What Does Myrtle Wilson Represent 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 is married to a man named George Wilson who is a car mechanist. She lives in the Valley of Ashes which is described to be, “a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke…” It is basically a poor part of the town. When Nick Carraway first sees her, he describes her as, “…in a moment the thickish figure of a woman...” Nick Carraway also says that she was in her mid-thirties and is, “…faintly stout, but she carried her surplus flesh sensuously...” She is also described not to have a gleam of beauty in her face. Myrtle Wilson is having an affair with Tom Buchanan and met him while riding a train. She doesn’t feel bad about cheating on her husband and idolizes Tom but it seems like Tom treats her like a sexual object rather than a

After Myrtle leaves to go to New York her personality seems to take somewhat of a turn, she starts making purchases with Tom's money and you can see the shift. This reveals that Myrtle is different when money is around her, she can live the lavish lifestyle she wants to live. Once at the apartment her actual true colors started showing through “ Mrs. Wilson had changed her costume sometime before and was now attired in an elaborate afternoon dress of cream colored chiffon, which gave out a continual rustle as she swept about the room.” The “Change” was not only the dress that Myrtle was wearing, but her persona changed as well, the “Costume” was just Myrtle trying to show off what she had and the person she was trying to

Myrtle is Tom's mistress, which allows her play the role of a well educated wealthy woman. Myrtle is deceptive and untrustworthy because she is married, and is having a secret affair with Tom buchanan. The very first time we meet her in the book “she smiled slowly and, walking through her husband as if he were a ghost, shook hands with Tom, looking him flush in the eye”(26). By having an affair with Tom she is betraying her husband, and she seems to have no remorse about it. Myrtle is described as being “ faintly stout, but she carries her surplus flesh sensuously as some woman can. Her face, [...] contained no facet or glean of beauty”(25). From her physical description the reader can infer that she is not very nice and standoffish. She treats

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 illustrates this as she wants nothing more than to be of a higher social status. Her affair with Tom allows her to have a taste of what a life of wealth is, and she undergoes a change when surrounded by the finer things life with Tom offers. Myrtle’s persona is altered when she slips into something as simple as a new dress, illustrating that her “intense vitality that had been so remarkable” when she is living her regular life is “converted into impressive hauteur” (Fitzgerald 56). As she is so desperate to escape the impoverished life she is accustomed to, Myrtle does her best to play the part of a posh woman when around Tom. Myrtle seems awkward and disrespectful when she is acting like she belongs in Tom’s world, which makes it apparent that she will never fit in the way she wishes to. Her dream blinds her to her own foolishness, and Myrtle begins to believe that Tom truly loves her. Her infatuation causes her to become delusional and believe Tom will leave Daisy for her. In reality, this would never happen as Myrtle is from a very low social and financial status. Tom is using Myrtle, and he illustrates how disposable she is to him when he “[breaks] her nose with his open hand” (Fitzgerald 127). Myrtle is willing to take the abuse that she is presented with if it means that she will be able to live a life of wealth. Her obsession with materialistic items and money

Even though she is married to George she starts an affair with Tom Buchanan who is married to Daisy. Myrtle is very jealous of Daisy because Daisy has everything Myrtle wants. Tom Buchanan is a rich man who can buy her anything and is considered an alpha male in the book. Why does Myrtle want to have an affair with Tom while married to George? Money and money alone. Tom Buchanan may be attractive, but what does Tom have that George the mechanic does not? Money. That is the reason Myrtle thinks differently about her husband. For example, on page 26, when Tom arrives at George Wilson’s garage, Myrtle goes to shake hands with Tom, “walking through her husband as if he was a ghost.” The real reason Tom is going to George’s garage is because he wants to take Myrtle out. Myrtle lies to her husband saying she is going to see her sister while she is actually going to meet up with Tom. Also, on page 34, Myrtle talks about how she married a man that was in a class below her and that she deserves better. She says, “…but he wasn’t fit to lick my shoe.” Both of these quotes give hints as to how Myrtle thinks of her husband now that she is with

He is married to Myrtle whom is materialistic and neither acknowledges his effort nor his determination to please others. Instead, Myrtle is unfaithful, attending parties with her lover, Tom and complaining about George, "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" (35). Myrtle is unhappy with her marriage and immerses in an affair with a wealthier man. Unlike Gatsby, George is not only unknowing of Myrtles infidelity but also her dissatisfaction with their misfortune. George continues to idealize Myrtle and grows anxious about loosing her. It is not until Chapter Seven when it occurs to George that Myrtle is indeed cheating and he begins to conserve their money in order to evacuate away from Tom. '"What do you want all this money for, all of a sudden?" "I've been here too long. I want to get away. My wife and I want to go West,"' George tells Tom (). Identical to Gatsby's expectations of Daisy, George believes he can escape with Myrtle to live a better life and he acknowledges Tom as a threat. Tom manages to attract both his wife, Daisy and his mistress, Myrtle's attention. This causes both Gatsby and George to feel inferior and desperate about their own lack of opulence and validity. Finally, it is important to not how similar, yet ironic the death of George and Gatsby

Fritzgerald states, “... and walking through her husband as if he were a ghost, shook hands with Tom, looking him flush in the eye. Then she wet her lips, and without turning spoke to her husband in a soft coarse voice” (2). Myrtle wants this wealthy lifestyle and it is evident through her concentration on Tom, a man of a wealthy status, even when she is talking to her husband, George. Myrtle does not give him the time of day even though George spends his money to try and improve their life. She married George because she thought he was of wealth because George wore a suit on the day of their wedding, but as soon as Myrtle realized his socio-economic status she soon started having affairs with wealthy men to increase hers. It was unsuccessful and Myrtle still reverted back to George buying her everything she wanted, when in the long run it only hurt them in not being able to pull themselves out of

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)

(pg. 26) d. Myrtle is introduced as Tom’s mistress. She adds conflict because she knows that Tom has Daisy and a child. She also has a husband of her own who is George Wilson. Tom gives her the life she wants, and that she doesn’t have.

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

This narration illustrates how Myrtle dreams of making it out of her social class by marrying George Wilson, an apparent “gentleman”. Similarly to Gatsby, her dream of shortcutting the American Dream by marrying herself out of her social class are flawed as she lusts after a higher place in life. Her evident failure and bitter attitude regarding this is clearly reflected in her tone regarding George Wilson as he is unable to provide her with the wealth and benefits she needs to join the upper class. This continued lust evidently foreshadows a next chapter in her life, as she wants something out of her grasp, she turns to alternative methods and immoral deeds in her envy. This foreshadowing is put into motion when she strikes an affair with Tom Buchanan, Daisy’s husband and a pioneer of the upper class.

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.

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