Women In American Literature Essay Research Paper

Women In American Literature Essay, Research Paper

The Vilification of Women in The Great Gatsby and Ethan Frome

Women have played an important role in American literature. Unfortunately, this role was often negative, without cause to be so. Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby are examples of American literature in which women are needlessly vilified.

In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald presents three women in an especially bad light. Daisy Fay Buchanan, the narrator’s cousin, is the most obvious. Daisy is selfish and materialistic. She married her husband, Tom, because he was wealthy when he proposed to her. She ignored her true love, Jay Gatsby, because he was poor; this fact is evident when the two meet again after years apart and Daisy sees that Gatsby is rich now. Gatsby bought the house right across the bay from Daisy so he could be near her (Fitzgerald 83). Daisy admires all of his possessions and even considers leaving her husband for him, but in the end remains with Tom. This action is evidence of Daisy’s selfishness; the moment of their reunion means everything to Gatsby and nothing to Daisy, except for a game to help Daisy pass the time during her idle days (Magill 1144). The selfishness of Daisy is a detail that thrusts her into the role of a villain in the novel.

Daisy’s selfish nature is magnified a hundred times at the end of the novel. Driving home after an uncomfortable evening with Tom and Gatsby, she strikes and kills Tom’s mistress in Gatsby’s car. Daisy allows Gatsby to take all the blame for the accident. As a result, Myrtle’s husband kills Gatsby. To add insult to injury, Daisy does not even show up at Gatsby’s funeral, despite her role in his death. This uncaring personality further shows her selfishness and causes Daisy to look even worse to the reader.

Daisy’s interactions with her daughter display her self-absorbed nature plainly. Nick asks about the little girl, and Daisy’s only response on her first-born daughters life is “O, I suppose she talks and eats- and everything” (Fitzgerald 21). When Gatsby is visiting Daisy at her house, she only brings the little girl around because she “wanted to show her off” (Fitzgerald 123). Daisy uses her daughter to impress people, and does not have any real interest in the child’s daily activities; these actions show her self-absorbed nature.

Daisy appears immoral in The Great Gatsby. There is a “corruption which underlies Daisy’s world” (Goldenessays 1). She marries for money, turning herself basically into a prostitute. She is married, but one afternoon when Gatsby visits her at her house, “she got up and went over to Gatsby, and pulled down his face to kiss him on the mouth” (Fitzgerald 122). She considers leaving her husband for Gatsby. It is said that Daisy speaks in a “low thrilling voice…only to make people lean toward her” (Fitzgerald 13). She gossips about whatever she wants, and believes everything she hears; when speaking to Nick about his rumored engagement, she said that she “heard it from three people so it must be true” (Fitzgerald 24). Daisy’s gossipy personality makes her appear uncaring for those around her.

In addition to her lack of morals, Daisy is stupid. When the reader meets Daisy for the first time, she complains that Tom is “reading deep books with long words in them” (Fitzgerald 17). Later in the same meeting, Daisy tells Nick that she hopes her two year old daughter will be a fool- she says that “that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool” (Fitzgerald 21). The statement causes the reader to ask whether Daisy is really a fool or if she pretends to be one because that is all she thinks she can be in life; either way, she comes out looking stupid.

Myrtle is another character in The Great Gatsby who Fitzgerald vilifies. She symbolizes desire; her physical description is that of a voluptuous, seductive woman; Nick says she “carried her surplus flesh as sensuously as some women can” (Fitzgerald 29). The first time the reader is introduced to Myrtle, she “wets her lips…and orders her husband” (Fitzgerald 30). Myrtle is having a tawdry relationship with Tom (de Koster 92). Like Daisy, Myrtle is a married woman. However, Myrtle says she only married her husband because she thought he was a gentleman. Her sister says she was once crazy about him, but Myrtle says “the only crazy I was was when I married him!” (Fitzgerald 39). Despite the fact that Myrtle’s husband is a hard-working man who desperately wants to be closer to his wife, she loathes him enough to cheat on him and still feel no qualms about spending his money and living with him.

Myrtle does not appear to be very intellectual in the novel. Fitzgerald presents her as na.ve and low-class. For example, Myrtle reads “Town Tattle” and “Simon Called Peter,” two popular gossip magazines. Nick notices the periodicals when he is in her flat for the first time; on the same day, he witnesses Tom’s abuse of Myrtle. They argue over whether Myrtle has any right to say the name of Tom’s wife, and though Myrtle is surely aware of Tom’s temper, she encourages his rage by shouting “Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!” and “I’ll say it whenever I want to!” (Fitzgerald 41). Tom breaks Myrtle’s nose. This refusal to either leave Tom or make concessions to his violent nature show that Myrtle is incapable of making good decisions and adding