The Great Gatsby: A Study in Headstrong Women

F. Scott’s Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby is undeniably iconic. It is a story of excess, opulence, and terrible people avoiding the consequences of their actions. Yet, somehow, those characters burrow their way into the hearts of readers. Nick and Gatsby are, understandably, the center of attention, but the fact remains that their female counterparts are almost criminally undervalued. Is Daisy Buchanan a good person? Absolutely not. But neither is Jay Gatsby, and still we mourn his death.

The modern world is saturated with misogyny, but the New York City of the 1920s was even worse, and women both rich and poor were forced to reckon with it. Daisy’s apathy towards her daughter is immediately villainized, but that apathy is also incredibly revealing: “‘She told me it was a girl, and so I turned my head away and wept. ‘All right,’ I said, ‘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). Men’s misogyny and women’s lack of opportunities make life a living hell—why would Daisy want to watch her daughter suffer as she has? The women of The Great Gatsby—Daisy Buchanan and Jordan Baker—have to live life differently than the men around them. Daisy may believe that life is easier when you are ‘a beautiful little fool,’ but she does not fall into that category in the slightest. Neither does Jordan. Throughout the novel, they use their positions and charms to their advantage, act as driving forces for the story, and flip our idea of the American Dream upside down. They may not be good people, but they are fighting against an oppressive system in the only way they know how.

There is not a single healthy relationship in The Great Gatsby—Daisy and Tom bond solely over their misdeeds, Gatsby’s entire view of his relationship with Daisy is built on an illusion, and Nick only uses Jordan to curb his jealousy of Gatsby’s relationship. Not only that, but the women are held to much higher standards—blamed for the same things the men get away with. Even beyond the scope of the novel, they are treated unjustly during the time period. Women may be gaining more freedoms, but they are still given the bulk of the housework and childcare responsibilities, and lack the opportunities that men do. Money, of course, helps with that. These injustices, though, need not be taken lying down, and Daisy and Jordan are prime examples of this. When faced with a lack of opportunities, they choose to use their skills to get what they want in another way. For example, Daisy married Tom despite knowing that it would be a generally loveless marriage. It was a marriage of convenience; a way to get more money and an easy lifestyle without having to work for it. Not only does she get this money, but she gets a decent amount of control, as well. Throughout the book she is able to stand up to Tom in subtle ways, such as how she makes fun of his racist ideas to her guests: “‘Tom’s getting very profound,’ said Daisy, with an expression of unthoughtful sadness. He reads deep books with long words in them’” (Fitzgerald 13). Tom does everything he can to push Daisy down, but Daisy is more subtle; she embarrasses him to their guests without his noticing. Daisy could not gain money and power by herself, so she gained it over her husband. These actions do not gain her a moral high ground, but they do prove that she has a certain kind of intelligence, and is not foolish in the slightest.

Jordan Baker may not be married as Daisy is, but her own manipulations are still examined throughout the novel. Rather than working towards her goals in the way that many of the men in The Great Gatsby do, namely Jay Gatsby, Jordan abuses the morality of others. She cheats at golf to gain her fame and success, and is unafraid to place the blame for her actions on others. In conversation with Nick, she says: “‘They’ll keep out of my way’… ‘It takes two to make an accident’” (Fitzgerald 58). In this scene, Jordan shows almost complete disregard for her life and the lives of others, stating that she does not have to worry about making mistakes, as there are others involved as well. Her words are a show of the charms she possesses. Why worry about taking responsibility for your actions when you can play dumb and escape the consequences? It is certainly true that a ‘beautiful little fool’ would not have this same awareness of position and fame; an awareness Jordan takes full advantage of. She knows she is a bad person with good looks and charms and is proud of that fact.

Not only do the women of The Great Gatsby consistently prove their social intelligence, but they also have a considerable impact on the story itself. Ultimately, they are the downfalls of both Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby, the most significant characters in the novel. Obviously, Gatsby’s misguided love for Daisy Buchanan is the major storyline, but she has an incredible impact on each of the characters. It is Daisy who introduces Nick to his love interest, Jordan Baker. It is Daisy who motivates Myrtle’s leap in front of the moving car. Daisy who causes the tension between Tom and Gatsby. As Nick describes her voice, “It was full of money—that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbal’s song of it…High in a white palace, the king’s daughter, the golden girl…” (Fitzgerald 120). Daisy is not the ‘golden girl’ by accident. Just as Gatsby spent his life working for his money and his house, Daisy spent her life curating this perfect persona, this illusion meant to appeal to all. Could a fool do that with the intention of moving up in the world? Daisy is many things, but she is not a side character in her own story, and considering her one does her an incredible disservice.

Jordan Baker may not appear as often as some of the other characters, but that does not make her any less important. In fact, Jordan is a go-between, an orchestrator of several major events. She and Gatsby conspire to get Daisy over to Nick’s house, leading to the rekindling of her relationship with Gatsby. She shares information about Gatsby with Nick, eventually leading to their first meeting and blossoming friendship. Jordan even indirectly causes Myrtle’s death, as Myrtle mistakes her for Daisy. Perhaps most importantly, though, is the fact that Jordan is the one that reveals Nick to be an unreliable narrator, presenting him with his own worst qualities: “‘You said a bad driver was safe until she met another bad driver? Well, I met another bad driver, didn’t I? I mean it was careless of me to make such a wrong guess. I thought you were rather an honest, straightforward person. I thought it was your secret pride’” (Fitzgerald 177). It is made clear from almost the beginning of the novel that what Nick prides himself on most is his honesty—Jordan throws this right back in his face. She recognizes that she herself is not a good person, hence the ‘bad driver’ analogy, and does not hesitate to call him what he is. Nick stood by and watched as terrible events took place, and still had the gall to act high and mighty. In one fell swoop, Jordan upsets the trust that we have placed in Nick Carraway as the narrator of the story—revealing him for who he truly is. It is safe to say that a fool could not watch from the center of the flames quite like Jordan Baker does.

The Great Gatsby is quite obviously a discussion of the merits of the American Dream—it revolves around the story of a man creating a completely new identity for himself, rebuilding his life from the ground up. Let us be honest here, though—Jay Gatsby is a straight White man. The American Dream was practically made for him. He does not fit into neat little “minority” boxes like Black or female—a clear advantage. Daisy and Jordan, on the other hand, are not given the same opportunities by the United States of America; they are not welcome to try their luck at building a new future for themselves, but encouraged to find a nice husband to do the work instead. Throughout the course of the novel, they flip our idea of the American Dream upside down; redefine it in a way that suits their needs. In his essay “A Whole Heap of Ashes,” Thomas Foster states that the ideas discussed in The Great Gatsby are “a perversion of the American Dream, which traditionally had to do with freedom, opportunity, space to build a life, but which has been replaced by grasping, win-at-all-costs materialism” (Foster 146). Sure, if you are a White man. The women in 1920s America are not provided the same freedoms and opportunities. ‘Win-at-all-costs materialism,’ as Foster describes it, is not a perversion for them, but a reality. If they want to make the same money, the same fame, the same life that the men can, they do not get to go about it in the same way. This is consistently illustrated by Daisy throughout the novel. She married Tom for his money, and stays with him for the same reason. She uses her charms to earn favor and friends, and has a child because it is what is expected of her. Towards the end of the novel, Gatsby is described as being “overwhelmingly aware of the youth and mystery that wealth imprisons and preserves, of the freshness of many clothes, and of Daisy, gleaming like silver, safe and proud above the hot struggles of the poor” (Fitzgerald 150). Daisy cannot get the satisfaction of building a completely new life for herself like Gatsby did, but she is able to assure herself a safe life, away from the struggles of the poor. That took a different kind of intelligence than say building an illegal alcohol business, but it took intelligence nonetheless.

Jordan, like Daisy, is faced with the same struggle of being unable to access the same opportunities as men. Unlike Daisy, though, she does not choose to marry for money. In contrast to the supposedly “honest” pursuit of success that is the American Dream, Jordan is perpetually dishonest, both in life and in her golf career. According to Nick, though, this does not matter as “Dishonesty in a woman is a thing you never blame deeply” (Fitzgerald 58). Casual misogyny runs rampant throughout The Great Gatsby, as this sentiment illustrates. Women are viewed as so inferior to men that their words barely matter. Jordan takes advantage of this, and why should she not? Unlike Nick, Tom, and Gatsby, her opportunities are limited. She would be a fool not to seize this one.

“The question is, though, why are the women villainized but the men adored?”

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby is a work of art. It is bursting at the seams with tragedy, luxury, and undeniably immoral characters. It is only natural to form attachments to fictional characters, no matter how they act throughout the course of a story. The question is, though, why are the women villainized but the men adored? Daisy Buchanan and Jordan Baker are two of Fitzgerald’s most interesting characters, no matter that Nick is the narrator and Gatsby the main focus. Daisy and Jordan are relegated to side characters and objects of affection, when in reality the story would not be the same without them. Daisy’s quote in chapter one stating that women are better off as ‘beautiful little fools’ is an opinion that makes sense considering the deeply patriarchal society of both the modern world and the 1920s, but it is not, in fact, reality when it comes to Daisy and Jordan. Throughout the novel, they use their positions and charms to their advantage, change how events play out, and force readers to reconsider their opinion on the idea of the American Dream. They are by no means good people, but nor is anyone else. As author and historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich states, “Well-behaved women seldom make history.” Daisy Buchanan and Jordan Baker may not make the history books, but they will certainly be remembered for their roles in a novel that helped shape literature in America.

Work Cited

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Scribner, 1925.

Foster, Thomas C.. Twenty-Five Books That Shaped America. Harper Collins, 2011.