How Does Myrtle Use Money In The Great Gatsby

Wealth is power, one can control so many factors to their happiness using money. This leads many to the question, can money honestly buy happiness? In The Great Gatsby, we are introduced to a setting where the division of social classes is so prominent. The characters’ lives vary so differently in that people living in the Valley of Ashes constantly work in horrible conditions like Myrtle and George Wilson. Whereas the West Eggers attended or threw parties in which East Eggers such as Daisy and Tom Buchannon attend to look down on those that are considered to have “new money”. Jay Gatsby is a man that has built himself from humble beginnings and reached immense wealth, a representation of “new money” living in West Egg but still yearning for

Myrtle chooses who she can love by considering the factor of whom could give her the most comfortable life, which she decides is no longer her husband George. At the party that Tom and his mistress Myrtle host, Myrtle and her friend Catherine discuss the history of Myrtle and her husband, “‘The only crazy I was was when I married him…I made a mistake. He borrowed somebody’s best suit to get married in, and never even told me [Myrtle] about it…’” (Fitzgerald 35). Myrtle is offended and embarrassed that the man she wanted to marry had to borrow somebody else’s clothes for their wedding day, it felt as if she would not be provided for as well as she assumed. Myrtle yearns for high social status and for her husband to not be able to afford a proper suit to at least look presentable and respectable foreshadows his inability to make the climb of the social ladder with her. Her past feelings regarding her husband no longer mattered to her because he would not give her the luxurious life she has been dreaming of. When she saw Tom on the train she disregarded her husband, she thought over and over, “‘You can’t live forever; you can’t live forever” (Fitzgerald 36). She understands that she wants a life much greater than the one she has settled for with George. Myrtle ironically emphasizes that life is short and therefore she should at least live a life in comfort. Tom’s clothes and shoes highlighted his status and wealth which is what made Myrtle interested in the first place, knowing that he could give her the life she had hoped to have with her husband. Myrtle married the man she loved but could not provide for her, which is why she reached out to Tom who could give her everything her husband couldn’t. Myrtle leans toward the man better dressed and therefore has more money