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.

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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.

 

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