Myrtle Wilson's Story In Chapter 2 Of The Great Gatsby

She has chosen to throw away her whole marriage for a glamorous wealthy life in East Egg. This can be seen when she first talks about the time she ever laid eyes on Tom. She remembers vividly what he was wearing. “It was on the two little seats facing each other that are always the last ones left on the train. I was going up to New York to see my sister and spend the night. He had on a dress suit and patent leather shoes and I couldn’t keep my eyes off him…” (Fitzgerald ) This quote in the book represents the phrase, “Met her at a beauty salon, With a baby Louis Vuitton, Under her underarm, She said I can tell you rock, I can tell by your charm..” I chose this stanza of the song for a multitude of reasons. One being that it’s implying that this woman knows nothing about this man, but just by looking at him and what he is wearing she can supposedly tell that he is a good charming man. This is what Myrtle did to Tom. She saw the fancy suit and decided to commit adultery with a man because he was well dressed. Myrtle then and there decided to throw her marriage away for

“Terrible place, isn’t it,” said Tom, exchanging a frown with Doctor Eckleburg.Awful.” This shows that Tom thinks that New York is an awful place, but goes for Myrtle. They all went up to Myrtle apartment where they met new faces. Those among the new faces were Myrtle’s sister, and Mr. and Mrs. McKee. They all sit around , whenever Myrtle go to New york to see Tom she tells her husband that she is going to see her sister ,“Wilson? He thinks she goes to see her sister in New York. He’s so dumb he doesn’t know he’s alive.”

On Thursday last week, two murders have taken place. Myrtle Wilson, wife to a small garage owner, was hit and killed instantly by a speeding car two evenings ago. She had run out into the middle of the street for unknown reasons when the ‘death car’ hit her. The car was allegedly a yellow or green color and was guessed to be traveling around 40 miles per hour when it hit Myrtle. This car was coming from New York; it swerved a little but did not stop when passing

Most of the artificial, fake, and decaying things in this chapter revolve around Myrtle. Myrtle lives in the Valley of Ashes, a place that is decayed and bleak. From her dog, to her style of talking, to her “love” for Tom, everything about Myrtle is fake because she’s trying to make herself believe that she’s a high class person when she’s actually not. Even Myrtle’s relationship with Tom is fake since he lied to her about Daisy’s religion because he doesn’t view it as a serious thing that he wants to pursue. I think Fitzgerald brought these things to light because he wanted to criticize the upper class for associating happiness with material objects and to show how shallow material objects actually

Veiled in Petals Names in literature transcend mere labels, but exist as characters in their own right, with their own stories to tell. Windows into the roles, motivations, and destinies of a character, whose names embody a person. Like silent companions, names accompany characters throughout their journeys, leaving an indelible mark on the grandeur of their beginnings to the depths of their endings. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, names take on the same symbolic importance and weave characters together to form an inimitable narrative. Set against the backdrop of the lavish lifestyles and societal decadence of the 1920s Jazz Age, the novel follows the enigmatic Jay Gatsby and his relentless pursuit of the elusive American Dream.

He thinks she is going to see her sister in New York. He's so dumb he doesn't know she's alive” (Fitzgerald 29) Everytime Tom goes to New York, Myrtle cheats on her husband just because he’s very wealthy. Also because he buys her anything she wants when she wants. In addition to those few examples earlier in the book, there are more that come up later that are significant to the theme and motif as well.

Many of the occurrences in The Great Gatsby produced far-reaching effects for several of the characters.  Of these occurrences, one of the most influential and important incidents was the death of Myrtle Wilson.  While her life and death greatly affected the lives of all of the main and supporting characters, her death had a very significant effect on the lives of Tom, Daisy, and Gatsby.

As soon as she met up with Tom “she bought a copy of Town Tattle and a moving picture magazine, and in the stations drug-store some cold cream and a small flask of perfume” (Fitzgerald 26), in a desperate attempt of living her dream. Her dream stemmed from immoral ways; Tom had lots of money, and was willing to spend it on Myrtle, yet only for his own adulterous motives. Dreams stem the worst kind of immoralities because the best intentions can lead to the worst outcomes, so many dreamers do not realize their mistakes.

Nick and Tom were best friends in college, but hadn’t really talked much since then. When Nick visits Tom and Daisy one afternoon, he learns from Jordan Baker, Daisy’s friend, that Tom has a mistress. “‘Why-’ she said hesitantly, ‘Tom’s got some woman in New York.’ ” (Fitzgerald 15) This gives Nick reason to not like Tom and give him reason to tell Daisy, but he doesn’t. The next morning, Tom invites Nick to go to lunch with him in the city and Tom takes him to see his mistress-Nick does not want to, but he humors Tom. Tom’s mistress’ name is Myrtle Wilson. Nick does not agree with this, although he does keep it a secret. Nick listens to Tom and keeps his secret from Daisy, even though she already knows. Even though Nick develops a negative impression of Tom, he plays a role as a major confidant towards him.

In the Buchanan household, which has been relocated several times to escape the bad publicity wrought by affairs, this kind of behavior is to be expected, showing how even the educated upper class is unable to escape the corruption of America, and what it stands for. The general lack of concern for affairs continues when Gatsby believes that he can turn back the clock and rekindle what he and Daisy once had. Gatsby not only hopes that Daisy will wait for him, but expects it, scoffing at Nick’s assertion that things have changed over time, and that Daisy is now married and a with a child and therefore uninterested in him: “Can’t repeat the past?...Why of course you can!” (116). Gatsby believes that Daisy will be willing to give up what she has for him, building his whole life on the assumption that she will be willing to forget all she has for him. This attitude of indifference for marriage is mimicked in the actions of Tom as well as Myrtle Wilson, showing that it may be widely held. Tom takes advantage of Wilson, replying to Nick’s concerns by simply saying that Mr. Wilson “thinks [Myrtle] goes to see her sister in New York. He’s so dumb he doesn’t know he’s alive” (30). Myrtle’s ability to easily lie to her husband shows that the marital corruption of the upper class is prevalent in the lower classes as well. Fitzgerald uses the diverse characters, from the removed yet decidedly elite character of

Myrtle desires wealth and luxuries, and as a result she has an affair with Tom, who gives her anything she yearns for. Myrtle despises her lifestyle with her husband, George Wilson, due to the lower-class living and dirty, physical labor. She explains how, “I married him because I thought he was a gentleman … I thought he knew something about breeding, but he wasn’t fit to lick my shoe” (Fitzgerald, 34). Myrtle planned to marry a rich man, so in the future he could support her children and herself, and they would be members of

. . . And one fine morning- So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past” (Fitzgerald 180). Furthermore, Fitzgerald illustrates that no matter how much effort a person gives, the world will ultimately oppose them. As in Gatsby’s case, he died an unknown figure and nobody dared to attend his funeral to commiserate him. Another instance of Fitzgerald’s opinion regarding the American dream was prevalent through the actions of Myrtle Wilson. Throughout the novel, Myrtle was engrossed in the lavish lifestyle she attained through a surreptitious affair with Tom Buchanan. Myrtle’s personality transformed as she took advantage of Tom’s money by using it to live out her fantasy. Although Myrtle’s American dream occured sparsely, she displayed how materialistic she was by stating, “I married him (George) because I thought he was a gentleman. . . . I knew right away I made a mistake. He borrowed somebody’s best suit to get married in, and never even told me about it .

The Great Gatsby is a novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. This novel is based on Jay Gatsby who is really wealthy, has grand extravagant parties and is deeply in love with Daisy Buchanan. In this novel, Tom Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson develop a close relationship which show characteristics and qualities of the main character.

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

Myrtle Wilson, a relatively minor character, belongs to the lower classes, expresses a desire to upward social mobility, but is largely prevented from doing so due to her gender. She uses love to acquire wealth and has an extramarital affair with Tom. She is not happy with her lower social status and her husband George Wilson, a representative of the lower classes and a simple man with no grand ambitions, states in the novel: “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 and never even told me about it,” (Fitzgerald 28). Myrtle allows us to look at her accumulation of things, such as the down-town apartment which was “… crowded to the doors with a set of tapestried furniture entirely too large for it, so that to move about was to stumble continuously over scenes of ladies swinging in the gardens of Versailles” (Lindberg 16; Fitzgerald 35).