Depiction of Sexuality and Gender Roles in 'The Great Gatsby'
Fitzgerald’s timeless The Great Gatsby provides an accurate depiction of a patriarchal system which objectified and confined women of the 1920 era. Through adopting a feminist perspective, the audience develops an understanding of the juxtaposition between liberation and oppression and how women can be both empowered yet confined by the restraints of society. Readers are then able to critically analyse the liberation of Daisy, Jordan and Myrtle, as well as their oppression perpetuated by the male characters as well as society. Analysing gender roles in The Great Gatsby through a sexuality lens reveals the techniques that Fitzgerald utilises to create ambiguity around the sexuality of Jordan, both in the description and characterisation as well as her interactions with Nick. The sense of ‘passing’ that is developed provides insight into the queer scene of 1920s New York as well as the heteronormality that prevented those who were sexually ambiguous leaving truthfully.
Literary Depiction of Woman's Image in the Story
Literature critique has often labelled the woman of the Great Gatsby as oppressed, as a result of their patriarchal society. A feminist lens allows the audience to recognize the evolving political landscape which saw the emergence of the New Woman which allows the characters liberation particularly in their sexual expression as they openly challenge traditional patriarchal sexual taboo. Whilst Myrtle and Daisy are married, their willingness to engage in extramarital affairs shows their reluctance to keep their unhappiness a secret, and as such defy the norm of secrecy in patriarchal marriages. Similarly, the allusions to Jordan’s premarital sex show her liberation from traditional values as Tom remarks “shouldn’t let her run around the country in this way.” Through analysing the text through a feminist perspective their actions express their empowerment in the new age and their emancipation from the traditional values of society which once binded them into submission. Jordan and Daisy both enjoy lavish lifestyles relishing in the night life of society rather than engaging in the conventional maternal role. Whilst Daisy is a mother, her daughter is rarely present within the novel and only speaks one line which is reflective of her omission from her traditional maternal role and her rejection of the assumption that a woman’s life should exclusively revolve around the typical maternal responsibilities. Jordan’s possesses many male attributes and is perceived in quite a masculine sense being a woman who successfully plays a man’s game. She is self-sufficient and independent upon the basis of her skill in golf which makes her a transgressive figure with the phallic golf club liberating her from a patriarchal capitalism which existed in 1920s America.
The perception of gender within the Great Gatsby is largely affected by the cultural constricts exacerbated of the omnipresent patriarchal bases of 1920s New York. The oppression of woman is mainly present to the readers through the lack of autonomous female role models, specifically present to address the prevalent target audience of males but also to reflective the dominance and power men had over women, which paints women as the inferior sex. Whilst the traditional identify of a female is challenged by Jordan, this contributes to her relevance in the text. Through Nick’s narration Jordan is present in the text, she appears rather indistinguishable however the male attributes that are permitted to her allow her to be relevant both in the text and in the eyes of Nick’s alluding to his potential homosexuality. The cycle of patriarchal lifestyle is captured through Daisy’s daughter Pammy, who Daisy refers to as the picture of perfection “you dream, you absolute little dream” to which the daughter interprets artificially responding “Yes Aunt Jordan’s got a white dress too” which highlights that her garments not only connotate her innocence but symbolize the self-consciously adopted uniform of idealized feminine purity, and shows the deeply internalised values of patriarchy. Myrtle’s overt sexuality ultimately is her demise as her death is a reflective of emphasis of her physicality in her characterization. Fitzgerald undermines her as artificial and grotesque as her death prominences the destruction of her sexuality with “her left breast swinging loose” and her mouth “ripped.” She is punished for her expression of her sexuality which sways from patriarchal values. Daisy however, a less sexual character is allowed to resume normality after her illicit relationship.
The Ambiguity Around Jordan’s Sexuality
The language which Fitzgerald uses to portray Jordan appears emblematic to her masked sexuality, to the extent it appears a code in the novel. The constant repetition of the word ‘jaunty’, in its many derivations is only used in relation to Jordan with Nick pronouncing “There was a jauntiness about her movements” and later “her brown hand waved a jaunty salute.” the verbatim reiteration of jauntiness is acts as a manner of pretense along with the double entendre usage of “gay” in circumstances it could be interpreted as gleeful or homosexual suggest a coded usage. Her deliberate indistinctness is proof her strategies for passing are successful, as her indistinguishability from other women is not a self-conscious pose rather a form of passing as queer. This is especially prevalent when considering the queer scene of society as well as its expression in literature as the word gay had transformed to be a reference to transgressive sexuality. Readers across many generations have dismissed her role in the novel, or made her the evidence of Nick’s potential homosexuality, which retrospectively suggests a queer orientation as she represents the remarkably unremarkable. She brings a sense of ordinariness which in itself creates a pretentious pose, coupled by her sheer banality allows her to pass in the novel and in a society, whom do not accept her transgressive sexuality. Furthermore, an understanding of the queer scene allows the reader to recognize Jordan’s name as queer as allusions to the sexually and racially transgressive figure of Josephine Baker whom in 1925 the year of publication for Great Gatsby was a woman blues singer who was openly bisexual.
Nick observes Jordan’s sexuality through examining her character and persona. Her unchanging nature is noticed by Nick when he meets Jordan stating, “it occurred to me that I had seen her or a picture of her, somewhere before”. This indicates to the audience that her reality and appearance in photographs are interchangeable: “posed”, in which he comments “I knew now why her face was familiar its pleasing contemptuous expression had looked out at me from many rotogravure pictures of the sporting life.” The audience is subsequently positioned to ascertain that her appearance always appears languid and at ease, despite rigidly posed in the photographs. Nick’s studying of her casual air alludes to his qualms about her sexuality as her identical expression is Fitzgerald’s subtle hint to the audience that Jordan is always posing. This subtlety allows the audience to appreciate her superficiality as a carefully constructed mask designed to conceal a secret life in a panoptical society. Nick identifies with Jordan through their shared deception within society and the novel as he recalls an accusation of cheating made against Jordan during a golfing tournament, however he dismisses her collusion stating “dishonestly in a woman is a thing you never blame deeply” which initially appears as a misogynistic dismissal of woman. However, this comes after the ambiguity of his homosexuality is implied, he recognizes the necessity of deceit in a society that defines one’s desire and agency as illicit and as such relates to Jordan’s deception. His consideration of her dishonestly, creates the possibility that she is not as she appears to be allowing him to understand that she is concealing something. She later confirms and affirms her careful appearance to appear straight stating to Nick “I hate careless people. That’s why I like you” which acknowledges she too is queer and also like him, not careless, but discreet. In effect, Jordan “deliberately shifted their relations” by very nearly articulating her understanding and confirming his suspicion, that's he, too, is queer.
Fitzgerald’s portrayal of women is perplexing, whilst he provides a narrative of liberated, independent women reflecting the New Women image and lifestyle, each are deeply oppressed by their internalised misogyny which sustains the power imbalance that perpetuates the values of a patriarchal society. Similarly, the ambiguity which surrounds Jordan’s sexuality both within her depiction in the novel as well as her relationship with Nick reflects the changing nature of the transgressive sexuality scene in the 1920 and its representation in literature, yet the ambiguity itself is the
