Roles Of Women In The Great Gatsby

Myrtle yearns to be with Tom and live in his wealth but is prevented from doing so by Tom and Daisy. For instance, when Daisy tries to leave Tom for Gatsby, Tom does not exactly dismiss Myrtle, “…but there is no question that she would eventually be discarded” (Donaldson). Myrtle is so infatuated with Tom, she forgot that he can just as well choose Daisy over her. He has the upper hand, as a rich man with control over women especially when it comes to his relationships. While to Tom, Myrtle’s gender has made her just one of his possessions, to Myrtle, Tom’s rich and high status as a man has made him her only path to a higher class. Due to her infatuation with Tom, she often becomes jealous and possessive when she finds a threat to their relationship. Myrtle is so overcome with desire for Tom that she cannot stand the thought of him with another women. Even when she sees Tom in the car with Jordan Baker, Myrtle’s, “… eyes, wide with jealous terror, were fixed not on Tom, but on Jordan Baker, whom she too to be his wife” (Fitzgerald 125). Myrtle is so convinced that Tom is hers, when in reality, she is really Tom’s. Myrtle has almost forgotten the fact that as an inferior women, she has little control over the situation. The reality is that Tom was in control of the relationship and used Myrtle for his lustrous desires. Tom’s rejection of Myrtle causes her to become overrun with jealousy. In

Myrtle and Gatsby both share the same goal of acquiring money and being accepted into the Old Money crowd. Myrtle Wilson thinks that she is meant to belong in the rich crowd and that she is above the poor crowd. “‘I told that boy about the ice.’ Myrtle raised her eyebrows in despair at the shiftlessness of the lower orders” (32). Myrtle looks down on the lower class, even though she if part of the lower class herself, because she thinks that she is above them. She thinks that she should be part of the upper class so she uses Tom Buchanan to achieve that goal. Furthermore, Gatsby tries to be accepted into the Old Money crowd so that Daisy will accept him into her life. “‘Why don’t you- why don’t you stay for supper? I wouldn’t be

Myrtle Wilson, the wife of George, and the lover of Tom Buchanan, is brutally murdered toward the end of the novel. After an uncivilized afternoon in New York, Daisy and Gatsby head swiftly back to East Egg. Gatsby explains to Nick, “It all happened in a minute, but it seemed to me that she wanted to speak to us, thought we were somebody she knew” (Fitzgerald 109). Myrtle ran out toward the car looking for Tom but sadly for her it is not him. Many know about Tom’s affair, but not with whom he is having it, especially Daisy. Daisy never slows the car down, and she never realizes who she hits. This shows that Daisy is oblivious to Myrtles existence. Myrtle is sleeping with her husband, she ruins their marriage, and Daisy kills her. The irony exists in this because Daisy actually saves her marriage by killing

Even though the 1920s is the era of women’s rights, women are still treated poorly. Even woman in the middle class are looked at with expectations. In the article it stated, “she concludes that although there were changes in women’s lives, their achievements were, limited, with ‘progress in some spheres… matched by disappointment and defeat in others’” (Hannam 64). This relates to Myrtles situation because even though she is not in the eyes of society she is expected to obey her husband and do as she is told. Myrtle does not always do as she is told around her husband, George Wilson. She is not the perfect female with him. She actually acts a little more masculine and aggressive to show she is not weak, but around her lover, Tom Buchanan, she becomes a more weak and obedient female. That would be approved by society if they were actually married. She changes how she conforms to the expectations of society depending on who she is around. She really does not control her own life like Jordan, but she also is not forced by society to do something she does not want to do like

In "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald, he shows women, treated and presented as worse than men, and are rather disregarded and neglected by the male characters. Even Fitzgerald describes and creates the traits of the women in the book in a negative manner.

During the 1920’s, women were objectified in society, yet began to show signs of independence by striving for equality between genders. In this time known as the Roaring Twenties, women began to use their voice desiring to live their lives how they chose. F. Scott Fitzgerald, a renowned author, displayed his perception of women attempting to prove their worth through his new book. One of the protagonists in the novel, Daisy Buchanan, challenges the gender barriers and threatens to paint a new image for women by choosing love over wealth. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald displays the modern women’s inability to obtain independence as they were perceived as incapable of making their own decisions and relied on traditional gender

Not only does the novel teach us to keep our judgment clear of distractions, it also demonstrates that one should follow their own path and not others. Firstly, because Myrtle is bored with her own life she chooses to improve her situation by dating Tom attempting to fit into his wealthy lifestyle. "With the influence of the dress her personality had also undergone a change."(33) Myrtle flaunts the dress as if it were something of her everyday life pretending to fit into the temporary life of material wealth. However her efforts to step onto Tom's path of riches and social class prove hopeless as Tom treats her as merely an object of his desire. Furthermore, in order to win back the love of his life, Gatsby dedicates most of his life to

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 Wilson in The Great Gatsby is an example of the poor. Myrtle is Tom’s lover who is desperately trying to change her life as the lower class. Myrtle is not found with the class she was born into. She insists that she married beneath her, and tries to talk about the lower orders— as if she is not 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’". Unfortunately for her, she chooses to be Tom’s lover who treats her as a merely object.

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.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby, illustrates most women in his novels in a incredibly negative light. He portrays them as dependent upon men, selfish, and completely amoral. Jay Gatsby is in love with the wealthy Mrs. Daisy Buchannan and tries to win her love by proving that he is wealthy. However, no matter how wealthy he becomes, or how many gigantic parties he throws, he is still never good enough for Daisy. The story ends in tragedy as Gatsby is killed and dies utterly alone. Fitzgerald's characterization of Daisy, Myrtle, and Jordan in The Great Gatsby demonstrates women who are objectified by men and treated as their trophies, while also

This passage from The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald reveals Myrtle to be indiscreet, selfish, not intelligent and shows that Tom objectifiy her, doesn't trust her, holds her in a lower class.

She married George Wilson because she thought he would improve her social standing, and when that did not happen she leeched on to Tom. Page 34 says, “I married him because I thought he was a gentleman, she said finally. I thought he knew something about breeding, but he wasn’t fit enough to lick my shoe” (Fitzgerald). Again, Myrtle goes, “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 35). In saying this, it portrays that she only married him to her advantage, but backfired. Secondly, Myrtle knew that Tom would be able to provide for her in ways such as: money, status, and wealth. She stated, “I’m going to make a list of all the things I’ve got to get” (Fitzgerald 36). When she says this, it proves to us that she acts differently and is only with Tom because of his money, even when he abuses

Both Myrtle and Gatsby are characters with romantic aspirations and believers in the American Dream. However, their ideals are perverted by the materialistic standards of society. Myrtle is trapped in poverty and momentary escapes come in the form of Tom Buchanan and the secret apartment. She uses Tom’s money to create what she thinks the upper class has, but is still limited by the space she has. All Myrtle’s nice things, such as the oversized furniture, just end up making it difficult to move just like how difficult it is for her to move up her socioeconomic status. Gatsby may own an abundance of material things, but all of it cannot satisfy him as his American Dream is incomplete without Daisy. He only has a lot of nice things to impress