The Mirror of the Social Morality

——The Females in The Great Gatsby As an unreplaceable part of the society, females are often considered to be in an unequal status and act a different role from males. By now, they are gaining more and more attention. It’s interesting to analyze their words, their behaviors and their thoughts, because they are usually more sensitive to the changeable society and more likely to react to the change. Therefore, to some extent, they are a mirror of the social morality in their times. In F.Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, there are many female characters. They are of various personalities: some of them look pure while some of them seem to be hypocritic. However, all of them play a vital role in developing the fascinating plot and fitting in the large picture of the theme. From these females, we can learn how they reflect the general corruption of the morality at Jazz Age, especially the value of money and the hypocrisy.

One of the most distinctive subject in the novel is the American values, indicated by Myrtle and Daisy especially when they choose between love and money. To begin with, Myrtle, namely Mrs.Wilson, is the wife of a garage owner George B.Wilson. Wilson loves her so much that he even becomes insane after her death.According to this, she should have cherished their marriage. However, she marries him just “because I thought he is a gentleman”(P41), and she has an affair with Tom, a man who even broke her nose. Her choice of husband or lover is not depended on how much he loves her, but merely their status. It is strange, isn’t it? Whether she really loves Tom more than Wilson or not is uncertain, but it is clear that Tom is richer. Although Myrtle lives in lower class of the society, she is always struggling to go up. Unlike her husband, who is “a blond, spiritless man”(P31) without the desire, she is with “immediately perceptible vitality”(P31). So she tries to improve her status but in a wrong way of having relationship with a “real gentleman” who doesn’t love her.

Compared to Myrtle, Daisy is more god-favored. Born in a relevantly rich family, she marries to a equally rich man, Tom as a matter of course. She loves Gatsby, but could not marry him because he was a man of nothing. She does not accept him later because she has no intention to leave the rather distinguished society to which she and Tom belong. When Daisy and Gatsby reunite five years later, the reason she is moved is not the persistent love from Gatsby, but Gatsby’s lavish shirts. How absurd it is!

Evidently, no matter from upper or lower class, both of Myrtle and Daisy worth status and wealthy much more than true love as many people do. At that luxury roaring 20th, Americans treasure money most. Therefore it’s not difficult to understand why people often trade for some materials at the expense of sacrifying their love, their healthy, or something else valuable. Nowadays, some women still prefer to marry a man with large possessions rather than the one she really love, owing to the appetite of material.

Moreover, another distinctively perceivable character should be hypocrisy. Firstly, it could be noticed from Daisy. She likes to dress herself and her daughter in white, a color that symbolizes purity. In contrary, she talks to Nick with absolute smirk and insincerity, she praises at party while she dislikes West Egg, she ignores Gatsby’s profound affection, shirk responsibility onto Gatsby after she killed Myrtle and so on. Since all of these behaviors have no thing to do with pure spirit, the white dress becomes an ironic satire on her. In no way can she be as pure as she seems, neither can she perceive what purity is. She even sees something terrible from this purity that she could never understand, which is the reason why she dislikes West Egg. Similarly, Myrtle is also hypocritic. Even though she is not in upper society, She pretends to be noble. So she lets four taxicabs drive away and finally selects “a new one, lavender-colored with grey upholstery” (P33), she acts like a queen “throwing a regal homecoming glance” (P34) at the arrival at the apartment, and she laughs, talks and revolves with impressive hauteur at the party she holds. She strives to be elegant but only to make others feel lousy. Her sister Catherine’s appearance arouses the same unpleasant feeling. She wears heavy makeup with “solid, sticky bob of red hair, powdered milky white, eyebrows drawn at a rakish angle and pottery bracelets.”(P36) Unfortunately, the restoration of beauty against nature works the opposite way. It doesn’t make her more favorable, but presents a sense of unreal.

All of these pretending deeds may seem ridiculous to us, but it is human nature. At times, it may be quite tired to live in disguise. Daisy complains that she is sophisticated. As she said, “I hope she’ll be a fool-that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world”(P24), it’s better to be a simple-minded fool than a calculating woman. However, as a matter of fact, dishonest people are still inclined to wear up a mask so as to attain what they pursue and get where they long for. No one wants to be considered as poor, ignorant, or anything bad, so they disguise by instinct. It’s neither uncommon for vain people to conceal their shabby family background to get what they want, nor unusual for illiterate people to conceal their ignorance. In a word, hypocrisy is not only typical among females, but the common characteristic of human race.

As the result, none of the females in the novel has a happy ending: Myrtle dies in the accident, Daisy becomes a fugitive, Jor dan breaks up with Nick, ect. From above, we can safely draw the conclusion that neither females nor men should make wealth and status the only standard of their life. Life is all about trades. We should never trade their love, their marriage, their happiness of the rest life for wealth. It is essential for us to recognize what is actually valuable in our life. It is also important to take money correctly and pursue it in a reasonable way.

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