’s wife. He is having an affair with Mrs. Wilson, and seems to find it horrendous that she would speak of his wife to him. When she does, "Making a short deft movement, Tom Buchanan broke [M]rs. Wilson her nose with his open hand," (Fitzgerald, 37). Tom wastes no time in laying a hand on the woman, no matter his relation to her or the reason. The idea that this was acceptable at the time is shocking, but true. Nick barely bats an eye in his recounting of the event, showing how normal it was at that time to do such things. Tom receives no consequence for his violent actions, whereas Mrs. Wilson, who did nothing more than speak, receives a broken nose. This reveals the values of the patriarchy and the sexism with which society was so used to. Men were upheld as the leaders and were allowed to punish on their terms and to what extent they saw fit, as women were simply not on the same level as them in a patriarchal society’s eyes.

Females and males in society have always been placed into ideal boxes. Gender, even to this day, has determined how people are viewed and treated. Feminine often means description words that connote soft, flowy, and curvy images. In “The Great Gatsby”, women are often described in such feminizing ways. Daisy and her lady friend are laying on a couch at one point on page eight, and Nick watches as, “The two young women ballooned slowly to the floor,” (Fitzgerald, 8). The imagery of the word “ballooned” is obviously intended to be feminine. Nick describes them as flowy, cloud-like visions, which is inherently feminine, as Tom or Gatsby would never be described in such a fashion, and are rather described with more “masculine” adjectives. Mrs. Wilson is also referred to in such a way that she is seen as the male gaze’s idea of “feminine”. When she is first introduced, Nick observes, “She was in her middle thirties, and faintly stout, but she carried her surplus flesh sensuously as some women can,”(Fitzgerald, 25). She is described to have “surplus flesh”, which one can assume means that she is somewhat thicker in stature than some women. However, she apparently carries it in a way that pleases Nick, for he describes it as “sensual”. This implies that women, in the eyes of men, are only attractive or of value if their bodies are pleasing to the male gaze. Nick mentions that she is thicker, and follows this statement with the word “but” in order to try and “save” this unseemly description, in his eyes, with the fact that her extra weight is distributed in sensual ways that please him. Mrs. Wilson is yet another example of the fact that women are reduced to their curvier shapes and society’s expectations of them to be softer personalities than men. This is shown in literature with such descriptive words that create a more soft and “feminine” image.

With the descriptions of women being so different from that of men, the reader can come to understand the connotations that such descriptions imply. Nick describes Mrs. Wilson and explains that, (about Mrs. Wilson) “Her laughter, her gestures, her assertions became more violently affected moment by moment and as she expanded the room grew smaller around her, until she seemed to be revolving on a noisy, creaking pivot through the smoky air,”(Fitzgerald, 30-31). Mrs. WIlson is reduced to her loudness and chattiness, while also being dehumanized to nothing but noise moving through the air. Nick does not see her as a respectable woman with important things to say, but rather, he sees her as more of a ditz, or an annoyance. The way he describes her sounds almost mechanical, relating, in the process, women and femininity to something more of an object.

Nick describes women in such a way that they seem to be reduced to objects. When describing the girls that a man enters one of Gatsby’s parties with, he says, “Benny McClenahan arrived always with four girls. They were never quite the same ones in physical person, but they were so identical with one another that it inevitably seemed they had been there before,”(Fitzgerald, 63) The comparison of the girls to each other and those that came before them describes the girls to be so similar that they are indecipherable amongst themselves. This reduces the girls to objects without their own personalities and traits to separate them from the others around them. The patriarchal society has imprinted the ideas that women are all alike and unable to have their own valid opinions, personalities, and prescenses.

Femininity is often also thought of as “innocent” in a patriarchal society, which one can argue is the reduction of women to children or childlike traits. If a woman does not fit into the patriarchal guidelines of femininity, she becomes dirtied in the eyes of society. When Daisy’s lover, a soldier who we learn to be Gatsby, leaves, “she (Daisy) didn’t play around with the soldiers anymore,”(Fitzgerald, 75) The wording of “play around” reduces Daisy and her emotions to that of a child. The writing exploits Daisy’s emotions as nothing more than a fling, nothing serious. She is a grown woman capable of feeling strong adult emotions and experiencing true relationships, but since she is a woman she is seen as silly and childlike in her emotional state. The usage of the word “play” also evokes the connotations that the relationship was a game to her, an assumption made by sexist ideals implying that she is not capable of understanding true love and her emotions cannot be as strong or cannot matter as much as a male’s. The wording implies that this game is one she plays often, and creates a negative image of Daisy as a mere girl that flits from man to man without a true emotional bond.

 Fitzgerald’s writing of women throughout the story is a window into the way that women were viewed in the patriarchal society of the 1920’s. The way that the women in the book are treated by their male counterparts is dehumanizing, infantilizing, and offensive. They are assaulted, verbally abused, and made to seem like they have no worth other than that of the male society’s deciding. The structure of Fitzgerald’s writing is written in such a way that these issues are presented in a way that seems aloof and unphased from the perspective of a male. This allows for two perspectives to be known to the reader: that of the male and that of their own. While a male narrator is unaffected by such happenings to the women of the story, the reader in this day and age can understand that the way the events unfurl in relation to the women is wrong and sexist. The uncaring nature of the male narrator only adds to the reader’s understanding of the problem, as it is made obvious how normalized such treatment of women was at the time the book was written. The structure of society at the time allowed for the morally wrong treatment of women, and Fitzgerald, whether he meant to or not, brought this issue to light with his writing of “The Great Gatsby”.

Sources 

●      Fitzgerald, F., 2004. The Great Gatsby. London [etc.]: Scribner.

●      Lab, Purdue. "Feminist Criticism // Purdue Writing Lab". Purdue Writing Lab, 2021,https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/subject_specific_writing/writing_in_literature/literary_theory_and_schools_of_criticism/feminist_criticism.html.

●       "Feminist Literary Criticism In English Literature - Literature Essay Samples". Literature Essay Samples, 2021, https://literatureessaysamples.com/feminist-literary-criticism-in-english-literature/

●      Lois Tyson,Critical Theory Today,2nd Edition, Routledge, 2006.

●      https://app.perusall.com/courses/eng303-a01-21fa/tyson-feminist-criticism.