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How Does Myrtle Survive In The Great Gatsby

840 Words4 Pages

Michael Douglass
King
English III
2 April 2015
The Great Gatsby Essay The novel, The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, follows the lives of multiple people from the midwest. They are dissatisfied with their current life and wish to escape to a better situation filled with jubilation. The characters whom are most prevalently trying to escape their current lives are Myrtle , Daisy, and Gatsby. Each of these characters has their own situation to escape: Daisy wishes to escape her meaningless and dead marriage, Gatsby wants to escape back to his teenage romance, and Myrtle wants to escape poverty to the life of the wealthy aristocrats. Fitzgerald uses these characters as a metaphor to the american dream during the nineteen-twenties. …show more content…

Myrtle is the quintessential example of an impoverished woman living in the twenties, with an aspiration to reach the romanticized upper class through a rich aristocrat named Tom Buchanan. Although she thinks this is possible mean of escape, an aristocrat like Tom would never be seen with a measly peasant such as Myrtle. We see early on that Tom could have easily taken her out of poverty and into his lifestyle, but he chooses not too. Myrtle is resentful of her husband for putting her in her current situation, saying small remarks such as, "The only crazy I was was when I married him.” (23) Myrtle doesn’t understand that she will never be accepted into a higher social class. She blames George for this but it isn’t his fault. Myrtle soon realizes this and becomes jealous of Toms partner Daisy. Daisy encompasses all that Myrtle wishes to be. When in the city in Toms private flat, Myrtle says "Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!, I'll say it whenever I want to! Daisy! Dai –– " (126) Tom proceeds to hit her in the face breaking her nose. Figuratively Tom was putting Myrtle in her place, forever trapping her in the dull lower …show more content…

In her earlier days she fell in love with an unknown man named Jay Gatz but settled for Tom because of his status and heritage when Jay left for war. The evening before her wedding Daisy said, " ‘Here, dearest.’ She groped around in a wastebasket she had with her on the bed and pulled out the string of pearls. ‘Take 'em down-stairs and give 'em back to whoever they belong to. Tell 'em all Daisy's change' her mind. 'Daisy's change' her mind!’ ” (129). At the last minute Daisy tries to escape the wedding and attempts give back the pearls that represent everything that Tom is. The only thing about Tom that Daisy loves are the amount of zeros in his bank account. When Daisy finally meets the famed Jay Gatsby almost instinctively she falls in “love” with him. Or at least she falls in love with the idea of him. During her first visit to Gatsby's house he shows her his clothes. She responds with "They're such beautiful shirts," she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. "It makes me sad because I've never seen such – such beautiful shirts before." (118-119) To Daisy “love” isnt a deep connection between two people, “love” is the money that flows through that other persons bank account. As soon as she gains knowledge of the fact that Gatsby doesn’t come from real money, and is nothing more than a common swindler, she immediately sides with

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Daisy is unhappy with her marriage to Tom, this leads her to have bursts of unsettlement. Daisy, it seems desires to be with Gatsby, even after he leaves for the war. This leads her to say the day of her wedding,“Daisy’s change’ her mine” (pg 76). Daisy says this after she has been quite drunk,by revealing her true feelings. She during this scene,is described by Jordan who states, “She groped around in a waste-basket she had on her bed and pulled out the string of pearls”(pg 76).

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She grew to resent her own husband for being poor and unable to provide her with the lavish things Tom gave her. When talking about why she had married her husband when she seems to dislike him so much Myrtle explained, “‘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 to lick my shoe. ’”(pg. 34). Myrtle assumed that her husband, George Wilson, was a man who would be able to provide for both of them and wanted to live a comfy life.

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Unfortunately, she can never be genuinely happy. Why? Daisy finds out that the man she married was the wrong one. Tom, her husband, is keeping secrets from her. At dinner time, Tom got a call from some woman and Jordan, Daisy’s good friend, claims that the woman is who Tom is sleeping with.

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Just like Daisy, Myrtle chooses money over love. She cheats on her husband George with Tom. Myrtle was a woman from the lower class who desired to be a part of the higher class. Tom spoiled Myrtle and gave her the lifestyle she always wanted. She belittles her husband and talk bad about him because he is not at the top of the social ladder where Tom is.

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Daisy! Dai-’” (37). Myrtle attempts to appear powerful in the eyes of Tom, however, Tom makes sure to advertise that the real power is in his hands. During Myrtle and Tom’s argument, he breaks her nose for the sole purpose of sending her the message that as long as she continues to have an affair with him, her feminine power will not be tolerated by him.

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