Imagination In The Great Gatsby

“For in that sleep of death what dream may come, / When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, / Must give us pause,” (Shakespeare, Hamlet, 3.1.67-69). As parents, it is often debated whether or not it is healthy for children to dream. Perhaps imagination could strengthen mental capacity, but fall too deep into that “sleep of death”, will one slip away from reality and drown. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s riveting novel, The Great Gatsby demonstrates that to be a dreamer biases, endangers, and limits; which suppresses character development both internally and in relationships with others. A lower class woman, Myrtle Wilson yearns to have and be more than she is, resulting in fatal consequences. Meanwhile, Daisy Buchanan, wealthy wife to a cheating

This hit-and-run accident is the tragic outcome of her desperate and unrealistic dreams. As a lower class resident of the Valley of Ashes, Myrtle’s role as Tom’s lover allowed her to escape her drab and disappointing life for one of spoils and vigor. Upon meeting her at the garage, the narrator, Nick immediately describes Myrtle to be a “faintly stout” woman, containing “no facet or gleam of beauty” (Fitzgerald 28). However, his impression of her changes later on at the apartment as, “She flounced over to the dog, kissed it with ecstasy, and swept into the kitchen, implying that a dozen chefs awaited her orders there” (Fitzgerald 33). Myrtle’s newfound confidence and extravagant behaviour show just how much she strives to be more than a mechanic’s wife of the lower class. For a time, she succeeds her mission by being with Tom who gifts her with the ability to become somebody else; someone who has a dozen chefs waiting on her like a queen. This does not last though, as these illusionary dreams bring her life to a violent halt. In the end, Myrtle is not truly able to achieve her hopes and dreams. Her husband states, “‘I told her she might fool me but she couldn’t fool God’” (Fitzgerald 128). Myrtle cannot veritably become who or what she aspired and instead gave her life in pursuit of