The Great Gatsby Myrtle Isolation Quotes

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

But they were not as family-like as they might had seemed. Tom Buchanan had a mistress from the Valley of Ashes, and rented an apartment for her in the city. Daisy couldn’t do much about it, but she knew clearly about Myrtle, the mistress. One night at dinner with Nick, Daisy’s cousin, “she threw her napkin on the table and excused herself and went into the house”(Fitzgerald 14). There was no mistaking the anger in Daisy as she had to cope with the fact this mistress was interfering with her family. But Daisy didn’t do anything sophisticated to deal with this. When Gatsby was in the car with Daisy on the drive back from New York after a heated fight, he said, “Well, first Daisy turned away from the woman toward another car, and then she lost her nerve and turned back”(Fitzgerald 143). Everyone believed it was Gatsby who hit Myrtle and killed her. But “in reality, it is Daisy who killed Myrtle, and then fled the scene of the accident”(Auger 127). Her frustration was the destruction of Myrtle Wilson, yet Daisy was not the type to face what she had actually done. Back home with Tom, Daisy had to have talked to Tom about what happen. That would be the most sensible thing to do. Yet, “There was an unmistakable air of natural intimacy about the picture, and anybody would have said that they were conspiring together”(Fitzgerald 145). Daisy was acting casually as if she had

His actions show that he is not loyal nor respectful towards Daisy, instead displaying apathy and disinterest. In addition to acting uncompassionate towards Daisy, he is also not taking into consideration Myrtle’s feelings. In fact, he lies to her in order to stop himself from being forced into a committed relationship. This lie that Tom tells Myrtle is not only extremely false, but also shows he is simply using her. “It’s really his wife that’s keeping them apart. She’s a Catholic, and they don’t believe in divorce” (Fitzgerald 33). Tom lying to Myrtle shows he has no intention of marrying her, instead he only wants to take advantage of her vulnerable state. Myrtle is unhappy and desperate to fulfill her dream of moving up social classes. Instead of acting sympathetically towards her situation, he exploits her weakness. Likewise, Daisy and Gatsby’s affair shows similar exploitation for one’s own personal needs over the emotions of their counterpart. Without Tom’s knowledge, Daisy has an affair with her long lost love, Gatsby. Then they sauntered over to my house and sat on the steps for half an hour… (Fitzgerald 105). During this affair Daisy shows no acknowledgement of Tom’s feelings, the man she married and pledged to be loyal to. At the same time, she is also exploiting Gatsby. Authors say, “...his desire to marry Daisy as an attempt to enter/create

Daisy Buchanan uses her need for attention and people to adore her most likely to cover up her fear of isolation. From the beginning Daisy has virtually been alone. Her husband Tom was not even there for the birth of their only daughter. “Well, she was less than an hour old and Tom was God knows where. I woke up out of the ether with an utterly abandoned

Fitzgerald further complicates the story when he introduces us to Myrtle Wilson, Tom’s mistress, and her attempt to use him to climb the social ladder. Myrtle and her husband, Wilson, live in the valley of ashes, “a certain desolate area of land” (23). The valley of ashes is a particularly run down stretch of land between West Egg and New York City, mostly inhabited by people from the lower working class. Tom is good friends with Wilson, but is simultaneously having an affair with his wife. Fitzgerald shows us that Myrtle is unhappy with Wilson and seeks a better life when she cries, “The only crazy I was was when I married [Wilson]. I knew right away I made a mistake.

Daisy's superficiality extends to her personality. She is fragile, unstable and a confused character. While talking to Nick she said: “...I woke up with an abandoned felling and asked the nurse right away if it was a boy or a girl. She told me it was a girl, and so I turned my head away and wept. 'Alright,' I said, 'I'm glad it's a girl. And I hope she'll be a fool-that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful fool” (Fitzgerald 21). They also married their husbands for different reasons. Myrtle says she married George because she thought he was a gentleman. She also thought he knew about good “breeding.” On the other hand, Daisy married Tom because rich girls had to marry into money and good social status.

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

Daisy sees this as does almost the exact same thing, only with Gatsby. By expressing this carelessness for each other, one can only begin to imagine the carelessness they have for other human beings. Tom treats Myrtle even worse than he treats Daisy, but Myrtle doesn’t seem to care, because she is mainly interested in his money. Tom doesn’t seem to worry about anyone but himself. In his own spite he ruins his life, as well as Daisy’s, Gatsby’s, and Myrtle’s. Daisy shows her carelessness during the time where Jordan, Tom, Daisy, Nick and Gatsby go to town. Her and Gatsby act like they are in love and make Tom incredibly jealous even though he is having his own affair. Tom accuses Gatsby of trying to start trouble in the Buchanan house, and they begin to fight. Daisy yells at Tom and tells him that she no longer loves him and is in love with Gatsby. Tom proceeds to tell everyone how Gatsby came across his money, and once Daisy finds out it was by illegal gambling and crime, she seems much less interested in him. Daisy appears to be more interested on what is on the outside of people, rather than the inside.

Myrtle’s apartment is the opposite to the valley of ashes as it is garish and loud. Myrtle is cheap and from the working class, and so has no taste. This is reinforced through Scott Fitzgerald’s description of the apartment bought for her by Tom Buchanan, so that he can conduct his affair with her. Fitzgerald describes everything as small, ‘a small living-room, a small dining-room, a small bedroom’. As it’s only intended for two people, Myrtle and Tom, it should only be small, but this is also a hint from Fitzgerald that Tom doesn’t think very much of Myrtle as he don’t spend his money on her, which he was freely spending in Yale, but on himself. Nick says (through Fitzgerald) that the apartment ‘was crowded to the doors’ in the living room, with ‘a set of tapestried furniture, entirely too large for it’. This suggests that Myrtle wants to put on an act of being rich and wealthy, and so copies their styles but with no taste and so ruins the effect. She is trying to hide her social class, and her apartment is used by Fitzgerald to highlight an

Tom and Daisy Buchanan disguise themselves as wealthy, upper-class people from the East, but, when their immorality threatens their reputation, they find they are no better than their heritage, which stems from the Midwest. When Tom and Daisy constantly try to position themselves as having a better reputation, it establishes that they do not have the status necessary to be part of eastern upper-class. Tom and Daisy both initiate affairs in which neither truly care for the person they are having the affair with. Nick witnesses “Tom Buchanan [break Myrtle's] nose with his open hand” (Fitzgerald 37). Tom uses Myrtle, his mistress, for sexual pleasure, but does not care for her well-being. Tom uses her because his marriage with Daisy was not made for love, but rather to increase their social standing. Daisy also has an affair with her former lover, Gatsby, and after observing his wealth, she develops a relationship with him. Both Tom and Daisy are unsatisfied with their relationship, but rather than tarnish their social status with divorce they choose infidelity. Tom and Daisy’s desperation to maintain their status causes their immorality. Furthermore, in many instances Tom insults Gatsby, especially to degrade his wealth and achievements. For example, Tom says, “I suppose the latest thing is to sit back and let Mr. Nobody from Nowhere make love to your wife” (130). Tom knows that he can only cause true damage by insulting Gatsby’s accomplishments. Tom desires to damage Daisy’s

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

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

The Wilsons, along with all party goers of the novel, suffers Fitzgerald's criticism of the love the most. As a part of the lower class, these people chase money like crazy; all relationships whether affectionate or friendships form on a basis of money. For example, Myrtle’s relationship revolves around Tom’s money. Fitzgerald alludes to the Wizard of Oz, with Tom representing Myrtle's yellow brick road away from her poor life. At Tom’s hotel party, Myrtle, her sister Catherine, and Mr. McKee all try to act rich. Myrtle changes her dress and with this, her attitude at the small party, leading to a violent Tom and a broken Myrtle. At both Tom’s party and Gatsby’s party, guests drink in excess to rid their problems and to get away from their

In The Great Gatsby, Myrtle is given no respect and is being treated like an object. This happened in the chapter 2 when Tom takes Nick and Myrtle to party in a hotel in New York with others. Later in the party Myrtle and Tom comes out of a room arguing about Daisy.“Some time toward midnight Tom Buchanan and Mrs. Wilson stood face to face discussing, in impassioned voices, whether Mrs. Wilson had any right to mention Daisy's name. I’ll say it whenever I want to! Daisy! And Da-” Making a short deft movement, Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand.” This quote explains how women like myrtle are being abused by Tom and he is treating her like an object despite not having a healthy relationship. This paragraph is important because it talks about how in F. Scott’s novel The Great Gatsby Myrtle is given no respect and is being treated like an object despite being a women.

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