Journal of English Education and Teaching (JEET) Vol.2.No.4.2018 48
THE PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN IN THE GREAT GATSBY BY F. SCOTT FITZGERALD AND IT’S RELATIONSHIP TO INDONESIAN WOMEN ON EDUCATION
Himawan Agung Rida Pambudi University of Bengkulu [email protected]
Barnabas Sembiring University of Bengkulu [email protected]
Indah Damayanti University of Bengkulu [email protected]
ABSTRAK Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menemukan dan menjelaskan secara detail sifat dan watak dari karakter wanita di dalam novel, untuk mengetahui bagaimana novel dan pengarang menggambarkan karakter dan sifat dari tokoh utama wanita di dalam novel serta bagaimana penggambaran wanita Indonesia di dalam bidang Pendidikan. Berdasarkan dari data yang telah diperoleh, peneliti mendapatkan hasil yang menunjukkan penggambaran watak dari 3 tokoh utama wanita. Daisy Buchanan memiliki 2 sifat, yaitu Pessimistic dan Materialistic, Jordan Baker juga memiliki 2 sifat, yaitu Masculine dan Worried, dan karakter terakhir yaitu Myrtle Wilson yang memiliki sifat Materialistic. Disamping itu, peneliti juga menjelaskan penggambaran tokoh wanita di dalam novel dan mengaitkannya pada era 1920 dimana pertama kali novel diterbitkan. Peneliti juga membandingkan dan menjelaskan karakteristik dan sifat dari wanita Amerika di dalam novel dan karakteristik dari wanita Indonesia. Kata Kunci: Karakteristik, Tokoh Wanita, Novel
ABSTRACT This research is aimed to find out and explain the characteristics of women character, to know how the novel portrayed the women and how Indonesian women on education portrayed. According to the data, the researcher gets the result that show characteristics of 3 major women characters. Daisy Buchanan has two characteristics, there are Pessimistic and Materialistic, Jordan Baker also has two, Masculine and Worried, and the last is Myrtle Wilson is Materialistic. Besides that, the researcher also explains the portrayal of women in the novel and relate it to the 1920s era where does the novel come from. The researcher also compared and portrayed the characteristics of American women in the novel and Indonesian women characters. Keywords: Characteristics, Women Character, Novel Journal of English Education and Teaching (JEET) Vol.2.No.4.2018 49
INTRODUCTION Literature has been known by many more interesting and enjoyable for people and become a part of life. people. Character is the most important Literature also has a function as a aspect that must be appeared in literary messenger to the societies for all the work including novel, poetry, drama, and polemic and problems that exist, so we short stories. Generally, in human can have a picture of what we should do character, there are two main characters when we face with the same problems namely: men and women character. Both that occur in a literature. Furthermore, man and women character have a literature is the representation of a portrayal in the societies, positively and society and it portrays the condition of an negatively. era. Literature itself is the result of fantasy Especially for women character, that is satisfied by the writer through his they pay more attention in the context of imagination, although the literature is their characteristic, lifestyle, attitude, and created from the imagination of the speaking style. It causes the woman author, but his work still comes from a character has different portrayal than real life. Klarer (2004:1) says that in most man character. In 1920s, the women cases, literature refers to the entirety of began to grow more independent. written expression, with the restriction American women were transformed that not every written document can be after World War I. They seemed to categorized as literature in the more exact embody the changes that were going sense of the word. Literature as a writing on in the country itself. The United form differentiates its form from other art States went from a young industrial products, and its aesthetic or artistic state that was accumulating the values make it different from other capital to build factories and railroads writings. to a world power with a consumer A kind of literature is novel. Novel economy that relied on its citizen to (from the Italian novella, Spanish novela, keep the boom going by borrowing French nouvelle for "new", "news", or money and buying homes and cars. "short story of something new"), the new Meanwhile, the celibate settlement story (novel) comes after drama and house worker was replaced as a female poetry (Tarigan, 1985: 64). Novel is the prototype by the jazz-crazed flapper further development of romance. A novel dancing the Charleston in a speakeasy. is defined as a fictitious prose narrative of Flappers were a generation of considerable length and complexity, young Western women in the 1920s who portraying characters and usually wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, presenting a sequential organization of listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain action and scenes. for what was then considered acceptable Every kind of literature has behavior. The flapper is one of the most intrinsic and extrinsic elements. The essential parts of the 1920s. She intrinsic elements of novel are: theme, represented a 'new' type of woman. character, plot, setting, symbol and point Whether in attitude, attire, or slang, the of view. Meanwhile, the extrinsic 1920s flapper demonstrated how women elements are: author background, could actively transform what is into what historical view, cultural background and can be, something that is a part of the social background. Every component has modern construction of women's identity. the main role to make the literature is Everything that had anything to do with Journal of English Education and Teaching (JEET) Vol.2.No.4.2018 50
consumption was in style. That document analysis is systematically included drinking, smoking, and sex - studying record, document, book, picture, for women as well as men. (America's curriculum, texts book, novel, article, Women, 400 years of Dolls, Drudges, composition, photograph, and another. Helpmates and Heroines' by Gail Based on the opinions, the researcher Collins). designs this research as descriptive In this research, the researcher will research. analyze and give an explanation about the Instrument that the researcher women characteristic and the portrayal of used in this research is documentation women character in The Great Gatsby. (library research). It means the researcher The Great Gatsby is a novel 1925 written use and read the novel of The Great in by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald as a primary He portrays the fictional town of West Egg data to find out the data and information on prosperous Long Island in the summer about the characteristics of women, then of 1922. In this novel, the researcher how does novel portrayed women in The focuses on describing the characteristic of Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and women characters, describe the portrayal classifying characteristics of women of women in 1920s and also how character in novel and Indonesian women Indonesian women on education character. portrayed. The object of this research is a This research had three research novel entitled The Great Gatsby written questions were “What are the by F. Scott Fitzgerald. In this research, the characteristics of women character in The researcher chooses the population and Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald?” and sample from the novel. As Thomas Crowl “How does the novel portray women in states that “Population are groups The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald?” consisting of all people to whom a the last “How does the Indonesian women researcher wishes to apply the findings of on education portrayed?” a study”. Crowl also states that “sample The researcher expected this research will are subsets of people used to represent give some influences both academically populations.” (1996) and practically, and the further researchers as well. Technique of Data Collection The researcher uses several steps to METHOD collect the data, First, the researcher In this research, will be applied a reading The Great Gatsby by F. Scott descriptive qualitative method. The Fitzgerald (as primary data). Second, descriptive study is an appropriate way to repeating the same way (reading The expose facts related to the problem which Great Gatsby) for several times. Third, is going to be discussed. According to Gay identifying the women characters who (1991), descriptive method is considered play important roles in novel The Great appropriate to describe the present Gatsby and how novel portrays the condition of research subject. women in that novel. Fourth, analyzing Darsono (1997) also states that the women character who play important descriptive research is a research which roles and conclude how novel portrayed effort to give a phenomenon or a situation women in The Great Gatsby. Fifth, naturally without manipulation toward classifying characteristics of women one of the variables. Content analysis or character in novel and Indonesian women Journal of English Education and Teaching (JEET) Vol.2.No.4.2018 51
character. Last is Adding some A. Pessimistic information about American Women Pessimistic is thinking that bad things are characteristics in 1920s from journal and more likely to happen or emphasizing the literature resources. and then making bad part of a situation (Cambridge conclusion. Dictionary). Pessimistic in this novel came from the first time we meet Daisy in Technique of Data Analysis Chapter 1. She has just finished telling The researcher conducts the data analysis Nick about how when she gave birth to with the following procedures: first her daughter, she woke up alone. So finding the characteristics of women beside her charming surface, Daisy also character in The Great Gatsby by F. sad about her role in the world and Scott Fitzgerald, second is classifying unhappily married to Tom. The deeply the major women character and minor pessimistic comment in the following women character based on the plot/ quote. situation in the story, third describing “She told me it was a girl, and so I turned the portrayal of women character from my head away and wept. All right, I said. The Great Gatsby, fourth classifying I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a characteristics of women character in fool – that’s the best thing a girl can be in novel and Indonesian women character this world, a beautiful little fool” and the last is drawing the conclusion (Fitzgerald, 1925:118) and suggestion based on the analysis. After that comment, Nick (narrator in this novel) describes about Daisy’s RESULTS AND DISCUSSION “smirking”, which is shows her pessimism Characteristics of women character as stated on following passage. 1. Daisy Buchanan "Here, dearis." She groped around in a Daisy Buchanan, born Daisy Fay, is from a waste-basket she had with her on the bed wealthy family in Louisville, Kentucky, and pulled out the string of pearls. "Take popular and beautiful, she was become an 'em downstairs and give 'em back to idol and make several officers falling in whoever they belong to. Tell 'em all love during World War I. She met and fell Daisy's change' her mine. Say 'Daisy's in love with Jay Gatsby, an officer at the change' her mine!'. She began to cry – she time, and promised to wait for him to cried and cried. I rushed out and found return from the war. However, she gave her mother's maid and we locked the door up to pressure from her family and and got her into a cold bath. She wouldn't married Tom Buchanan instead. The next let go of the letter. She took it into the tub year, they had a baby girl together, with her and squeezed it up into a wet Pammy. Although Daisy is happy ball, and only let me leave it in the soap immediately after she and Tom are dish when she saw that it was coming to married, he begins having affairs almost pieces like snow. But she didn't say immediately after their honeymoon to the another word. We gave her spirits of South Seas. By the beginning of the novel, ammonia and put ice on her forehead and Daisy and Tom hope to stay in New York hooked her back into her dress and half permanently. Daisy frequently hosts her an hour later when we walked out of the friend Jordan Baker, and looked sad for room the pearls were around her neck something or someone to distract her and the incident was over. Next day at from her nervous and increasing five o'clock she married Tom Buchanan pessimism. without so much as a shiver and started Journal of English Education and Teaching (JEET) Vol.2.No.4.2018 52
off on a three months' trip to the South money – that was the inexhaustible charm Seas.” (Fitzgerald, 1925:140-2) that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals’ song of it… High in a white In this flashback narrated by palace the king’s daughter, the golden Jordan, it informs about Daisy’s past and girl… (Fitzgerald, 1925:105-106) how she came to marry Tom, despite she Gatsby explicitly ties Daisy and her still being in love with Jay Gatsby. In fact, magnetic voice to wealth. this part is she seems to care about him enough after crucial, since it ties Gatsby’s love for Daisy receiving a letter from him, she threatens to his pursuit of wealth and status. It also to call of her marriage to Tom. And allows Daisy herself to become a stand-in indeed, the next day she marries Tom, for the idea of the American Dream. showing her reluctante to question the During the climatic confrontation in New place in society dictated by her family and York City, Daisy can’t bring herself to social status. admit she only loved Gatsby, because she did also love Tom at the beginning of their B. Materialistic marriage. This moment is crushing for Materialistic means overly concerned or Gatsby. as stated on following passage. preoccupied with material possessions “Oh you want too much! she cried to rather than with intellectual or spiritual Gatsby. I love you now – isn’t that things (Merriam- Webster Dictionary), in a enough? I can’t help what’s past. She simple thing called by desiring luxury. It began to sob helplessly. I did love him informs during Daisy and Gatsby’s once – but I loved you too.” (Fitzgerald, reunion, she is delighted by Gatsby’s 1925:264). mansion but falls to pieces after Gatsby shows off his collection of shirt. as stated 2. Jordan Baker on following passage. “They’re such Jordan Baker, who is two years younger beautiful shirts, she sobbed, her voice than Daisy, grew up with the other muffled in the thick folds. It makes me sad woman in Louisville. Jordan witnesses because I’ve never seen such – such both Daisy’s initial relationship with beautiful shirts before.” (Fitzgerald, Gatsby and how she almost didn’t marry 1925:118). Tom after getting a letter from Gatsby but This scene shows about Daisy’s pulled herself together in time for the materialism, she only emotionally breaks wedding. Jordan doesn’t have any major down at Gatsby’s newfound wealth. But it surviving relatives other than an old aunt also speaks to her strong feelings for who controls her money, so it’s implied Gatsby. In chapter 7, as Daisy tries to tell she’s the heiress to a significant amount Tom she wants to leave him, it is difficult of money but, during the novel at least, to find meaning and purpose in her life. she doesn’t have full access to it. Instead Instead of her cheerful outlook, there is a of marrying, Jordan plays golf deep sadness. as stated on following professionally and dates around. passage. “What will we do with ourself this A. Masculine Qualities afternoon, cried Daisy, and the day after Masculine means having qualities that, and the next thirty years?” appropriate to or usually associated with a (Fitzgerald, 1925:74). “Her voice is full of man (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). In money, he said suddenly. That was it. I’d here, Jordan Baker have hobbies like men never understood before. It was full of (golf and car) and she looks more Journal of English Education and Teaching (JEET) Vol.2.No.4.2018 53
attractive. Different with Daisy, Jordan analogy again at the end of the novel explains clearly in this novel start from her when she and Nick break up, about Jordan gray eyes, her wan, charming face, her who calculates risks it stated through the small breasts, the slender muscles in her passage below. arms. Jordan is blond and very athletic, "You're a rotten driver," I protested. physical, tan and angular. Physical "Either you ought to be more careful or Description of Jordan stated in the you oughtn't to drive at all." "I am following quote below. careful." "No, you're not." "Well, other “The younger of the two was a people are," she said lightly. "What's that stranger to me. She was extended full got to do with it?" "They'll keep out of my length at her end of the divan, completely way," she insisted. "It takes two to make motionless and with her chin raised a little an accident." "Suppose you met as if she were balancing something on it somebody just as careless as yourself." "I which was quite likely to fall. If she saw hope I never will," she answered. "I hate me out of the corner of her eyes she gave careless people. That's why I like you." no hint of it—indeed, I was almost (Fitzgerald, 1925:162-169) surprised into murmuring an apology for From citation above, get a sense of what having disturbed her by coming in.” draws Jordan and Nick together, he is (Fitzgerald, 1925:28) “I enjoyed looking at attracted to her carefree, entitled attitude her. She was a slender, small-breasted while she sees his cautiousness as a plus. girl, with an erect carriage which she accentuated by throwing her body 3. Myrtle Wilson backward at the shoulders like a young Unlike Nick’s description of Daisy, which cadet. Her grey sun-strained eyes looked focuses on her voice, mannerisms, and back at me with polite reciprocal curiosity charm, and unlike his description of out of a wan, charming discontented face. Jordan, which focuses on her posture and It occurred to me now that I had seen her, athleticism, Nick’s description of Myrtle or a picture of her, somewhere before.”( focuses almost entirely on her body itself. Fitzgerald, 1925:57) Perhaps this fits with her role as Tom’s “Tom and Miss Baker sat at either end of mistress, but it also indicates Nick sees the long couch and she read aloud to him little in Myrtle in terms of intellect or from the "Saturday Evening Post"—the personality. This description also speaks words, murmurous and uninflected, to the strong physical attraction between running together in a soothing tune. The Tom and Myrtle that become a basic of lamp-light, bright on his boots and dull on their affair and it stated in the following the autumn-leaf yellow of her hair, glinted passage below. along the paper as she turned a page with ”Then I heard footsteps on the stairs and a flutter of slender muscles in her arms.” in a moment the thickish figure of a (Fitzgerald, 1925:121) woman blocked out the light from the office door. She was in the middle thirties, B. sw and faintly stout, but she carried her Careful, means filling with care or surplus flesh sensuously as some women solicitude (Merriam- Webster Dictionary). can. Her face, above a spotted dress of In this novel, Jordan Baker described as dark blue crepe-de-chine, contained no someone who carefully calculate risks, facet or gleam of beauty but there was an include in driving and in relationships. This immediately perceptible vitality about her is why she brings up her car accident as if the nerves of her body were Journal of English Education and Teaching (JEET) Vol.2.No.4.2018 54
continually smouldering. She smiled She begins her affair with Tom Buchanan slowly and walking through her husband after he sees her on the train and later as if he were a ghost shook hands with presses against her in the station and it Tom, looking him flush in the eye.” stated in the following passage below: (Fitzgerald, 1925:15) ”I was going up to New York to see my sister and spend the night. He had on a A.Materialistic dress suit and patent leather shoes and I Materialistic mean that having money couldn't keep my eyes off him but every and possessions is the most important time he looked at me I had to pretend to thing in life (Cambridge Dictionary). In this be looking at the advertisement over his novel, Myrtle love her husband when they head. When we came into the station he got married, but has since been was next to me and his white shirt-front disappointed by his lack of cash and social pressed against my arm--and so I told him status and it stated in the following I'd have to call a policeman, but he knew I passage below. lied. I was so excited that when I got into a "I married him because I thought he was a taxi with him I didn't hardly know I wasn't gentleman," she said finally. "I thought he getting into a subway train” (Fitzgerald, knew something about breeding, but he 1925:120). wasn't fit to lick my shoe." "You were crazy about him for a while," Myrtle desperately wants to come said Catherine. off as sophisticated and wealthy despite "Crazy about him!" cried Myrtle her humble roots. Nick finds her efforts incredulously. "Who said I was crazy tacky and vulgar, and he spends a lot of about him? I never was any more crazy time commenting on her clothes, about him than I was about that man mannerisms, and conversational style. there." She is oblivious about upper-class life: She pointed suddenly at me, and she tells her sister at one points Tom everyone looked at me accusingly. I tried doesn’t divorce Daisy because Daisy is to show by my expression that I had Catholic. This is a small inside joke on played no part in her past. Fitzgerald's part - since Tom and Daisy "The only crazy I was was when I are part of the community of uber- married him. I knew right away I made a WASPy residents of East Egg, there's mistake. He borrowed somebody's best almost no chance that Daisy could be suit to get married in and never even told Catholic. That Myrtle thinks accepts me about it, and the man came after it Tom's lie shows that she is not a well- one day when he was out. She looked schooled as she thinks she is about the around to see who was listening: " 'Oh, is life and customs of the elite class she that your suit?' I said. 'This is the first I wants to be a part of. Still, before the ever heard about it.' But I gave it to him novel begins, Tom has gotten and then I lay down and cried to beat the comfortable showing Myrtle around in band all afternoon." "She really ought to popular restaurants and doesn’t hide the get away from him," resumed Catherine affair. Perhaps this causes Myrtle to to me. "They've been living over that misunderstand what she means to Tom: garage for eleven years. And Tom's the she doesn’t seem to realize she’s just one first sweetie she ever had." (Fitzgerald, in a string of mistresses. 1925:112-7). Portrayal of Women in The Great Gatsby Journal of English Education and Teaching (JEET) Vol.2.No.4.2018 55
1. Money and Materialism farmer parents in North Dakota, but at In The Great Gatsby, money is a huge 17, determined to become rich, struck motivator in the characters’ out with the wealthy Dan Cody and never relationships, motivations, and looked back (Fitzgerald, 1925:5-15). Even outcomes. Most of the characters reveal though he wasn’t able to get any part of themselves to be materialistic, their Cody’s fortune, he used what he learned motivations come from their desire for of wealthy society to first charm Daisy money and things: Daisy married and before shipping out to World War I. (In a stay with Tom because of the lifestyle he uniform she had no idea he was poor, can provide her, Myrtle has her affair especially given his sophisticated with Tom because of the wealthy manners). Then, after returning home provides and give guarantee for her. and realizing Daisy was married and In the opening pages, Nick (The gone, he set out to earn enough money Great Gatsby’s narrator and also Daisy to win Daisy over, turning to crime via a Buchanan’s cousin) establishes himself as partnership with Meyer Wolfshiem to someone who has had many advantages quickly amass wealth (Fitzgerald, in life, a wealthy family and an Ivy League 1925:83-7). education to name just two. Despite not Meanwhile, Tom’s mistress Myrtle being as wealthy as Tom and Daisy, his Wilson, George Wilson’s wife, show and second cousin, they see him as enough of tries to pass as rich through her affair a peer to invite him to their home in with Tom, but her involvement with the Chapter 1. Nick’s connection to Daisy in Buchanans gets her killed. George turn makes him attractive to Gatsby. If Wilson, in contrast, is constrained by his Nick were just a middle-class everyman, lack of wealth. He tells Tom Buchanan the story could not play out in the same after finding out about Myrtle’s affair way. that he plans to move her West, but he Tom and Daisy’s movements are “*needs+ money pretty bad” in order to also supported by their money. At the make the move (Fitzgerald, 1925:146). beginning of the novel they move to Tragically, Myrtle is hit and killed that fashionable East Egg, after moving evening by Daisy. If George Wilson had around between “wherever people means, he likely would have already left played polo and were rich together,” and New York with Myrtle in car, saving both are able to very quickly pick up and leave of their lives. at the end of the book after the murders, No one shows up to Gatsby’s thanks to the protection their money funeral since they were only attracted by provides (Fitzgerald, 1925:17). his wealth and the parties, not the man Daisy, for her part, only begins her affair himself. This is resume in a phone call with Gatsby after a very detailed display Nick describes, to a man who used to of his wealth (via the mansion tour). She come to Gatsby’s parties: “one even breaks down in tears after Gatsby gentleman to whom I telephoned implied shows off his ridiculously expensive set of that he had got what he deserved. colored shirts, crying that she’s “never However, that was my fault, for he was seen such beautiful shirts” before one of those who used to sneer most (Fitzgerald, 1925:118). bitterly at Gatsby on the courage of Gatsby is famous, his enormous Gatsby's liquor and I should have known wealth, wealth he has gathered to win better than to call him” (Fitzgerald, over Daisy. Gatsby was born to poor 1925:69). Journal of English Education and Teaching (JEET) Vol.2.No.4.2018 56
2. Love and Relationship scorn. "Sophisticated—God, I'm Love and relationship are great sophisticated!" "The instant her voice motivators for nearly every character in broke off, ceasing to compel my The Great Gatsby. Gatsby’s portrayal of attention, my belief, I felt the basic love and relationship in complex way. So insincerity of what she had said. It made it will be explore and analyze each of me uneasy, as though the whole evening Gatsby’s five major relationships: had been a trick of some sort to exact a Daisy/Tom, George/Myrtle, contributory emotion from me. I waited, Gatsby/Daisy, Tom/Myrtle, and and sure enough, in a moment she Jordan/Nick. looked at me with an absolute smirk on her lovely face as if she had asserted her 2.1 Daisy and Tom Marriage Description membership in a rather distinguished secret society to which she and Tom Daisy appeared quite in love when they belonged." (Fitzgerald, 1925:118-120) first got married, but the realities of the In this passage, Daisy pulls Nick marriage, including Tom’s multiple aside in Chapter 1 and claims, despite her affairs, Tom cheated on her soon after outward happiness and luxurious their honeymoon, according to Jordan: lifestyle, she’s quite depressed by her “It was touching to see them together, it situation. "I never loved him," she said, made you laugh in a hushed, fascinated with perceptible reluctance. "Not at way. That was in August. A week after I Kapiolani?" demanded Tom suddenly. left Santa Barbara Tom ran into a wagon "No." on the Ventura road one night and ripped a front wheel off his car. The girl From the ballroom beneath, muffled and who was with him got into the papers suffocating chords were drifting up on too because her arm was broken, she hot waves of air. was one of the chambermaids in the "Not that day I carried you down Santa Barbara Hotel” (Fitzgerald, from the Punch Bowl to keep your shoes 1925:143). dry?" There was a husky tenderness in “Well, she was less than an hour old and his tone. ". . . Daisy?" (Fitzgerald, Tom was God knows where. I woke up 1925:258-62) out of the ether with an utterly Both Tom and Daisy enter or continue abandoned feeling and asked the nurse affairs, pulling away from each other right away if it was a boy or a girl. She instead of confronting the problems in told me it was a girl, and so I turned my their marriage. However, Gatsby forces head away and wept. 'All right,' I said, them to confront their feelings in the 'I'm glad it's a girl. And I hope she'll be a Plaza Hotel when he demands Daisy say fool—that's the best thing a girl can be in she never loved Tom. Although she gets this world, a beautiful little fool." "You the words out, she immediately rescinds see I think everything's terrible anyhow," them “I did love *Tom+ once but I loved she went on in a convinced way. you too!” after Tom questions her. Tom "Everybody thinks so—the most breaks down, speaking with “husky advanced people. And I know. I've been tenderness” and recalling some of the everywhere and seen everything and few happy moments in his and Daisy’s done everything." Her eyes flashed marriage. This is a key moment because around her in a defiant way, rather like it shows despite the disfunction of their Tom's, and she laughed with thrilling marriage, Tom and Daisy seem to both Journal of English Education and Teaching (JEET) Vol.2.No.4.2018 57
seek pleasure in happy early 2.2 Myrtle and George Marriage memories. Between those few happy Descriptions memories and the fact that they both In contrast to Tom and come from the same social class, their Daisy, Myrtle and George were married marriage ends up weathering multiple 12 years before the start of the novel. affairs. Maybe people think that since they’ve Daisy and Tom were sitting opposite each been married for four times as long, their other at the kitchen table with a plate of marriage is more stable. In fact, in cold fried chicken between them and two contrast from Tom and Daisy’s unified bottles of ale. He was talking intently front, Myrtle and George’s marriage across the table at her and in his appears not harmonic from the earnestness his hand had fallen upon and beginning. Although Myrtle was taken covered her own. Once in a while she with George at first, she overestimated looked up at him and nodded in his money and “breeding” and found agreement. They weren't happy, and herself married to a mechanic and living neither of them had touched the chicken over a garage in Queens, a situation she’s or the ale—and yet they weren't apparently unhappy with (Fitzgerald, unhappy either. There was an 1925:.112). However, divorce was unmistakable air of natural intimacy uncommon in the 1920s, and about the picture and anybody would furthermore, the working-class Myrtle have said that they were conspiring doesn’t have access to wealthy family together. (Fitzgerald, 1925:409-10). They members or any other real options, so were careless people, Tom and Daisy— she stays married, perhaps because they smashed up things and creatures George is quite devoted and even in and then retreated back into their money some ways subservient to her. A few or their vast carelessness or whatever it months before the beginning of the novel was that kept them together, and let in 1922, she begins an affair with Tom other people clean up the mess they had Buchanan, her first affair (Fitzgerald, made. . . . (Fitzgerald, 1925:.146). By the 1925:117). She sees the affair as a way end of the novel, after Daisy’s murder of out of her marriage, but Tom sees her as Myrtle as well as Gatsby’s death, she and just another disposable mistress, leaving Tom are back together, “conspiring” and her desperate and vulnerable once “careless” once again, despite the deaths George finds out about the affair. of their lovers. As Nick said, they I heard footsteps on a stairs and in “weren’t happy…and yet they weren’t a moment the thickish figure of a woman unhappy either.” Their marriage is blocked out the light from the office important to both of them, since it calm door. She was in the middle thirties, and down their status as old money faintly stout, but she carried her surplus aristocracy and brings stability to their flesh sensuously as some women can. lives. So the novel ends with them once Her face, above a spotted dress of dark again described as a unit, a “they,” blue crepe-de-chine, contained no facet perhaps even more strongly bonded or gleam of beauty but there was an since they’ve survived not only another immediately perceptible vitality about round of affairs but murder, as well. her as if the nerves of her body were continually smouldering. She smiled slowly and walking through her husband as if he were a ghost shook hands with Journal of English Education and Teaching (JEET) Vol.2.No.4.2018 58
Tom, looking him flush in the eye. Then "Throw me down and beat me, you dirty she wet her lips and without turning little coward!" A moment later she around spoke to her husband in a soft, rushed out into the dusk, waving her coarse voice: "Get some chairs, why hands and shouting; before he could don't you, so somebody can sit down." move from his door the business was "Oh, sure," agreed Wilson hurriedly and over. (Fitzgerald, 1925:314-5). We don’t went toward the little office, mingling know what happened in the fight before immediately with the cement color of the this crucial moment, but we do know walls. A white ashen dust veiled his dark George locked Myrtle in a room once he suit and his pale hair as it veiled figured out she was having an affair. So everything in the vicinity—except his despite the outward appearance of being wife, who moved close to Tom. ruled by his wife, he does, in fact, have (Fitzgerald, 1925:115-17) George is the ability to physically control her. despair and thus seem in the However, he apparently doesn’t hit hopelessness and depression of the her, the way Tom does, and Myrtle yelled condition, while Myrtle is alluring and full him for it, perhaps insinuating he’s less of vitality. In contrast to Tom and Daisy, gently than Tom. This outbreak of both who are initially presented as a unit, first physical violence (George locking up introduction to George and Myrtle shows Myrtle) and emotional abuse (probably them fractured, with different on both sides) fulfills the earlier sense of personalities and motivations. We get the marriage being headed for conflict. the sense right away that their marriage Still it’s disturbing to witness the last few is in trouble, and conflict between the minutes of this fractured, unstable two will behappen partnership. "I married him because I thought he was a gentleman," she said finally. "I 2.3. Daisy and Gatsby Relationship thought he knew something about Description breeding, but he wasn't fit to lick my Jay Gatsby (who learned from Dan Cody shoe." how to act like one of the wealthy) was "You were crazy about him for a while," placed in Louisville before going to fight in said Catherine. "Crazy about him!" cried World War I. In Louisville, he met Daisy Myrtle incredulously. "Who said I was Fay, a beautiful young girl (10 years his crazy about him? I never was any more junior), who took him for someone of her crazy about him than I was about that social class. Gatsby maintained the lie, man there." (Fitzgerald, 1925:112-4). which allowed their relationship to Here a story about George and Myrtle’s progress. Gatsby fell in love with Daisy marriage: like Daisy, Myrtle was crazy and the wealth she represents, but he had about her husband at first but the to leave for the war and by the time he marriage has not harmonic. But while returned to the US in 1919, Daisy has Daisy doesn’t have any real desire to married Tom Buchanan. Determined to leave Tom, here could see Myrtle want to get her back, Gatsby falls in with Meyer leave, and very dismissive of her Wolfshiem, a gangster, and gets into a husband. Myrtle seems to suggest that criminal company to make enough money even having her husband wait on her is to finally be able to provide for her. By the unacceptable, it’s clear she thinks she is beginning of the novel, he is ready to try finally move for bigger and better and win her back over, ignoring the fact things. "Beat me!" he heard her cry. she has been married to Tom for three Journal of English Education and Teaching (JEET) Vol.2.No.4.2018 59
years and has a child. In the first chapter, embarrassment was gone. Daisy's face there are few dialogues about Gatsby, but was smeared with tears and when I came one of the most interesting is Daisy in she jumped up and began wiping at it immediately happy when heard his name. with her handkerchief before a mirror. But She obviously still remembers him there was a change in Gatsby that was and perhaps even thinks about him, but simply confounding. He literally glowed; her surprise suggests that she thinks he’s without a word or a gesture of exultation gone for a long time. "Gatsby bought that a new well-being radiated from him and house so that Daisy would be just across filled the little room. (Fitzgerald, the bay. "Then it had not been merely the 1925:.87). After awkward reintroduction, stars to which he had aspired on that June Nick leaves Daisy and Gatsby alone and night. He came alive to me, delivered comes back to find them talking freely and suddenly from the womb of his emotionally. Gatsby has transformed, he purposeless splendor. (Fitzgerald, is charming and glowing. "They're such 1925:151-2) In Chapter 4, Daisy and beautiful shirts," she sobbed, her voice Gatsby’s story from Jordan: specifically, muffled in the thick folds. "It makes me how they dated in Louisville but it ended sad because I've never seen such—such when Gatsby went to the front. She also beautiful shirts before." (Fitzgerald, explains how Daisy threatened to call off 1925:118). her marriage to Tom after receiving a Gatsby gets the chance to show off letter from Gatsby, but of course ended his mansion and enormous wealthy to up marrying him anyway (Fitzgerald, Daisy, and she breaks down after a very 1925:.140). Here also know the fact that conspicuous display of Gatsby’s wealth, Gatsby’s primary motivation is to get through his many color shirts. In Daisy’s Daisy back, while Daisy is of course in the tears, it might feel a bit of guilt because dark about all of this. This sets the stage Gatsby reach so much just for her or for their affair being on unequal footing: perhaps regret, that she might have been while each has love and affection for the able to be with him had she had the other, Gatsby has thought of little else but strength to walk away from her marriage Daisy for five years while Daisy has with Tom. Still, unlike Gatsby, whose created a whole other life for herself. "We motivations are decrease, it’s hard to haven't met for many years," said Daisy, know what Daisy is thinking and how her voice as matter-of-fact as it could ever invested she is in their relationship, be. "Five years next November." despite how openly emotional she is (Fitzgerald, 1925:.69-70). Daisy and during this reunion. Perhaps she’s just Gatsby finally reunite in Chapter 5. overcome with emotion due to reliving The entire chapter is important for the emotions of their first meeting. understanding the Daisy/Gatsby His heart beat faster and faster as relationship, since we actually see them Daisy's white face came up to his own. He interact for the first time. But this initial knew that when he kissed this girl, and dialogue is fascinating, because we see forever wed his unutterable visions to her that Daisy's memories of Gatsby are perishable breath, his mind would never unclear, while Gatsby has been so romp again like the mind of God. So he obsessed with her. They were sitting at waited, listening for a moment longer to either end of the couch looking at each the tuning fork that had been struck upon other as if some question had been asked a star. Then he kissed her. At his lips' or was in the air, and every vestige of touch she blossomed for him like a flower Journal of English Education and Teaching (JEET) Vol.2.No.4.2018 60
and the incarnation was complete. moment clearly explain about how much (Fitzgerald, 1925:134). In flashback, about Daisy means to Gatsby, and how Daisy and Gatsby’s first kiss, through comparatively little he means to her. Gatsby’s point of view. It can be seen explicitly in this scene that, for Gatsby, 2.4. Tom and Myrtle Relationship Daisy has come to represent all of his Description larger hopes and dreams about wealth Myrtle sees the affair as romantic and and a better life, she is literally the out of her marriage, while Tom sees it as realization of his dreams. There is no just another affair, and Myrtle as one of a analogous passage about Daisy, because string of mistresses. The pair has physical we actually don’t know that much of chemistry and attraction to each other. Daisy’s inner life, or certainly not much "I think it's cute," said Mrs. Wilson compared to Gatsby. enthusiastically. "How much is it?" "That The relationship is not balance, dog?" He looked at it admiringly. "That Gatsby has literally give his heart and soul dog will cost you ten dollars." The into it, while Daisy, though she obviously airedale—undoubtedly there was an has love and affection for Gatsby, hasn’t airedale concerned in it somewhere have same feelings in the same way. It though its feet were startlingly white— becomes clear here that Daisy can never changed hands and settled down into live up to Gatsby’s huge hoping of her. Mrs. Wilson's lap, where she fondled the "Oh, you want too much!" she cried to weather-proof coat with rapture. Gatsby. "I love you now—isn't that Is it a boy or a girl?" she asked delicately. enough? I can't help what's past." She "That dog? That dog's a boy." "It's a began to sob helplessly. "I did love him bitch," said Tom decisively. "Here's your once—but I loved you too." Gatsby's eyes money. Go and buy more dogs with it." opened and closed. "You loved me too?" (Fitzgerald, 1925:38-43). he repeated. (Fitzgerald, 1925:264-66). This passage is great because it Here is about Daisy’s real feelings. She shows Tom and Myrtle’s different loved Gatsby, but also Tom, and to her attitudes toward the affair. Myrtle thinks those were equal loves. Gatsby’s that he cares about her more than he obsession with her appears shockingly really does. But to Tom, the money isn’t a one-sided at this point, and it’s clear if she big deal. He casually throws away the 10 will not leave Tom for him. It also can be dollars, aware he’s being scammed but seen why this confession is like a punch to not caring, since he has so much money at Gatsby: he’s been dreaming about Daisy his disposal. for years and sees her as his one true love, Myrtle pulled her chair close to while she can’t even calculate her love for mine, and suddenly her warm breath Gatsby above her love for Tom. Despite poured over me the story of her first Daisy’s rejection of Gatsby back at the meeting with Tom. Plaza Hotel, he refuses to believe that it "It was on the two little seats facing each was real and is sure that he can still get other that are always the last ones left on her back. His devotion is so intense he the train. I was going up to New York to doesn’t think twice about covering for her see my sister and spend the night. He had and taking the blame for Myrtle’s death. on a dress suit and patent leather shoes In fact, his obsession is so strong he barely and I couldn't keep my eyes off him but seems to register that there’s been a every time he looked at me I had to death, or to feel any guilt at all. This pretend to be looking at the Journal of English Education and Teaching (JEET) Vol.2.No.4.2018 61
advertisement over his head. When we affair with Tom. But other than Tom’s came into the station he was next to me physical attraction to Myrtle, but it is not and his white shirt-front pressed against clear about a view of his motivations until my arm—and so I told him I'd have to call later on. In Chapter 7, Tom panics once he a policeman, but he knew I lied. I was so finds out George knows about his wife’s excited that when I got into a taxi with affair. It can conclude that control is him I didn't hardly know I wasn't getting incredibly important to Tom include into a subway train. All I kept thinking control of his wife, control of his mistress, about, over and over, was 'You can't live and control of society more generally. forever, you can't live forever.' " "And if you think I didn't have my share of (Fitzgerald, 1925:119-20) suffering—look here, when I went to give Myrtle, twelve years into a up that flat and saw that damn box of dog marriage she’s unhappy in, sees her affair biscuits sitting there on the sideboard I sat with Tom as a romantic escape. She tells down and cried like a baby. By God it was the story of how she and Tom met like it’s awful——" (Fitzgerald, 1925:145) the beginning of a love story. In reality, it’s Despite Tom’s behavior throughout the pretty creepy. Tom sees a woman he finds novel, at the very end, Nick leaves with an attractive on a train and immediately goes image of Tom confessing to crying over and presses up to her like and convinces Myrtle. This complicates the reader’s her to go sleep with him immediately. desire to see Tom as a straightforward Sometime toward midnight Tom villain. Buchanan and Mrs. Wilson stood face to 2.5 Nick and Jordan Relationship face discussing in impassioned voices Description whether Mrs. Wilson had any right to Nick and Jordan are the only couple mention Daisy's name. without any prior contact before the novel "Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!" shouted Mrs. begins (aside from Nick apparently seeing Wilson. "I'll say it whenever I want to! her photo once in a magazine and hearing Daisy! Dai——" about her attempt to cheat). Jordan is a Making a short deft movement Tom friend of Daisy’s who is staying with her, Buchanan broke her nose with his open and Nick meets Jordan when he goes to hand. (Fitzgerald, 1925:124-6) have dinner with the Buchanans. I enjoyed In case it was still wondering that perhaps looking at her. She was a slender, small- Myrtle’s take on the relationship had breasted girl, with an erect carriage which some basis in truth, this is a hard she accentuated by throwing her body reality. Tom’s bad treatment of Myrtle backward at the shoulders like a young reminds of his brutality and the fact that, cadet. Her grey sun-strained eyes looked to him, Myrtle is just another affair, and back at me with polite reciprocal curiosity he would never leave Daisy for her. out of a wan, charming discontented face. There is no confusion like the It occurred to me now that I had seen her, confusion of a simple mind, and as we or a picture of her, somewhere before. drove away Tom was feeling the hot (Fitzgerald, 1925:57) whips of panic. His wife and his mistress, As Nick eyes Jordan in Chapter 1, it until an hour ago secure and inviolate, could see from his immediate physical were slipping precipitately from his attraction to her, though it’s not as potent control. (Fitzgerald, 1925:164) as Tom’s to Myrtle. And similar to Chapter 2 gives lots of insight into Gatsby’s attraction to Daisy being to her Myrtle’s character and how she sees her money and voice, Nick is pulled in by Journal of English Education and Teaching (JEET) Vol.2.No.4.2018 62
Jordan’s posture, her attitude and status attitude she can afford because of her are more charming than her looks alone. money. So just as Gatsby falls in love with Nick’s attraction to Jordan gives us a bit of Daisy and her wealthy status, Nick also insight both in how Tom sees Myrtle and seems attracted to Jordan for similar how Gatsby sees Daisy. reasons. "Good night, Mr. Carraway. See you “It was dark now, and as we anon." dipped under a little bridge I put my arm "Of course you will," confirmed Daisy. "In around Jordan's golden shoulder and fact I think I'll arrange a marriage. Come drew her toward me and asked her to over often, Nick, and I'll sort of—oh—fling dinner. Suddenly I wasn't thinking of Daisy you together. You know—lock you up and Gatsby any more but of this clean, accidentally in linen closets and push you hard, limited person who dealt in out to sea in a boat, and all that sort of universal skepticism and who leaned back thing——" (Fitzgerald, 1925:131-2) jauntily just within the circle of my arm. A Throughout the novel, Nick phrase began to beat in my ears with a avoiding getting caught up in relationships sort of heady excitement: "There are only the woman he mentions back home, the the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and woman he dates briefly in his office, the tired." (Fitzgerald, 1925:164) Myrtle’s sister though he doesn’t protest Nick, again with Jordan, seems interested to being “flung together” with Jordan. to be with someone who is a step above Perhaps this is because Jordan would be a him in terms of social class, interest to be step up for Nick in terms of money and a “pursuing” person, rather than just busy class, which speaks to Nick’s ambition and or tired. And again, we get a sense of class-consciousness, despite the way he what attracts him to Jordan, her clean, paints himself as an everyman. hard, limited self, her skepticism, and Furthermore, unlike these other women, confidence attitude. It’s interesting to see she lets Nick come to her. Nick sees these qualities become cringe to Nick just attracted to how detached and cool she is. a few chapters later. "You're a rotten driver," I protested. Just before noon the phone woke "Either you ought to be more careful or me and I started up with sweat breaking you oughtn't to drive at all." "I am out on my forehead. It was Jordan Baker; careful." "No, you're not." she often called me up at this hour "Well, other people are," she said lightly. because the uncertainty of her own "What's that got to do with it?" movements between hotels and clubs and "They'll keep out of my way," she insisted. private houses made her hard to find in "It takes two to make an accident." any other way. Usually her voice came "Suppose you met somebody just as over the wire as something fresh and cool careless as yourself." as if a divot from a green golf links had "I hope I never will," she answered. "I hate come sailing in at the office window but careless people. That's why I like you." Her this morning it seemed harsh and dry. grey, sun-strained eyes stared straight "I've left Daisy's house," she said. ahead, but she had deliberately shifted "I'm at Hempstead and I'm going down to our relations, and for a moment I thought Southampton this afternoon." I loved her. (Fitzgerald, 1925:162-70) Probably it had been tactful to leave Here, Nick is attracted to Jordan’s bored Daisy's house, but the act annoyed me attitude and her confidence that others and her next remark made me rigid. will avoid her careless behavior, an "You weren't so nice to me last night." Journal of English Education and Teaching (JEET) Vol.2.No.4.2018 63
"How could it have mattered then?" guess. I thought you were rather an (Fitzgerald, 1925:49-53) honest, straightforward person. I thought Later in the novel, after Myrtle’s tragic it was your secret pride." death, Jordan’s casual, devil-may-care "I'm thirty," I said. "I'm five years too old attitude is no longer cute, in fact Nick to lie to myself and call it honor." finds it disgusting. In this phone (Fitzgerald, 1925:129-135) conversation, we see Nick’s infatuation In their official break-up, Jordan with Jordan ending, replaced with the calls out Nick for claiming to be honest realization that Jordan’s casual attitude is and straightforward but in facts being indicative of everything Nick hates about prone to lying himself. So even Nick is the rich, old money group. Nick’s disappointed in Jordan’s behavior, Jordan relationship with Jordan represents how is disappointed to find another “bad his feelings about the wealthy have driver” in Nick, and both seem agree that evolved, at first he was drawn in by their they would never work as a couple. It’s cool, attitudes, but eventually found interesting to see Nick called out for himself refused by their carelessness and dishonest behavior for once. For all of his cruelty. judging of others, he’s clearly not a She was dressed to play golf and I paragon of virtue, and Jordan clearly remember thinking she looked like a good recognizes that. illustration, her chin raised a little, This break-up is also interesting jauntily, her hair the color of an autumn because it’s the only time we see a leaf, her face the same brown tint as the relationship end because the two fingerless glove on her knee. When I had members choose to walk away from each finished she told me without comment other, all the other failed relationships that she was engaged to another man. I (Daisy/Gatsby,Tom/Myrtle,Myrtle/ doubted that though there were several George) ended because one or both died. she could have married at a nod of her So perhaps there is a safe way out of a head but I pretended to be surprised. For bad relationship in Gatsby – to walk away just a minute I wondered if I wasn't early, even if it’s difficult and you’re still making a mistake, then I thought it all “half in love” with the other person over again quickly and got up to say (Fitzgerald, 1925:136). goodbye. "Nevertheless you did throw me over," said Jordan suddenly. "You threw me over Discussion on the telephone. I don't give a damn After presenting the characteristics of about you now but it was a new women in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott experience for me and I felt a little dizzy Fitzgerald, the researcher intended to for a while." discuss the findings and how they answer We shook hands. the research questions based on the first "Oh, and do you remember—" she added, chapter. "——a conversation we had once about The first question focuses on the main driving a car?" character of women in The Great Gatsby "Why—not exactly." by F. Scott Fitzgerald. There were three "You said a bad driver was only safe until women characters in the novel, those she met another bad driver? Well, I met were: Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker and another bad driver, didn't I? I mean it was Myrtle Wilson. The researcher limited the careless of me to make such a wrong women character because there were Journal of English Education and Teaching (JEET) Vol.2.No.4.2018 64
only third of them who have main role the story could not play out in the same and mostly appeared in every chapter of way. Tom and Daisy’s movements are also The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, supported by their money. At the whereas Nurgiyantoro (1998) named this beginning of the novel they move to as major character. fashionable East Egg, after moving around Based on the data above, there between “wherever people played polo were found some characteristics of main and were rich together,” and are able to women character in The Great Gatsby by very quickly pick up and leave at the end F. Scott Fitzgerald. Daisy Buchanan or of the book after the murders, thanks to Daisy Fay Buchanan have two main the protection their money provides characteristics which is always appear and (Fitzgerald, 1925: 17). become attention in every single chapter, Daisy, for her part, only begins her there are: pessimistic and materialistic. affair with Gatsby after a very detailed Second is Jordan Baker, who is two years display of his wealth (via the mansion younger than Daisy Buchanan also have tour). She even breaks down in tears after two main characteristics, there are Gatsby shows off his ridiculously Masculine and Worried. The last women expensive set of colored shirts, crying that character is Myrtle Wilson, in this she’s “never seen such beautiful shirts” character, the researcher only found one before (Fitzgerald, 1925: 118). Gatsby’s characteristic that always appear from notoriety comes from, first and foremost, this character, it is materialistic. his enormous wealth, wealth he has From the explanation, it concluded gathered to win over Daisy. Gatsby was if every main character has characteristics born to poor farmer parents in North which is almost same because The Great Dakota, but at 17, determined to become Gatsby have a theme about relationship, rich, struck out with the wealthy Dan Cody love, wealthy and materialism. It also and never looked back (Fitzgerald, 1925: related with the explanation of Kartono 5-15). Even though he wasn’t able to (1992) about characteristics of women, he inherit any part of Cody’s fortune, he used stated if women are more emotional, what he learned of wealthy society to first relate everything to emotional feelings, charm Daisy before shipping out to World more passive and the totality of women War I. Then, after returning home and character not on the objective awareness realizing Daisy was married and gone, he but on her feeling. set out to earn enough money to win Hence, the novel portrayed the Daisy over, turning to crime via a women character in The Great Gatsby by partnership with Meyer Wolfshiem to F. Scott Fitzgerald first by money and quickly amass wealth (Fitzgerald, 1925: materialism, it could be seen from the 83-87). opening pages, Nick establishes himself as Meanwhile, Tom’s mistress Myrtle, someone who has had many advantages a car mechanic’s wife, puts on airs and in life, a wealthy family and an Ivy League tries to pass as rich through her affair with education to name just two. Despite not Tom, but her involvement with the being as wealthy as Tom and Daisy, his Buchanans gets her killed. George Wilson, second cousin, they see him as enough of in contrast, is constrained by his lack of a peer to invite him to their home wealth. He tells Tom Buchanan after in Chapter 1. Nick’s connection to Daisy in finding out about Myrtle’s affair that he turn makes him attractive to Gatsby. If plans to move her West, but he “*needs+ Nick were just a middle-class everyman, money pretty bad” in order to make the Journal of English Education and Teaching (JEET) Vol.2.No.4.2018 65
move (Fitzgerald, 1925: 146). Tragically, American women in the novel there are 4 Myrtle is hit and killed that evening by characteristics that mostly occur in each Daisy. of them, first Daisy is Pessimistic and it If George Wilson had had the could be seen from the Chapter 1 in the means, he likely would have already left novel, Daisy also sad about her role in the New York with Myrtle in tow, saving both world. Second is materialistic, it informs of their lives. Hardly anyone shows up to from Daisy and Gatsby reunion, she is Gatsby’s funeral since they were only delighted by Gatsby’s mansion but falls to attracted by his wealth and the parties, pieces after Gatsby shows off his not the man himself. This is encapsulated collection of shirt and also from Myrtle in a phone call Nick describes, to a man Wilson who isn’t happy with her marriage who used to come to Gatsby’s parties: with George Wilson because he doesn’t “one gentleman to whom I telephoned have a wealthy. Third there is Jordan implied that he had got what he deserved. Baker’s characteristic; masculine because However, that was my fault, for he was she is an athlete and have hobbies like one of those who used to sneer most men (golf and car). bitterly at Gatsby on the courage of The last also came from Jordan Gatsby's liquor and I should have known Baker, she has worried personality better than to call him” (Fitzgerald, 1925: because in the novel she described as 69). someone who carefully calculate risks, The next portrayal is about love include in driving and relationship. and relationship. That are became a major Different with American, Indonesian motivator for nearly every character women also have their own character. in The Great Gatsby. However, none of First start from optimistic, loyal and Gatsby’s five major relationships is optimism and it have an educational value depicted as healthy or stable. Gatsby’s based on Raden Ajeng Kartini’s portrayal of love and desire is complex. movements. The relationship consists of five major relationships: Daisy/Tom, George/Myrtle, CONCLUSION Gatsby/Daisy, Tom/Myrtle, and The researcher concludes that there are Jordan/Nick. several characteristics found in major Materialism and relationship have a women character in The Great Gatsby. First strong connection with 1920s era, start from Daisy Buchanan, there are two because the author made a story in characteristics of this character: She is relation to how people viewed women in pessimistic and also materialistic. Second is the 1920. The 1920 also known as the Jordan Baker, she is look different with Roaring Twenties, was a big era as more another character because she looks more women becoming a symbol of change. masculine and optimistic, but she has a Within the next few years, women would trauma in her past relationship so she is be known for marital status, fashion and little bit worried. The last is Myrtle Wilson, work opportunities. women would be from the first story, she depressed because guaranteed more freedom and equality. of her marriage. She is highly materialistic These would be critical points to show so that’s why she has an affair with Tom how people’s view on women have Buchanan. changed throughout society. The researcher also explains how The last is how American and does the portrayal of women in The Great Indonesian women portrayed. From Gatsby. Because this novel is come from Journal of English Education and Teaching (JEET) Vol.2.No.4.2018 66
1920s as a Roaring Twenties, so the novel characteristics of character in novel and took a theme about money, materialism, relate to another history or culture of a love and relationship. It’s become a country and they will find better ideas to general theme of the novel because the improve more better findings in order to author related with the era. make a novel as a good media for students The last is how is the portrayal of learning process and also to English women in this novel and women in language teaching. Indonesia, first from the novel there are 3 The last for the reader, the writer characteristics that occur in the character: fully realizes that this paper is still far from Pessimistic, materialistic, and masculine. being perfect, therefore any constructive From Indonesian women on the education, criticisms will be highly appreciated. there 3 that mostly appear: feminism, optimistic, loyal REFERENCES Arikunto, S. (1998) . Prosedur Penelitian SUGGESTIONS Suatu Pendekatan Praktek. Jakarta : Based on the results and discussion of this PT. Rineka Cipta. Jakarta. research, there were some suggestions that the researcher intended to convey: Allport, G. W. (1937). Personality: A First, for students whose major is Psychological Interpretation. New English Department, studying English not York: Holt. only about four basic skills, but they must Burhan, Nurgiyantoro. 1998. Teori study other aspect of English, include Pengkajian Sastra. Bulaksumur. literature. Moreover, we have to know Yogyakarta: Gadjah Mada about other aspect such as history, culture, University Press. and other. One of them throughout the Candra, Septiana. 2001. An Analysis of novel. As we know, novel is one of media Women Characters in Novel to learn in order to know the history, the “Emma” by Jane Austen. Bengkulu: culture, the country and also to teach Bengkulu University Press. students to have critical thinking, because Collins, Gail. 2007. America's Women: 400 from the novel, they can maximize the Years of Dolls, Drudges, analogical thinking. Second for the Helpmates, and Heroines (P.S.) academic fields, especially for lecturers and America. Harper Perennial Press. teachers who read the finding of this study, Damayanti, Indah. 2013. Feminine the writer wishes that they will be Identities in John Steinbeck’s Short mentors/tutors for other researchers in Stories. Bengkulu: Bengkulu analyzing novel. The writer also hopes that University Press. the lecturer may give more understanding Dumovska, Daniela. 2010. The Women in about novel, especially dealing with Charles Dickens’s Novel Oliver analyzing characteristics and also relate it Twist. Sweden: Halmstad to the history of the country in order to University Press. help students to get more understanding Jabrohim. 2003. Metodologi Penelitian about the analyzing of novel and the Sastra. Yogyakarta: Hanindita function of novel as a media for learning Graha Widya. English. Johan, Theodorus. 2008. The Images of Third, the writer also hopes that Wife and Mother in Kate Chopin’s the further research can give a great Narratives: A Feminist Reading. contribution to make an analyzing of Journal of English Education and Teaching (JEET) Vol.2.No.4.2018 67
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