Introducing
Your new presentation assistant.
Refine, enhance, and tailor your content, source relevant images, and edit visuals quicker than ever before.
Trending searches
Elizabethan society was patriarchal, meaning that men were considered to be the leaders and women their inferiors. Women were regarded as "the weaker sex", not just in terms of physical strength, but emotionally too. It was believed that women always needed someone to look after them. If they were married, their husband was expected to look after them. If they were single, then their father, brother or another male relative was expected to take care of them.
"Woman in her greatest perfection was made to serve and obey man." - John Knox
Elizabethan woman were raised to believe that they were inferior to men and that men knew better.
After receiving a letter from her husband telling her of the witches' prophecy:
Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be
What thou art promised: yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o' the milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way: thou wouldst be great;
Art not without ambition, but without
The illness should attend it: what thou wouldst highly,
That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false,
And yet wouldst wrongly win: thou'ldst have, great Glamis,
That which cries 'Thus thou must do, if thou have it;
And that which rather thou dost fear to do
Than wishest should be undone.' Hie thee hither,
That I may pour my spirits in thine ear;
And chastise with the valour of my tongue
All that impedes thee from the golden round,
Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem
To have thee crown'd withal.
What might Shakespeare be saying about women?
To put it simply, it means to look at a text from a different perspective. Instead of only looking for the basic meaning of a text, you look at it through a feminist lens. You ask yourself:
- what kind of relationship between men and women is being presented?
The idealisation of Daisy, and the struggle between Tom and Gatsby over her, as if she is a possession or token, would be a clear starting point. The dialogue mostly refers to Daisy in the third person or demands that she reinforce the statements of either male, with the final declaration from Tom: ‘She’s not leaving me!’ Tom is a particularly domineering and powerful male figure, oppressive towards male and female characters alike, and he seems to be almost a caricature of patriarchy, mocked subtly by Daisy and Jordan in Nick’s presence:
We’ve got to beat them down,’ whispered Daisy, winking ferociously towards the fervent sun.
Tom’s hypocrisy, as he defends the family while engaging in numerous affairs, doesn’t necessarily undermine his power. However, the ideal of the ‘nuclear family’ (certainly a powerful concept in the 1920s) is undermined by his actions. Throughout the novel, marriage, often seen in feminist criticism as a patriarchal construct, is a failed institution. Infidelity is the norm, with misunderstanding, discord and violence erupting in every relationship (‘I’ve got my wife locked in up there’).
Perhaps most problematic for some feminist readers is Nick’s comment, phrased to assume the reader’s agreement: ‘Dishonesty in a woman is something you never blame deeply.’ Whilst Gatsby idealises women, creating an unachievable image of Daisy, Nick moves towards stereotyping women and, even though his attitude is accepting, this is a negative idea of women which feminist critics might challenge.