Gender roles, deception, Gatsby/Daisy and Hamlet/Ophelia - The Great Gatsby VS Shakespeare's Hamlet

Hi so I am a 12U student, and my final summative is to write a compare a contrast essay between the Book the Great Gatsby and the Play Hamlet.

I have some points, but I don't really know how to format my essay, (its a 5 paragraph essay) and I don't know if I am on the right track..

Here is what I have:
Gender Roles in Hamlet-
Ophelia is dependent on the men in her life (father and brother), and consistently seeks guidance. Gertrude is also very dependent on men.
In Hamlet the Social norm is that women have "invisible" roles in society, and they are Youthful, Beautiful, and pure.
Ophelia could be considered to be the "perfect" girl for her era: Young, Gorgeous, and pure.
Gertrude however is the opposite, she is obviously older, not that beautiful anymore, and she is certainly NOT pure.
Gender Roles in Gatsby-
Daisy is also very dependent on Tom, and in a way Gatsby. She just wants to be rich, and happy, and she doesn't work therefore making her lean on Tom for support in many ways.

However Jordan Baker is fairly independent, because she is a star golfer and can stand on her own two feet without help.
Daisy is the "perfect" girl during the Jazz age, the pure, southern belle.
Jordan Baker is the opposite of Daisy: Dark hair, tall, independent etc.

Deception:
Gatsby and Hamlet both "act" as something other than who they really are-
Jay acts as if he is cultured and powerful, and that he has been all his life, when really he was born dirt poor, and he got his money through illegal activities.

Hamlet acts insane to be able to try to complete his goal.

Gatsby/Daisy vs. Hamlet/Ophelia:
Both relationships appear to be possible at the beginning of their work but as everyone knows they actually don't work at all.

Gatsby and Hamlet:
Both Tragic Heroes- Don't know what Gatsby's tragic flaw is how indecisive he is about everything.
It could be said the Gatsby's flaw is that he is too much of a dreamer, he wants his perfect life with Daisy, and wants to re-create the past, but instead he scares Daisy away and ends up dying because of his "dreaming" (Ambition?)

Also both Gatsby and Hamlet are extremely brooding.

Anywho thanks for any help you can assist me with!

Hello, I can help to assist you with your paper. As I began to read it, I noticed that it is similar to an outline. I think what is missing is an opening paragraph to help the reader understand the organization of the paper. You mention gender roles, deception, and tragic heroes in the body of the essay. Help the reader to understand what you will discuss in the essay by using those points. Discuss that you will be comparing and contrasting characters and the similarities and differences in the Great Gatsby and Hamlet.

"In Hamlet the social norm is that women have "invisible" roles in society, and they are youthful, beautiful, and pure." This is a good sentence for the next paragraph in your essay. When you describe Ophelia and Gertrude, you should compare and contrast after you have finished describing each character. For example, if you begin by describing Ophelia, you should start with the sentence that describes her dependency on her father and brother. However, although she has this dependency, she is still considered the perfect girl. Similarly, Gertrude is the same with her dependency on men. Then discuss how different she is in terms of her age, outward appearance, etc. Young and gorgeous should be in all lowercase letters.

You can follow the same pattern with Daisy and Jordan Baker. Describe all of Daisy's characteristics and then compare or contrast the difference between Daisy and Jordan Baker.

The idea of deception is really clear. I am going to suggest adding some sentences. Is there anything in the reading that gives evidence of Jay's power or Hamlet's insanity? Gatsby/Daisy vs. Hamlet/Ophelia is unclear because the statement is vague. More details from the reading or more details in the explanation will make it more clear.

A good way to separate your paragraphs is to use transition words. For example, when you discuss gender roles in the Great Gatsby, you could state: However, there were gender roles for women in the Great Gatsby. One simple sentence and transition word could help you to organize your paper. I hope this helps you!

Kaay, I agree with Icturn87, your essay is very similar to an outline. Well, if this is what your paper is asking then this is a well written outline.

It differentiates the two subjects and what makes it even more interesting is that you nailed the difference between the two characters.
However, I have some concerns listed below;

- the logic of differentiation like why are we citing the differences, this should be the first paragraph
- the links between one contrary fact to the other
- the roles that each characters play
- players of the role
- the general argument that each of the roles are playing
- how each character are played
- and how the characters be very deceiving

I hope you will follow thru this guidelines, it should help at least a little bit.