Student Type
Undergraduate
College Affiliation
College of Arts and Humanities
Department
English
Submission Type
Poster
Abstract
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald tells the story of several unsatisfied characters who try over and over again to achieve happiness, which seems to be forever beyond their reach. In their cycles of dissatisfaction, many of the characters use romance, courtship, and sex as a tool to create fulfilling lives for themselves, but not one of them is successful in these endeavors. The principle female characters, who feel trapped and powerless in the lives they have ended up in, begin their love affairs out of an arguably deeper place of desperation than the male characters. When read through an existential lens (informed by the writings of Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir), the women’s affairs in The Great Gatsby can be interpreted as actions sparked by an intense existential dread. For Myrtle and Daisy, their respective affairs are a form of existential crisis.
Recommended Citation
Denother, Hazel and Pas, Justine, "The Female Other: Feminist Existentialism and Crisis in The Great Gatsby" (2023). 2023 Student Academic Showcase. 19.
https://digitalcommons.lindenwood.edu/src_2023/Posters/Session1/19
Included in
The Female Other: Feminist Existentialism and Crisis in The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald tells the story of several unsatisfied characters who try over and over again to achieve happiness, which seems to be forever beyond their reach. In their cycles of dissatisfaction, many of the characters use romance, courtship, and sex as a tool to create fulfilling lives for themselves, but not one of them is successful in these endeavors. The principle female characters, who feel trapped and powerless in the lives they have ended up in, begin their love affairs out of an arguably deeper place of desperation than the male characters. When read through an existential lens (informed by the writings of Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir), the women’s affairs in The Great Gatsby can be interpreted as actions sparked by an intense existential dread. For Myrtle and Daisy, their respective affairs are a form of existential crisis.