Does breaking societal gender norms mean reward and praise or ultimately punishment? Exploring this question, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby illustrates the life of Jay Gatsby, a personable yet mysterious man with a hidden agenda, and the various characters enveloped within his story: Tom Buchanan, the egoistic and wealthy socialite, Daisy Buchanan, the idealistic golden girl, and Myrtle Wilson, a woman with dreams far beyond her standing. Gatsby and Myrtle step away from gender norms only to be punished in the end; on the other hand, Tom and Daisy escape the repercussions of their actions and maintain their high status. The Great Gatsby reinforces gender norms in society by rewarding those who conform and punishing those who ignore them.
Through the stories of Gatsby and Myrtle, Fitzgerald reinforces that people who defy their gender norms are destined for failure and punishment. Gatsby, unlike other male characters in the novel, openly displays his emotions and does not put up a tough front. When he and Daisy first meet again for the first time in five years, Gatsby is so visibly shaken while taking her through his house. Fitzgerald writes, “He had passed visibly through two states and was entering upon a third. After his embarrassment and his unreasoning joy, he was consumed with such wonder at her presence. He had been full of the idea…at an inconceivable pitch of intensity. Now, in the reaction, he was running down like an overwound clock” (Fitzgerald 92). According to the norms of society in the 1920s, men are not supposed to show emotion and are taught to be very strong, especially in matters regarding women. Being aggressive is how men are taught to act in front of women. However, Gatsby is visibly shaken up and nervous around Daisy, which is usually how stereotypes portray women around men. He is sensitive and caring, opposite from the male gender stereotype portrayed by others in the novel. His “running down like an overwound clock” symbolizes his inability to keep his emotions in check, highlighting how he removes himself from those male stereotypes.
Fitzgerald also utilizes colors to feminize Gatsby and highlight his ignorance of gender stereotypes. He oftentimes portrays Gatsby wearing pink, a color most stereotypically associated with women. Nick Carraway describes Gatsby in his pink suit: “I hadn’t gone twenty yards when I heard my name and Gatsby stepped from between two bushes into the path. I must have felt pretty weird by that time, because I could think of nothing except the luminosity of his pink suit under the moon” (Fitzgerald 142). In this quote Fitzgerald portrays Gatsby in a feminine light, using the color pink and its “luminosity”. This demasculinizes Gatsby and pushes him towards female gender stereotypes. Nick remarks feeling weird because he is not used to seeing men of his time period not being masculine and dressed in unconventional colors. Furthermore, Nick cannot see anything besides the color pink on Gatsby, symbolizing how Gatsby begins to become known for ignoring gender conventions, rather than for who he is. A. E. Elmore picks up on this subtle nuance in the essay “Color and Cosmos in The Great Gatsby”, which analyzes the meaning behind colors in the novel. Elmore writes, “To take another example, Gatsby, whose customary caramel-colored or pink suits virtually define the man, wears on one occasion a ‘white-flannel suit’. The occasion is his long-awaited reunion with Daisy” (429). Gatsby is known for his unconventional choice of colors, which represents his ignorance of conventional gender norms. The only time he wears a normal colored suit is for Daisy because he feels the need to disguise his true nature by following male gender norms in order to impress Daisy, who follows female gender norms. Just like Gatsby, Myrtle is another character in the novel that abandons gender norms set by society.
Myrtle, a woman who dreams of transcending her social class, defies the societal norms set for women set in her time period. Myrtle, a woman married to Wilson, a poor man with no ambitions, finds Tom and uses her sexuality to try to reach the upper echelons of society. Nick describes her, “Her face…contained no facet or gleam of beauty, but there was an immediately perceptible vitality about her…She smiled slowly and, walking through her husband as if he were a ghost, shook hands with Tom, looking him flush in the eye” (Fitzgerald 26). Women, according to societal gender norms, are supposed to look pretty and be somewhat invisible when men are around. Myrtle, however, breaks this mold by being not conventionally “pretty” and “walking through” her husband as if he does not exist like a “ghost”, going to the point of having an affair with Tom despite being married. Myrtle uses her sexuality as an opportunity to climb the social ladder. Her “looking him flush in the eye” symbolizes the control Myrtle has over her sexuality and how she can manipulate that in order to get what she wants. She refuses to let the demure “golden girl” persona capture who she is and what she wants.
Additionally, Myrtle displays extreme vitality and excitement that contrasts with the coy and unassuming attitudes of high society women. She describes the first time encountering Tom, “…I couldn’t keep my eyes off him…I was so excited that when I got into a taxi with him I didn’t hardly know I wasn’t getting into a subway train. All I kept thinking about, over and over, was ‘You can’t live forever, you can’t live forever’” (Fitzgerald 36). According to gender norms and conventions, a married woman should never let her eye wander and look for other men. However, Myrtle “couldn’t keep” her “eyes off him [Tom]” and seems more than willingly to begin a passionate affair with Tom. She deviates from the normal standard of being a married woman and uses this affair not only as a way to relieve herself from her lifeless marriage with Wilson but as a chance of living a life of wealth and luxury. She does not want to “live forever” as just Wilson’s wife; she wants to take risks and chase after what she wants, which is not conventional for a married woman of the 1920s.
Noticing various similarities in Gatsby and Myrtle’s ambitions, E.C. Bufkin argues in “A Pattern of Parallel and Double: The Function of Myrtle in The Great Gatsby” that Fitzgerald creates a parallel between Gatsby and Myrtle because they both step out of conforming gender norms for men and women, respectively. Bufkin writes, “Gatsby is engaged, above all, in a romantic quest for a beau ideal—‘the king’s daughter, the golden girl,’ Daisy, as quester he is playing the same role as Myrtle. Her quest is for Tom, the rich man…Myrtle’s quest is to her as romantic and as idealized as Gatsby’s is to him…” (Bufkin 519). Gatsby and Myrtle go out of their gender norms and chase individuals who seem to be out of their reach in hopes of attaining their love. It is unlike men to be harping on and chasing women, but Gatsby willingly spends his life doing so for Daisy. Similarly, Myrtle, instead of keeping to herself as a married woman and hiding her sexuality, uses it to chase after Tom in hopes of luxury and love.
Unlike Gatsby and Myrtle, Tom and Daisy reinforce the gender norms throughout the novel. Tom, a man of wealth and high standing, takes pride in his masculine attributes. Nick describes Tom to the reader: “Two shining arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face and gave him the appearance of always leaning aggressively forward…it was a body capable of enormous leverage—a cruel body” (Fitzgerald 7). Tom displays stereotypical attributes of a hyper-masculine man—he is aggressive and arrogant. His wealth adds to his masculinity and gives him additional dominance. His aggressiveness highlights how he needs to display his alpha behavior over everyone around him. Tom not only has physical “leverage” over people; he has leverage over people through his stereotypical male mindset which belittles people, often times based on financial status. Tom relies on his masculine stature “leaning aggressively forward” to intimidate because he can only intimidate with his physical appearance, not with the knowledge of his mind or personality.
Tom also exhibits male gender stereotypes through his callous attitude and insensitivity. When Gatsby tells Tom that he and Daisy love each other, Tom says, “She does, though. The trouble is that sometimes she gets foolish ideas in her head and doesn’t know what she’s doing…And what’s more I love Daisy too. Once in a while I go off on a spree and make a fool of myself, but I always come back, and in my heart I love her all the time” (Fitzgerald 131). Men expect women to forgive their mistakes and come running back to them. Here, Tom does the very same thing by admitting to his “sprees” with women and then expecting Daisy to forgive him because he “loves her all the time”. Moreover, he sees women as inferior, naive fools. He says Gatsby was one of the “foolish ideas” in Daisy’s head, and she cannot distinguish from what it is right and what is foolish. He also places double standards on Daisy, stereotypical of arrogant men, calling her affair with Gatsby foolish and becoming very upset when finding out, yet overlooking his own “sprees” over the years with various women.
Like Tom, Daisy also chooses to conform to gender norms in the novel. Jordan Baker, one of Daisy’s close friends, describes Daisy as a young girl: “She was just eighteen, two years older than me, and by far the most popular of all the young girls in Louisville. She dressed in white…and excited young officers from Camp Taylor demanded the privilege of monopolizing her that night” (Fitzgerald 74). Daisy is the ideal “golden girl”: she is popular and rich. Men chasing after her further validates her conformity to gender norms because women were not supposed to chase after men; rather, men should go and court women. She does not hesitate in being “monopolized” by various men because that is what she is expected to do, and it is what she wants because it gives her attention and popularity. Also dressed in white, she represents the naivety and innocence that women are expected to have throughout their lives.
Additionally, Daisy simply accepts what society wants out of women. When talking about her daughter, Daisy indifferently mentions, “I’m glad it’s a girl. 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 17). Here, Daisy chooses ignorance over knowledge. She is perfectly content with her boring life as a stereotypical pretty socialite with no interest in intellect rather than face real and actual problems around her, such as Tom’s various affairs or even the existence of her own daughter. Thus, she believes conformity is the safest path to take, for it offers financial, social, and emotional security. To further emphasize Daisy’s conformity, Frances Kerr mentions in her essay “Feeling ‘Half Feminine’: Modernism and the Politics of Emotion in The Great Gatsby”, which analyzes femininity and masculinity in the novel, a quote by Fitzgerald himself that reveals his intent behind the gender roles in the novel: “‘This is a man’s world. All wise women conform to the man’s lead’” (Kerr 406). Fitzgerald intentionally designs Daisy to conform to the gender roles in the novel because she follows what Tom does, which is conforming to male gender roles. Hence, she has an obligation to conform because in order to maintain her place in society, she needs to follow what Tom does.
To further strike a connection between Tom and Daisy, Judith P. Saunders’ essay “The Great Gatsby: An Unusual Case of Mate Poaching” discusses the various similarities between Tom and Daisy that make them a perfect match because of their conformity. She writes, “Daisy’s physical beauty and social girls are as striking as Tom’s wealth, ensuring her social success…Tom represents an equally attractive package from the female perspective…” (Saunders 129). Daisy and Tom both fit the requirements for the ideal woman and man: they are attractive, sociable, and wealthy. They are able to maintain these attributes because they fall in line with gender norms for women and men. Daisy is considered beautiful and has “social success” because she chooses to let female gender norms define who she is. Similarly, Tom is an “attractive package” because not only is he wealthy but also conforms to gender norms, which ultimately determine the ending of various characters.
In the novel, Fitzgerald punishes Gatsby and Myrtle through death for failing to conform to gender norms and rewards Tom and Daisy, who both comply with gender norms. Tom and Daisy, conforming to gender norms, are rewarded by the end of the novel by escaping all repercussion for their mistakes. Nick comments on their indifferent and callous attitude: “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made…” (Fitzgerald 179). Tom and Daisy, both characters of a higher status than Gatsby and Myrtle, are able to do what they want without any punishment. Furthermore, both of them conform to their respective gender norms, Tom being hyper-masculine, and Daisy being a soft-spoken golden girl. This means that no one can say anything against them: first, because they are upper class, and second, because they fall in line with what society defines for men and women. Then, when they ruin other people and their dreams and make mistakes, it is easy for them to put the blame on people who do not comply with societal norms, such as Gatsby and Myrtle, and “retreat back into their money” to protect themselves.
Failing to conform to gender norms for men, Gatsby is punished through death by the end of the novel. His ambitions and desire for what did not belong to him took his life. Nick reflects upon Gatsby’s life and writes, “No—Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men” (Fitzgerald 2). Gatsby became a victim of his circumstances and choices, in that, he chose to ignore gender conventions of his time, leading to punishment. Gatsby was preyed on by the gender norms of his time, and he eventually bit the “dust”. Gatsby’s dreams and “short-winded elations” of Daisy and their possible future together were all undermined by his deviance from societal gender norms. There was no fault in Gatsby; it was simply what he chose not to follow that hurt him.
Myrtle, too, is punished for falling out of line with gender norms for women. She also bites the dust like Gatsby. Describing her last moments, Fitzgerald writes, “…its driver hurried back to where Myrtle Wilson, her life violently extinguished, knelt in the road and mingled her thick dark blood with the dust…as though she had choked a little in giving up the tremendous vitality she had stored so long” (137). Myrtle dies a painful death, killed by Daisy, symbolizing societal punishment for failing to conform to gender norms. She was punished not only for ignoring gender conventions but also for completely defying them by seducing Tom and ignoring her own husband, Wilson. The “tremendous vitality” she displayed through her independence and free will was crushed and “extinguished” by society’s pressure to conform.
Charles Thomas Samuels’ essay “The Greatness of ‘Gatsby’” discusses the various perceptions people had of Gatsby and why Gatsby’s and Myrtle’s lives ended so tragically. Furthermore, he goes on to explain the ending of the novel: “The Buchanans…avoid deep attachments…and drift ‘unrestfully wherever people played polo and were rich together’… Myrtle, stupidly, and Gatsby, grandly, take life’s gambit, are cheated, and destroyed” (Samuels 789). The “gambit” the author is referring to is the risk of choosing not to conform to gender roles for Gatsby and Myrtle. Both are eventually cheated by their own decisions, and the pressures from society to conform literally destroy them. On the other hand, the Buchanans are able to conform to the gender stereotypes, which cause Tom to be hyper-masculine and aggressive and Daisy to be ignorant of real issues around her, which explains their ability to “avoid deep attachments”. In the end, Gatsby and Myrtle suffer the consequences Tom and Daisy deserved but never received.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby reinforces gender norms through its portrayal of Gatsby, Myrtle, Tom, and Daisy. Gatsby and Myrtle, two individuals chasing their respective dreams, are punished for their refusal to accept gender norms, whereas Tom and Daisy, upper class, wealthy people, conform to these gender norms and are rewarded. This novel is a reminder of the prejudice and bias people still fight against when they refuse to conform to what society dictates for men and women. This message is still relevant because people are punished for doing so, by being ostracized and ridiculed by society. History continues to repeat itself whenever anyone breaks the boundaries set by society—they are shunned and looked down upon. It is up to society to change these stigmas and fight the undeserving repercussions that ensue.