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Gatsby
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- Slide: 1
- Hannah Szuchmacher
- Slide: 2
- On the night of the impromptu gathering at Tom Buchanan's New York City apartment, a seemingly innocent conversation between Tom and his mistress Myrtle quickly becomes violent, exemplifying the theme of the mistreatment of women. Late in the night, Myrtle is poking fun at Tom and talking about his wife Daisy, and whether Myrtle "had any right to mention Daisy's name." Myrtle repeats, "'Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!'... 'I'll say it whenever I want to! Daisy! Dai-'"when suddenly, in a "short deft movement, Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand." (Fitzgerald 37). Here, Tom's aggressive nature is displayed as he defaults to physical brutality without a second thought. Also, the way in which Myrtle's "right to mention Daisy's name" isdiscussed seems to imply that Tom assumes that he is in charge of Myrtle's rights, another facet of the motif of sexism. Additionally, Myrtle's teasing towards Tom hurts his inflated ego, as it challenges Tom's position in the power dynamic within their affair.
- Slide: 3
- Tom's outbreak of violence towards Myrtle after she playfully teased him leads me to wonder how Tom might treat Daisy. Is he physically abusive towards her? Was a man's domestic abuse of his wife or mistress considered normal in this time? Also, I noticed that Nick describes this entire situation in a very casual way, when it should be considered more serious. Myrtle is seriously injured, and only the women tend to her, while Nick and the other men think she iscrying out of hysteria. In reality, she is in a lot of pain, but they don't really view her pain as valid, because they seem to think of women as weak. This leads me to wonder if perhaps Fitzgerald displayed many women as hysterical or overly dramatic throughout The Great Gatsby because his wife Zelda suffered from schizophrenia, which may have led him to form stereotypes of women that perpetuated his internalized sexism and seeped into his writing.
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