Question

How and why do the texts studied use or subvert traditional stereotypes of women and their roles in society? Why did the author do this?

Argument Thesis

Within my coursework I plan to answer the question: "How and why do the texts studied use or subvert traditional stereotypes of women and their roles in society? Why did the author do this?" I will be using the various aspects of comparison that I have highlighted within my proposal and I plan to write an in-depth and organised argument - exploring both sides throughout the comparison.

My argument will involve a feminist view point of the traditional role of women in society. This will be especially relevent in these two texts due to the historical context of when they are set - with Gatsby being set in the 1920's and Emma in 1815 - as the role of women was incredibly limited in their rights and social standing. I will explore the role of women in relation to wealth and power; how richer women had more freedom and choice than poorer women due to their ability to reject marriage proposals, whereas poor women mainly had to accept the first offer they were presented with. I will draw a conclusion from each point that I make throughout my agument, which will help me come to a final conclusion about the role of women in literature. I predict that my conclusion will be that women, in literature, tend to fall into negative stereotypes and that their texts mainly make use of traditional stereotypes rather than subverting them.

Due to the fact that my essay is an argument about whether traditional stereotypes are used or subverted in my chosen texts, I will make sure to include both sides of the argument in order to allow me to consider different view points. From this I can make a fair conclusion, using critic quotes to back up my points and to help me further develop my ideas giving me a reasonable argument to draw conclusion from.

Chosen Texts

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Emma by Jane Austen



I will compare these two texts through the theme of feminsim including womens role in society, women in relation to weath and power, how women subvert traditional stereotypes and the treatment of women by men.

Critical Quotes

•          " Feminist critics showed how often literary representations of women repeated familiar cultural stereotypes. Such stereotypes included the woman as an immoral and dangerous seductress, the woman as eternally dissatisfied shrew, the woman as cute but essentially helpless, the woman as unworldly, self-sacrificing angel, and so on." - Bertens, H (2001) Literary Theory: The Basics, (The Politics of Class: Marxism), (pp 94-5, 97-99), Abingdons Routledge.

•          “Female independence (in the seductress and the shrew) gets a strongly negative connotation, while helplessness and renouncing all ambition and desire message is that dependence leads to indulgement and reverence while independence leads to dislike and rejection.” - Bertens, H (2001) Literary Theory: The Basics, (The Politics of Class: Marxism), (pp 94-5, 97-99), Abingdons Routledge.

•      "All those eager, aroused young women are defined by their 'golden and silver slippers', the 'shining dust' suggests their luxurious environment while at the same time implying that youth is transient. The faces are not individualised, they are 'rose petals' blow about the floor, and the effect emphasizes their transience and the fragility of feminine beauty." - Kathleen Parkinson (1987), Penguin Critical Studies: The Great Gatsby (pg 70)
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•      "Daisy could only be a passive object waiting for some force to shape her life, and that force materialised with the arrival in Louisville of Tom Buchanan. By contrast, the girls at Gatsby's paties have no social status to consider, they just want a good time in the frenetic scene of the early 1920's. All these girls, Daisy Fay too, are portrayed as the centre of sexual interest." - Kathleen Parkinson (1987), Penguin Critical Studies: The Great Gatsby (pg 70)
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•      "The suddenness and violence of this shocks the reader by making Myrtle a victim of Tom's aggression. Whereas Tom merely bruises Daisy's little finger (p. 17), he breaks Myrtle's nose because she dares to storm the social barrier." - Kathleen Parkinson (1987), Penguin Critical Studies: The Great Gatsby (pg 73)
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•      "Oliphant argued that the novels themselves expressed a kind of 'feminine cynicism' arising from Austen's position as a woman intelligent enough to percieve people's selfishness, meanness and stupidity, but unable, partly because of her sex, to do anything to mitigate them." - Joanne Shattock (2001), Women and Literature in Britain, 1800-1900 (pg 40)
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•      "The fate of Miss Bates in Emma is a warning of what failing to capture a husband may mean - reduced circumstances and the pity and ridicule of those more priveledged." - Tony Cavender, Emag, Issue 59, February 2013, English and Media Centre (pg 58)

Emma Quotes

• “till it appears that men are much more philosophic on the subject of beauty than they are generally supposed; till they do fall in love with well-informed minds instead of handsome faces, a girl, with such loveliness as Harriet, has a certainty of being admired and sought after, of having the power of chusing from among many, consequently a claim to be nice.” - Page 62 (Vol 1, Chp 8)
• "A woman is not to marry a man merely because she is asked, or because he is attached to her, and can write a tolerable letter."- Page 53 (Vol 1, Chp 7)
• "It is always incomprehensible to a man that a woman should ever refuse an offer of marriage. A man always imagines a woman to be ready for any body who asks her."- Page 59 (Vol 1, Chp 8)
• "Miss Smith is a very good sort of girl; and I should be happy to see her respectably settled. I wish her extremely well and, no doubt, there are men who might not object to—Every body has their level but as for myself, I am not, I think, quite so much at a loss." - Page 125 (Vol 1, Chp 15)
• "A man would always wish to give a woman a better home than the one he takes her from; and he who can do it, where there is no doubt of her regard, must, I think, be the happiest of mortals." - Page 401 (Vol 3, Chp 49)
• "She had talked her into love; but, alas! she was not so easily to be talked out of it." - Page 172 (Vol 2, Chp 22)
•  "A single woman, with a very narrow income, must be a ridiculous, disagreeable old maid! the proper sport of boys and girls, but a single woman, of good fortune, is always respectable, and may be as sensible and pleasant as any body else." - Page 83 (Vol 1, Chp 10)
• "What right had he to endeavour to please, as he certainly did—to distinguish any one young woman with persevering attention, as he certainly did—while he really belonged to another?—How could he tell what mischief he might be doing?—How could he tell that he might not be making me in love with him?—very wrong, very wrong indeed." - Page 372 (Vol 3, Chp 46)
• "Why was it so much worse that Harriet should be in love with Mr. Knightley than with Frank Churchill? Why was the evil so dreadfully increased by Harriet’s having some hope of a return?" - Page 382 (Vol 3, Chp 47)
• "She would notice her; she would improve her; she would detach her from her bad acquaintance, and introduce her into good society; she would form her opinions and her manners." - Page 24 (Vol 1, Chp 3)
• “It was a very great relief to Emma to find Harriet as desirous as herself to avoid a meeting.” - Page 422 (Vol 3, Chp 52)

The Great Gatsby Quotes

•         “I hope that she’ll be a fool – that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.” – Page 22.
•         “Some time toward midnight Tom Buchanan and Mrs Wilson stood face to face discussing, in impassioned voices, whether Mrs Wilson had any right to mention Daisy’s name.” … “Making a short deft movement, Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand.” – Page 39.
• "Angry, and half in love with her, and tremendously sorry, I turned away." - Page 169.
• "You did it, Tom," she said accusingly. "I know you didn't mean to, but you did do it. That's what I get for marrying a brute of a man, a great, big, hulking physical specimen of a– " - Page 17
• "Oh, you want too much!" she cried to Gatsby. "I love you now – isn't that enough? I can't help what's past." She began to sob helplessly. "I did love him once – but I loved you too." - Page 126
• "Then there was a boom as Tom Buchanan shut the rear windows and the caught wind died out about the room, and the curtains and the rugs and the two young women ballooned slowly to the floor. " - Page 13
• "Dishonesty in a woman is a thing you never blame deeply – I was casually sorry, and then I forgot." - Page 58
• "Her voice is full of money," - Page 115
• "You said a bad driver was only 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." - Page 168
• "And what's more, I love Daisy too. Once in a while I go off on a spree and make a fool of myself, but I always come back, and in my heart I love her all the time." - Page 125

Introduction

How and why do the texts studied use or subvert traditional stereotypes of women and their roles in society? Why did the author do this?

Often in literature, female characters fall easily into traditional stereotypes of women and their role in society. This is prevalent in both the great American novel 'The Great Gatsby' by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925) and Jane Austen's novel of manners, 'Emma' (1816). However within these two texts, the traditional stereotypes are both used and subverted throughout the different characters we meet over the course of the novels. Both 'The Great Gatsby' and 'Emma' have a social commentry of their time running through the pages, with Emma's being the more satirical of the two. It is difficult to tell which, if either, of the authors have used these stereotypes deliberately and which have fallen into the trap of accidentally writing their female characters this way due to the way they are usually portrayed. Within both of the two texts, we see a clear difference of classes in the women characters; this is seen in 'Emma' mainly in the juxtaposition between Emma and Harriet and in 'The Great Gatsby' in the juxtaposition between Daisy and Myrtle. Arguably, the presentation of female characters in 'The Great Gatsby' is from the first person point of view of Nick Carraway, the novels narrator, and is therefore his opinion of women. Comparatively, in 'Emma' we are presented with an omniscient narrator, thus the views put forth are all that of the author, Jane Austen - however, the novel is still from Emma's perspective (with the exception of Chapter 41 which is from Mr Knightley's perspective) and her thoughts and feelings are still presented to the reader. The main issue, in both of the texts, for the female characters is the idea of marriage - in 'Emma' the eponymous protagonist does not wish to be confined by marriage, whilst Daisy in 'The Great Gatsby' is already trapped in an unhappy marriage. 

Paragraph Plan

1. Introduction: Introduce both texts, including author, time period, form, genre, comparison and literary terms. Discuss question and steer. Must be able to have next paragraph lead on from this - introduce debate. 
2. Paragraph One: Traditional stereotype that women must be married. Compare the character of Emma to Daisy - Emma, not desiring marriage but ending up happily married to Mr Knightley; Daisy, desiring marriage but ending up in an unhappy marriage to Tom whilst inlove with Gatsby. Both characters attempt to marry off other characters. 
3. Paragraph Two: Double standard in male and female characters of the time. Tom having an affair with Myrtle but not allowing Daisy to have an affair with Gatsby. Frank Churchill flirting with Emma whilst secretly engaged to Jane Fairfax. Critical quote about female independence being undesirable - Context.
4. Paragraph Three: Difference in society and class. Poorer women have no choice in marriage whilst richer women have more freedom of choice. Compare the characters of Harriet and Myrtle - both lower class. Myrtle cannot leave her husband for Tom. Harriet rejects Robert Martin under Emma's insistance that she can do better - ends up engaged to Robert Martin anyway. Talk about how they both have their lives defined by people of a higher class. Critical quote about Tom breaking Myrtle's nose.
5. Paragraph Four: Discuss how women are 'cute but essentially helpless' and fall into other negative stereotypes. Emma and Daisy are both 'cute but essentially helpless' - Daisy more so. They both subvert this stereotype throughout their texts. Daisy becomes an 'eternally dissatisfied shrew' in her marriage and Emma becomes an 'immoral and dangerous seductress' in the engagement of Jane Fairfax and Frank Churchill due to her flirtation with him. 
6. Paragraph Five: Both of these texts are mimetic of the real world. Showing the type of stereotypes that were expected of women at the time. Talk about authorial intent. Use critic quote about Austen's 'feminine cynicism' and how this is reflective in the character of Emma - Context.
7. Conclusion: Answer the question, using points from argument to back up decision. Do women characters in the texts use or subvert traditional stereotypes? What is the effect of this? Why do the authors do this? 

Terminology

• Patriarchy/Patriarchal Society
• Benevolent Sexism
• Authorial Intent
• With/Against the Grain
• Virgin/Whore Dichotomy 
• Partriarchal Binary Thought
• Angel in the House Figure
• Male Gaze
• Binary System
• Canonisation
• Death of the Author
• Gender Identity

Areas of Comparison

To begin exploring my areas of comparison between my chosen two texts, I have first created a venn diagram to find the interlinking themes present in both 'The Great Gatsby' and 'Emma'. From this, I can effectively find ways to draw comparison between the texts using these themes.