‘Good girls’ and ‘bad girls’ in The Great Gatsby : An analysis of the portrayal of Daisy, Jordan and Myrtle

Sammanfattning: This essay discusses how women in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby (1925) are portrayed in different ways. During this time between the world wars, progressive women walked the streets of New York. These ‘New Women’ wore short dresses, cut their hair, smoked and drank in public, and showed interest in politics and education. The New Woman is portrayed in different versions in the female characters Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker and Myrtle Wilson. These characters are also representations of the patriarchal idea of women as ‘good girls’ and ‘bad girls’, depending on how well they adapt to and fit into the traditional gender roles. Through a discussion of how Daisy, Jordan and Myrtle are portrayed as ‘good’ and ‘bad’, the essay shows how the ‘bad girls’ in the novel are punished by patriarchy by being described unfavorably by the narrator or by suffering socially in a society with patriarchal values.