What Does Myrtle Wilson Represent In The Great Gatsby

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

(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.

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

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

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

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 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

She realizes that about herself, but continues to think of herself very highly. She knows what she is but she hides her insecurities with a mask that has to do with her self-image. This mask hides her insecurities from the desires she wants her life. Myrtle is a married woman to a man named George. Myrtle initially got with George in hopes of him having money. When Myrtle finds out he does not she wants to back out but it is too late. Myrtle only wants people to think she has money, we see her doing unimaginable things to get this image. One of the levels of wrong is treating her husband poorly, but her lowest action is cheating. She commits adultery with Tom Buchanan, who is also a married man. Tom is an extremely wanted and high rank man with extensive amounts of money. Myrtle thinks she would be good enough for Tom by giving him what she wants. Myrtle sees an opportunity to have the life she has dreamed of with Tom. You see Myrtles jealousy and desire for Daisy’s life when she chants “Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!" to Tom. (Fitzgerald 41). In reality Tom is just bored and has to real desire to be with Myrtle. Some people think Myrtle could be recognized as a “gold-digger”, but in actuality she has trained herself to think that her mask is actually her true self. Myrtle truly believes that her happiness comes from

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 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)

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 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 is truly driven by money and materialism because she is unhappy with her marriage. She sees money which in this case is symbolized by Tom as her way out of her unhappy life. Myrtle is so strongly affected by money and materialism that she puts on a different persona when she is around Tom and the more elevated class. “The intense vitality that had been so remarkable in the garage was converted into impressive hauteur”, This quote states that her personality in the garage was very full of energy and was now replaced with a disdainful pride. This continues throughout the novel to the point where Myrtles materistalic values cause her to stomach Tom’s abuse. “Making a short deft movement, Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand”. In this quote Myrtle is drunk and yelling Daisy’s name, which Tom (also drunk) takes such offence to that he results to violence.

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

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).