Myrtle Wilson In The Great Gatsby

The relationship that Tom and Myrtle’s yield allows Fitzgerald to critique the life’s of the wealthy, old-money class in 1920s New York. By showing Tom’s affair with a working-class woman, Nick reveals Tom’s ugliest behavior as well as the brutality of class divisions during the roaring twenties. Critics Ian and Michelle McMechan in their article ‘Gatsby’s women’ identify how the tones in which Fitzgerald draws Myrtle are mainly grey and brown and she hails from a ‘valley of ashes’. Myrtle’s appeal, in contrast to Daisy’s, is raw and earthy: ‘She had changed her dress to a brown figured muslin, which stretched tight over her rather wide hips’ as Nick notes on first meeting her. Her ‘intense vitality’ expands in Tom’s presence until ‘she seemsto be revolving on a noisy creaking pivot through the smoky air.’ Myrtle appears as some form of marionette in fact a grotesque fairground attraction doll. This ‘doll’ who is used by Tom with a purpose of comfort, but such desires lead Tom to cheat on the mother of his child and react with brutality to the women who he carries out the

She lives in the Valley of Ashes with her husband who owns a crumbling garage. She is unhappy in her marriage, so she is having an affair with Tom Buchanan. Tom is her ideal man because he is wealthy and can afford to buy her expensive things whereas her husband can barely afford to keep his garage open. Initially, Myrtle is described as being "in the middle thirties, and faintly stout" and containing "no facet or gleam of beauty." Immediately after she leaves the Valley of ashes with Tom, her character is described completely different. She is described in elegant detail similar to that of the rich because now she is immersed in the rich lifestyle. Fitzgerald describes her as wearing "a brown figured muslin, which stretched tight over her rather wide hips." The way Fitzgerald describes her also makes her seem beautiful whereas before she was described as having no "facet of beauty." Nick is even comments on Myrtle's sudden change in personality when she is around Tom. He states, "with the influence of the dress her personality had also undergone a change. The intense vitality that had been so markable in the garage was converted into impressive hauteur. Her laughter, her gestures, her assertions, became more violently affected moment by moment, and as she expanded the room grew smaller around her." The reason Myrtle was described differently and changed so drastically was all due to class distinction. Myrtle

Daisy has the name of a flower, recognizable and with admissible charm. Flowers symbolize innocence, just as the color white does. A daisy, actually, categorizes itself as a wildflower and not of high value. This corresponds with the idea that Daisy, in the end, was not worth very much, or nearly as much as Gatsby made her out to be.

The character Myrtle showed symbolism by wearing plain and dull clothes at home with her husband George, but when she knew she would be around Tom, she would change into clothes with bright colors. She did this to try to fool herself in to thinking that she was not a poor girl from the suburbs, and tried to fool Tom into thinking that she was exotic and would fit into a rich life style. Some times when she would put on these clothes, her whole attitude would change. Myrtle would go from being a nice lady to a

Myrtle further examines Tom’s appearance and goes on to acknowledge his “white shirt front”. The color white represents purity, success and nobleness but can also be associated with hollowness, coldness, superficiality and ruthlessness. In this case, his shirt represents his appearance while “front” means façade. Tom appears as wealthy, pure and desirable to Myrtle when in fact, he has on a façade and is hollow, selfish and superficial instead. Myrtle cannot distinguish between the two and is captivated by the way he lives and carries himself. When Mrs. McKee compliments Myrtle on her dress, she condescendingly shrugs it off and offers her the dress as she has “got to get another one tomorrow”. Myrtle implies that the dress is of value to her and since she is very rich, she can just “get” one whenever she wants. She cares greatly about her own physical appearance and gives clothes a lot of importance. Myrtle puts up a façade as well, and wants people to judge her based on her appearance just as she judges them on theirs, thus implying her

Myrtle Wilson is obsessed with leaving her poor life behind her by being with Tom but unlike Gatsby, her attempts are fruitless. She attempts to make herself seem an upper class person like when she changed her dress before the party in chapter two. She believes her husband is beneath her and talks of all low statuses as if she isn’t one of them. "I told that boy about the ice." Myrtle raised her eyebrows in despair at the shiftlessness of the lower orders. "These people! You have to keep after them all the time." (42)

Myrtle, who represents the low and ignorant class of America, tried to break the social barriers and thus pursues wealth by any means necessary. Using her sexuality and crude appearance, she becomes false for abandoning and dismissing her own social foundation, and like Nick, we as readers are disgusted by her monstrous approach to entering the rich class. At one point, and quite humorously to the knowing onlooker, Myrtle complains about a service done for her that was so expensive. Obviously misusing her wording, it is comical only because she is trying so hard to fit into the stuck-up upper class personality, and failing miserably.

Myrtle Wilson is the second major character in The Great Gatsby. She is about 30 years old and is “faintly stout but she carried her surplus flesh sensuously as some woman can” (The Great Gatsby: Character). Myrtle is married to George Wilson, also a mistress to Tom Buchanan. She is not happy with her marriage nor her lifestyle. Myrtle is part of the lower class of society making her poor. With them being poor they end up living in their car garage. George seemed like a gentleman and that is why Myrtle married him, but turns out that he wasn’t. Tom is part the upper class of society which attracts Myrtle to him. They spend a lot of time in the city together. She has an excuse to tell George that she is visiting her sister. George is getting a suspicion that Myrtle is up to no good, and locks her up in a closet. Myrtle being upset, notices a yellow car thinking it was Tom because she noticed him driving it earlier, she runs to the car to get away from George

Myrtle Wilson is the other partner in Tom Buchannan’s affair. She is of a simpler lifestyle living on the “edge of the wasteland…contiguous to absolutely nothing.”(Gatsby 24). Nick describes her “a thick woman” “in [her] middle thirties” (Gatsby 25), the average woman in that time. Once she and Tom get off the train, she immediately buys a dog, and then makes a point to buy a rather expensive dog as well. When she arrives to her sister’s house, where a party is taking place, Nick says that she “changed her costume” (Gatsby 30). Because a costume is also the attire performers wear, Nick is giving us the impression that all of this is a play, a facade to act wealthy when in fact she is not. Nick also says “with the influence of the dress her personality had also undergone a change. The intense vitality that had been so remarkable in the garage was converted into impressive hauteur” (Gatsby 30), again another indicator of her “performance” of a wealthy woman. Soon, she and Tom “discuss in impassioned voices” whether she had any “right to mention Daisy’s name” (Gatsby 37). Tom punches her after this, but still left the party with her. Myrtle is now a woman with no self-respect, due to her allowing a man, though he may be rich, to physically assault her, instead of having a man who truly cares for her not being well off.

Myrtle represents the contrasting women of the lower class. She is an opportunist; she is obsessed with wealth and material possessions. She will do anything to be of a higher social class. She is sexualised and objectified by the dominant wealthy man.

Myrtle also adds to this stigma. She longs for a life that is fun and glamorous, but reality is she is the wife of a pump mechanic, meaning she will never have access to mobility in class or status. She is a lower class woman, which led her to engage in an affair with Tom Buchanan; it is the closest she will come to feeling higher up socially. Myrtle will do just about anything to be a part of the upper class despite the consequences. There was even a point in time when Tom physically hits her, breaking her nose and yet she still stayed with him just to continue lavishing in this fantasy she so eagerly wanted to become real (Fitzgerald, pg 37). That scene and the dynamic of her and Tom represent the subordination of the lower class and the mistreatment of women within the lower class.

In the book the Great Gatsby, the character Jay Gatsby and George Wilson are now known for being friendly to each other but they have the same common goal and passion toward one women, Jay Gatsby is a wealthy, young, dedicated and greedy character and there many reason why he is what he become, Gatsby get wealthy by bootleggin which is smuggling alcohol from Canada to America via Lake Superior so Gatsby giant mansion his employer his own lake come from the bootlegging money. Now for George he just a mechanic in the Valley of Ashes and his wife is Myrtle Wilson, now George is in LOVE with Myrtle like he see her as a goddess and this is where George and Gatsby have a connection George has an undying love for Myrtle and Gatsby have the same feeling for Daisy. So in retrospect the chain of love's start with Gatsby who love Daisy but Daisy is married to Tom and Tom is having an affair with Myrtle and Myrtle dont love or even at all to

To Myrtle Wilson, the American Dream is to become wealthy and high class. For her, this is impossible. She is married to a working class man who owns an auto shop in a rundown part of New York. Myrtle is so corrupted by money that she cheats on her hardworking, loving husband, in order to be with Tom Buchanon’s money. When describing her marriage, Myrtle said, “The only crazy I was was when I married him. I knew right away I made a mistake. He borrowed somebody’s best suit to get married in . . . then I lay down and cried to beat the band all afternoon” (35). She was, of course, talking about money issues. She thought her husband was wealthy, but when he had to borrow a suit, she became depressed and she believed her life was ruined. Myrtles unhealthy fixation on money ruined her marriage, and led to her becoming Tom’s mistress. Tom can supply her with the wealth she needs to feel happy. When given the chance, Tom will take Myrtle to parties just so she can wear the fancy clothing that he gave her. This

She aches to be part of an elite class like Daisy, but instead, she is married to a man who is hard working and honest but does not have the passion that she craves. Wilson, Myrtle's dumb witted husband, owns a garage. Because Wilson is a passive aggressive character, he does not want to admit to himself that his wife would cheat on him, even though Tom makes it apparent that Myrtle is more his wife or "property" than she will ever be to Wilson. For example, when Tom visits Myrtle at the garage Myrtle orders Wilson to fetch some chairs while she gives her true lover a warm greeting.

The way she decorates the apartment, it is tasteless and cheap, despite her consistent efforts to imitate the wealthy. Myrtle was trying her best to climb the social ladder and using Tom as an asset. She was demolishing what she was born into to get where she wanted, she was imitating the wealthy in her best struggles to fit in. Myrtle has her affair with Tom due to the privileged world it grants her access to, which is her version of the American Dream, where wealth and being at the top of social class hierarchy is success. Myrtle idolizes the corruption of the 1920s, that one must be born into money in order to reap