A Feminist Perspective on the Inevitability of the Fate of Tragic Women in The Great Gatsby

Abstract

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald's masterwork, focuses on the social scene of materialism and hedonism in New York City in the 1920s. The book concentrates on the emotional story of Gatsby, Tom, Daisy, and Myrtle, and condemns prevalence of capitalism, which leads to the manic love of money and the lust for profit of people. From a feminist perspective, this dissertation interprets the inevitability of the fate of the tragic women in the book. By analyzing the background of the post-World War I economic boom in the United States at that time, when people were chasing after wealth and eager for gold and luxurious living. And looking at the specific characters and behaviors of Daisy and Myrtle, two female characters from different classes, we can see that women's tragic character and fate are founded on a patriarchal culture and warped beliefs of "materialism first" at the time. Therefore, their tragic fate was inevitable.