Eternal Topics In Life: Women And Money

F. Scott Fitzgerald is called"the angel of the Jazz Age". In his short and frustrated life, he wrote five novels and 178 short stories. In his works, he unmasks the hypocrisy and emptiness of America in the 1920s under the superficial uproar and vanity. Many characters in his works, like the author himself, pursue a life of luxury and dissipation, dreaming of realizing their personal ideals, but their dreams are inevitably smashed by the relentless reality.His masterpiece The Great Gatsby is regarded as a classic in American literature. T. S. Eliot gives it the warmest praise by claiming that The Great Gatsby is the"first step that American fiction has taken since Henry James". Ever since its publication the novel has been adapted into a play and performed on the stage and screen constantly. Critics have done intensive researches on its theme, narrative writing, techniques, and so on. In recent years, we can find further research on this novel in feminist and cultural aspects.This paper is intended to examine typical women characters in both Fitzgerald's major novels and his life to study how they conquered men in the circle of money and love. It is divided into five parts: Introduction, The Jazz Age and Great Fitzgerald,Women in Fitzgerald's Works: Beautiful but Cursed,Romance of Money—Fitzgerald And Zelda and Conclusion.The first chapter is related to Fitzgerald's personal ideals for life and art, his pursuit of money and social position, then his seeking of personality in his romantic life and literary creation.The second chapter is composed of three sections, analyzing three women characters respectively—Daisy, Myrtle and Nicole from his two most mature works during the decade, The Great Gatsby and Tender Is the Night. They represent three major types of women in his novels: Daisy, the golden girl of a rich family, was the butterfly soul of wealth. Myrtle was born in a middle class family, which led to her tragedy, since unfortunately she was not lucky enough to be Cinderella in the fairy...