Women In The Great Gatsby

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The female characters in The Great Gatsby and Tender is the Night introduced the images of the "New Woman" and the liberated status and equality of women. There are many female characters in these novels that are no longer bound by traditional archetypes and show independence from their male counterparts. In The Great Gatsby, we are presented with contrast between the multiple women characters in the novels. For example, Jordan and Daisy have very opposing characteristics. Daisy is a very dependent woman representative of the traditionally limited woman at the time of writing. She enjoys being in the stability and comfort of her husband Tom, and is controlled by him due to her submissive and passive characteristics. For her whole life, she …show more content…
Tom professes his love for Daisy and that he will treat her better from then on. Now, Daisy begins to "stare terrified between Gatsby and her husband" as she becomes torn between them. Even with Gatsby's constant words of encouragement, Daisy withdraws "further and further into herself," ignoring what Gatsby said and her empowerment in the situation. She slowly lets the already "dead dream" pass away. "Her frightened eyes told that whatever intentions, whatever courage she had had, were definitely gone." When Daisy was forced to decide between her marriage with Tom and her romantic affair with Gatsby, Daisy could not take a firm stand and state her intentions. She is confused and frightened, losing her fragile courage to diverge from her absent-minded life. As a finale, Tom exercises his power over Daisy and orders Daisy to get in the car with Gatsby, knowing that Gatsby had ultimately lost. Ironically, Daisy chooses to stay with Tom, even though Gatsby had allowed Daisy to speak for herself. In the end, she chooses stability and money over empowerment and passion, guaranteeing a man that will serve as her foundation and …show more content…
While Rosemary was attending a party near the beginning of the novel, she acutely notices that Albert McKisco obviously "had created his wife's world". -(yoon, elaborate this part)However, later Albert reveals, almost helplessly, that his wife was a very hard woman to live with once she gained an advantage upon you and that she had called him a coward that night (Fitzgerald, Tender 56). Apart from the exterior, this truly shows the changes and struggles that are occurring between the power relationships of males and females. "The public face that the couple reveals reflects little truth about their relationship privately." (Luong
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