What is the importance of the female characters - Jordan is used by Fitzgerald to illustrate a new kind of women emerging during the "Jazz Age", exemplified by Fitzgerald's wife, Zelda Sayre.

Joei Chung LVI

What is the importance of the female characters?

“The American dream, stretched between a golden past and a golden future, is always betrayed by a desolate present”. This quote seems to exemplify the materialism of the three female characters. This is one of the most important characteristics of the women as it explains some of the decisions they ultimately take. All the characters have an important role within the novel.

Jordan is used by Fitzgerald to illustrate a new kind of women emerging during the “Jazz Age”, exemplified by Fitzgerald’s wife, Zelda Sayre. She is perceived as being the most independent of the three characters. Whilst Daisy and Myrtle rely on the men to provide them with financial support, Jordan, through her career, is able to achieve financial security independently. She is also perceived as being the most masculine of the three characters. Her name is derived from two cars, Jordan the sports car and the Baker. In addition, driving a sports car and being a professional golf player are things more associated with men rather than women. On Nick’s first meeting with Jordan, he describes her meeting him with a “pleasing contemptuous expression” and a “charming” yet “discontented face”. She is associated with cold, harsh colours like white and grey. She wore a “white dress” and had grey eyes. However, when Nick sees her again at Gatsby’s parties, his descriptions of her now associate her with the colour gold. “Jordan’s slender gold arm” hints at the idea of idol worship and the possession of wealth and reputation that Nick seeks. This is important as it strikes a comparison between Nick’s desire to achieve status through Jordan whilst Myrtle and Daisy do the same through Tom and Gatsby respectively. Jordan also functions as the opposite of Daisy as she is a fully liberated woman of the 1920s whereas Daisy hides behind the shadow of Tom and material luxuries. She is also different to the other two characters is “she wore her evening-dress…like sports clothes” whereas Daisy and Myrtle are described with grace and elegance. Jordan is also dishonest, as the alleged cheating in a golf tournament demonstrates, and careless. Whilst driving in the city, Nick tells her she is “a rotten driver”. In reply, Jordan tells Nick that other people are not as careless as she is and she makes sure careful people like Nick surround her. Jordan is an important character within the novel because she displays a change in the typical female role given by authors and exemplified by Daisy and Myrtle.

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Daisy is described as having “a voice full of money”. Nick comments at the end that Daisy and Tom, like Jordan, are careless people, “who smashed things up and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness”. She represents the power of money-particularly the old money of America. She shows her love of money and material goods with her awe at Gatsby’s shirts. She cried at the sight of the shirts, “They’re such beautiful shirts”. Her love of money is important because as it explains the actions she takes and the events which occur. Evidence for her love of money is that Tom bought her love with a $300,000 necklace and Gatsby tries to win her back with his mansion and shirts. Like Jordan, Daisy is a careless character, as the accident with Myrtle shows. She is careless because she had been born into wealth and she had an endless resource of men who continually spoil her. However, Nick’s descriptions of her are unlike Jordan’s as they are very romantic. She had “bright eyes and a bright passionate mouth” with “a voice which men…found difficult to forget”. Although associated with white, this description signifies a cool white rather than a cold, harsh white as with Jordan. The descriptions of her associate her with warm words, such as “glowing”. Daisy is also a character without a sense of consequence; she goes off with Gatsby without a thought for her marriage. In spite of all of her faults, she is a clever character that is cynical about the position she is in. She comments “the best thing a girl can be in this world” is “a beautiful little fool”. Although she displays foolishness, she is doing so out of necessity as she is trapped in her marriage due to her love of money. Throughout The Great Gatsby, Daisy is described in almost fairytale language. The name Fay means “fairy” or “sprite”, whilst “Daisy” suggests the glower, fresh and bright as spring, yet fragile and without the strength to resist the heat and dryness of summer. Daisy is an important character in the novel as she is the focus of Gatsby’s hopes and dreams, although his dreams exceed her. Without Daisy, Gatsby would not have created a fantasy world where he was rich and powerful in order to have her. She is the main drive behind Gatsby’s ambition to succeed and this ultimately takes his life.

The name Myrtle is also derived from a plant, a bitter herb. In a way, this is a suitable name for her as she is bitter at the way she is trapped in her unhappy marriage. She wants to be escape from the valley of ashes into the city to find material happiness. Fitzgerald portrays Myrtle as someone who is preoccupied with material things and driven by consumerism. “She lets four taxicabs drive away before she selects a new one”. Tom provides her with her material cravings, which George fails to do. Her purchases and the frequent changing of her clothes when she arrives in New York show her material desires. Myrtle is an important character in the novel as she echoes a main theme. Gatsby reinvents himself several times to please and win Daisy over. In a way, Myrtle also reinvents herself frequently to try to please Tom, but on a smaller scale. In comparing Myrtle and Daisy, it is obvious that the two were bought up in different worlds. Daisy was born into a world of wealth but Myrtle did not find material happiness until she met Tom. However, both characters display naivety and selfishness.

Whilst on the outside, the three characters may not be identical; one characteristic that links them altogether. They are all careless and spoilt. They people around them adjust to their actions in order to make them feel comfortable, hence making them important and central characters.

Bibliography

Wordsworth Classics The Great Gatsby – F.Scott Fitzgerald
The English Review
Scott Fitzgerald’s Criticisms of America – Marius Bewley from F.Scott Fitzgerald edited by Arthur Mizener