ipl-logo

How Does Myrtle Use Patriarchy In The Great Gatsby

520 Words3 Pages

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Myrtle will never be able to gain success due to her accomplishments being limited because of the man she married. This ties in with the still apparent influences of the patriarchy limiting what a woman can accomplish without the presence of a successful man. We can see the effects of the patriarchy in how men treat Myrtle and vice versa. Myrtle is heavily sexualized by the male characters in the book showing how her appearance shapes the way men treat her. “ Her face, above a spotted dress of dark blue crêpe-de-chine, contained no facet or gleam of beauty, but there was an immediately perceptible vitality about her as if the nerves of her body were continually smoldering”(25). The way they describe …show more content…

These traits of hers do captivate Tom Buchanan who is able to provide her with the more lavish lifestyle that she is missing with George. Their apartment is described and it is much nicer than her current living arrangements with George. “The apartment was on the top floor---a small living-room, a small dining-room, a small bedroom, and a bath. The living-room was crowded to the doors with a set of tapestried furniture entirely too large for it, so that to move about was to stumble continually over scenes of ladies swinging in the gardens of Versailles”(29). Tom was born into money and easily gained success while George has worked so hard all his life only to have significantly less. Tom acts as an escape from poverty for Myrtle and her life changes drastically depending on which man shes spends her time with. With George, she continues to live a poor life filled with hard work but with Tom, she is able to live comfortably and lavishly. Her social standing and quality of life are directly connected to the man she’s

Show More
Related
162 Words | 1 Pages

Myrtle Wilson is looking for superiority. To begin, Myrtle is described as a “woman in the middle thirties and faintly stout,but she carried her flesh sensuously as some women can.” By reading this quote one can tell that Myrtle is an aggressively attractive woman. She 's the wife of George Wilson, who is a lower-middle class man. In order for Myrtle to achieve superiority, she needs to attract Tom as he’s the gateway to her superiority and gaining of socioeconomic status.

Read More
1472 Words | 6 Pages

During the early 20th century, it was uncommon to see women in positions of power. For some women, the acquisition and maintenance of power were not through hard work, but rather through immoral and maneuvering mannerisms. People oftentimes claimed that women did not sit in positions of authority, yet still fooled others into believing they did. F. Scott Fitzgerald explores this when Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker, and Myrtle Wilson exhibit these wrongful behaviors in relations with men in order to achieve their desired power. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, he uses the main female characters’ social status, wealth, and sexuality to criticize the idea that manipulation is necessary for women to gain power.

Read More
1682 Words | 7 Pages

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

Read More
1920 Words | 8 Pages

Myrtle downright ignores her own husband, “walking through her husband as if he were a ghost” and approaching Tom with a smile on her face (Fitzgerald 25-26). Though Myrtle and her husband have been married for a long time, Myrtle never got the money and status she wanted. As soon as she met Tom, all she could see was the money that surrounded him. In fact, she even changed her clothes around Tom, “attired in an elaborate afternoon dress of cream colored chiffon, which gave out a continual rustle as she swept about the room” (Fitzgerald 30). Myrtle often tries to come off richer than she is, proven by her various outfit changes in a small party where she wants to “prove herself a woman of Daisy's status through a melange of color, fashion, and commodities” (Goldsmith).

Read More
753 Words | 4 Pages

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, an educated young man named Nick Carraway moves to New York in look for business, but then becomes fascinated by how the rich society lives. He strikes to live like his wealthy friends: his neighbor Jay Gatsby, his cousin Daisy and her husband Tom. He becomes a bondsman while attending mansion parties, drinking and always celebrating without having to worry about what truly is going on in the rest of the world. Nonetheless, confronting the life style of these wealthy people makes him realize who they truly are. Gatsby, who has an affair with Daisy, is accused and murdered for running over Tom’s mistress, Myrtle, while it was truly Daisy’s fault.

Read More
725 Words | 3 Pages

According to F. Scott Fitzgerald, there are those who are the “pursuing” and those who are the “pursued”. In The Great Gatsby, Daisy and Tom are the ones being pursued by people like Gatsby and Myrtle. They are representations of Gatsby and Myrtle's desires, and as these two characters desperately chase after what they want, they lose sight of what they have in the moment. Their pursuit for their desires becomes obsessive as the story progresses and eventually leads to their demise. The difference in how these two characters death’s are portrayed by Nick conveys Fitzgeralds belief that regardless of how one pursues his or her desires, falling for temptations and forgetting what is important will lead to misfortune.

Read More
966 Words | 4 Pages

The Moral Decay of the Materialistic Although F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby debuted in 1925– before the Great Depression– it serves as a prophetic exemplification of the the material excess of the 1920s that drowned out signs of the coming Great Depression. The book’s plot follows the bootlegger Jay Gatsby as he pursues his old love Daisy Buchanan through flaunting his new extravagant lifestyle, mainly by throwing ostentatious parties. Yet, in the end, Daisy chooses her unfaithful husband Tom over Gatsby. Through Fitzgerald’s use of wealthy, materialistic characters, he comments on the effect of the material excess of the roaring twenties: moral corruption.

Read More
1744 Words | 7 Pages

Shortly after Myrtle was struck by Gatsby’s car, the men who had found her “…had torn open her shirtwaist, still damp with perspiration they saw that her left breast was swinging loose like a flap, and there was no need to listen for the heart beneath. The mouth was wide open and ripped at the corners…” (Fitzgerald 109). The entire description of Myrtle’s dead body is rather disturbing, not only because of its graphic nature, but also because of how her injured body is objectified. Interestingly, although the men

Read More
840 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More
1019 Words | 5 Pages

Similar to Gatsby, Myrtle attempts to climb the social ladder by seeking the affection of a man named Tom Buchanan, and unlike Gatsby, Tom has legitimate claims to his massive fortune. “I married him [George Wilson] because I thought he was a gentleman. I thought he knew something about breeding, but he wasn’t fit to lick my shoe.” Said, Myrtle (Fitzgerald 34). Myrtle seeks to elevate herself toward the American Dream with the help of Mr. Buchanan and, with his money and fortune, she could finally escape her dreary existence with Mr. Wilson in the Valley of Ashes and settle into her rightful place in Mr. Buchanan’s

Read More
1131 Words | 5 Pages

Fitzgerald utilizes character behaviors to contrast different characters, therefore making a statement about the rich and poor characters of The Great Gatsby. With the characters of Daisy and Myrtle, the color white is always attached to Daisy, picturing her as pure and heavenly, her voice is like silk; she's an angel that could never possibly do anything wrong. Meanwhile, Myrtle is characterized as blatantly obnoxious and narcissistic, and a desperate social climber. Myrtle shouts at her supposed ‘inferiors’, “I told that boy about the ice.” Myrtle raised her eyebrows in despair at the shiftlessness of the lower orders.

Read More
1075 Words | 5 Pages

From the start, Myrtle is born into poverty which automatically decreases her chances of attaining her American Dream. Although Myrtle’s options were limited in terms of building an empire for herself, she still managed to seek out men that could give her what she wanted. In chapter two, Fitzgerald introduces Myrtle in a way that demonstrates her bold confidence despite her lack of money and social status. Because of this, it catches Tom’s eye; he demonstrates a savior complex because she is below him in terms of wealth and status. Essentially, Myrtle falls out of love with men and falls in love with money.

Read More
426 Words | 2 Pages

Myrtle's character embodies the darker side of the American dream. Myrtle wants a new life with Tom, who represents wealth and status. “The only crazy person I was when I married him. I knew right away I made a mistake” (Fitzgerald 39) This reveals Myrtle's bitterness against her husband and her conviction that she is entitled to better.

Read More
1052 Words | 5 Pages

Although the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald emphasizes the parties and prosperity of the American 1920's, it reveals many major characters meeting tragic ends. The characters who meet these ends - Jay Gatsby, Myrtle Wilson, and George Wilson - possess the same tragic characteristic: they endeavor for something more out of their lives than what they have. This ambition for what they could not have ultimately spelled their doom: Gatsby wanted money and Daisy; Myrtle wanted wealth and luxury, and sought it from Tom Buchanan; Wilson earned what he could only to please Myrtle. The Great Gatsby reveals a tragic nature through the trials and tribulations these characters endure to progress and prosper, only to receive death for their ambition. The exciting and wild time period of the "Roaring Twenties" provides a stark contrast to the deaths in order to further highlight the tragic nature of the novel, and leaves a theme that even those with the most hope and strong ambitions can fail and die miserably, no matter how much money they have.

Read More
1149 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More

More about How Does Myrtle Use Patriarchy In The Great Gatsby

Related Topics

Open Document