Daisy's Treatment Of Women In The Great Gatsby

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The Great Gatsby is a novel written by Scott Fitzgerald in the 1920s. Daisy is the main female character in this book who embodies the role of women in their society on a massive scale. She finds herself in the centre of a love triangle with her husband, Tom Buchanan, and her lover from long ago, Jay Gatsby. Both these men treat Daisy almost as property as they fight over her, not giving Daisy any real choice in the matter. In this time this is all women were to men; property. Although Tom is having an affair, he feels no remorse as he sees Daisy as his rightful possession. When he discovers Daisy’s affair with Gatsby Tom responds with this outburst completely ignoring what Daisy is saying;
“Daisy’s leaving you.” [says Gatsby]
“Nonsense.” …show more content…
Furthermore, Gatsby claims to ‘love’ Daisy, however he never takes into account her actual feelings. “I want to speak to Daisy alone… She’s all excited now-” (Fitzgerald, 140) Gatsby, just like Tom, overlooked and made excuses for Daisy’s opinion rather than considering her feelings. Women were not expected to have opinions in the 1920s and if they did they were written off by men like Tom and Gatsby in this situation. Gatsby claims to love Daisy but on top of ignoring her opinion, he also makes the assumption that she only values wealth which was a popular expectation of women in the 1920s showing how they are viewed as simple. On the outside Daisy satisfies the simplicity that is expected of her but in the novel we get some glimpses into what’s going on inside. “And I hope she’ll be a fool-that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.” (Fitzgerald, 21) This quote is spoken by Daisy about her daughter. It shows that the complacent naivety she projects is just a facade, that she is more complex than she appears. This quote is a reflection on what she wished she was, because if she were a fool she wouldn’t be knowledgeable of so many things such as Tom’s affair. She refers to all women when she says this quote because she is talking about how all women are expected to be beautiful fools in society. Daisy is the epitome of how women were treated and the role they played in the
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