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Myrtle Wilson In The Great Gatsby

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Francis Scott Fitzgerald once stated, “The loneliest moment in someone’s life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart and all they can do is stare blankly.” Throughout his famous work, The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald portrayed the American Dream. Contrary to the ideology of the “Roaring Twenties” society, he described the American Dream as a delusion. People of the era focused on materialism in order to boost their wealth and status and forgot the importance of their relationships. Several characters within the novel sought to gain a higher status in society. Throughout The Great Gatsby, Myrtle Wilson desired to fit in with the upper class; however, her marriage to George Wilson prevented such from occurring. Myrtle failed to recognize her husband’s hard work and true character due to her efforts to rise in social status. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald emphasized Myrtle’s hatred towards her marriage through her conversation with Catherine, depicting how people of the twenties focused more on wealth and power compared to moral American values. As readers closely evaluate the moment of Myrtle’s dialogue, she dictated her feelings towards her marriage in a way that supposedly justified her infidelity. Myrtle stated, “I married him because I thought he was a gentleman” (Fitzgerald 34). Fitzgerald hinted at irony in that moment because …show more content…

Within The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald presented Myrtle as a character who was unaffected by true love and craved extreme wealth. Many people like Myrtle in the 1920s felt having lots of money meant being able to live a luxurious and happy lifestyle. They refused to accept the idea of a simplistic lifestyle and always anticipated more. Fitzgerald’s writing revealed more than Myrtle constantly insulting her husband’s situation. He exposed the corruption of the “new” American Dream and the relationships it destroyed as a

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162 Words | 1 Pages

After Myrtle answers Catherine questions and why she married George Wilson which indicates that Myrtle doesn 't think he is fit enough to be her husband. She was basically using him for the things she thought he had. And now she 's saying that he isn 't even worthy enough to lick her shoes. This is basically saying that he is worthless. During this time people consume more alcohol than nowadays and alcohol is a great want and need for the lives of most people to get away from stressful times, to have fun or to make a living.

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914 Words | 4 Pages

I was so excited that when I got into a taxi with him I did not even know I wasn't getting into a subway train. All I kept thinking about, over and over, was 'You can't live forever, you can't live forever”(Fitzgerald 36). It is odd to go with a man without knowing his name and job. This illustrates that Myrtle sees his clothing and then judges him as a wealthy man. That is the reason that she was so excited to go into a taxi with him.

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485 Words | 2 Pages

In some works of literature, a character who appears briefly, or does not appear at all, is a significant presence. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, Myrtle Wilson drastically affects other characters by her worldly desires, actions, and static characteristics. In most circumstances it is believed that the story is solely about the main character, but one needs to objectively look at all the cast members, specifically Mrs. Wilson. The author chooses each person with great intentions. Myrtle loved her husband George Wilson when they got married, but has since been disappointed by his lack of cash and social status, and now feels stifled by her twelve-year marriage.

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512 Words | 3 Pages

F. Scott Fitzgerald would be opposed to the redevelopment of Willets Point due to his belief that classism and the pursuit of the American Dream hurts those who are not apart of that affluence. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Myrtle is a woman married to Mr. Wilson who is the owner of an auto shop in the valley of ashes which is a very poor industrial area in the book. Myrtle marries Mr. Wilson believing he was a well off business owner who would be able to support her, however, she finds out otherwise: “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 shoes” (Fitzgerald 34). In Myrtle’s hasty pursuit of the American Dream she marries Mr. Wilson to use him to achieve the

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879 Words | 4 Pages

Gatsby’s peculiar involvement in this accident fuels the rumour that Mrs. Wilson was in fact having an affair with Mr. Gatsby. However, the rumour was disputed by Mrs. Wilson’s sister, Catherine, who was present at the inquiry of Mr. Gatsby’s death. “Myrtle and George were very much in love,” she testified. “Myrtle having an affair with Mr. Gatbsy? I’ve never heard of such a ridiculous thing!

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966 Words | 4 Pages

she Therefore, she wishes to buy a dog, simply to show that Tom’s money allows her to and has no intention of actually caring for it. Therefore, Tom and Myrtle’s relationship is sustained shared desire to flaunt their wealth and display a lack of compassion. Whether it be Gatsby’s futile collection of books, Daisy’s tears over expensive clothing, or Tom’s assertion that Myrtle buy ten dogs, Fitzgerald’s representation of the 1920s in The Great Gatsby is an excellent example of the material excess and underlying corruption in the Gilded Age.

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696 Words | 3 Pages

Myrtle Wilson’s husband is named George Wilson, unfortunately, she is miserable being married with him. She is having an affair with Tom, “There is always a halt there of at least a minute and it was because of this that I first met Tom Buchanan’s mistress.” (Fitzgerald ## ) Nick Carraway implies that Myrtle is having an affair with Tom. Myrtle married George Wilson because she thought that he had money so she married him, later she discovered that he is not wealthy and married Myrtle with a borrowed suit. She feels better that she cheats on him with Tom Buchanan.

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1163 Words | 5 Pages

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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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.

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1143 Words | 5 Pages

The author explains that Gatsby did all in his effort to get better for Daisy, but ended up dying in the midst of it. The author depicts this by stating, “Furthermore, his success obviously doesn’t last – he still pines for Daisy and loses everything in his attempt to get her back” (Wulick). The author also brings in the idea of George and Myrtle Wilson trying to achieve the American Dream. It is mentioned that George wants a better life just as much as Myrtle does. However, Myrtle seeks a better life through Tom and having him buy her materials.

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1890 Words | 8 Pages

Myrtle was a “gold-digger”, but she also believed that he would genuinely love her and pick her over Daisy, even though Tom gave no indication of doing so. Like Daisy, breathed out wealth, Myrtle had breathed out vitality and sensuality, hoping for Tom to chose her as his love and for him to give her riches and luxury. As for Daisy, much like Myrtle, was also chasing both money and love, at different points in her life. Daisy, initially wanted love, and she displayed that, by first waiting for Gatsby and then once again when she was newly married with Tom. Over time, like with Myrtle, this dream of love evolved to of riches further on in her life.

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650 Words | 3 Pages

F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote the novel, “The Great Gatsby”, with the concept of “The American Dream”. For most Americans, “The American Dream”, is the idea of freedom, wealth, equality and opportunity. But F. Scott Fitzgerald manages to define all of the characters in his novel through the use of literary devices and symbols. Also, Fitzgerald explains how each character, even with their wealth; never seem to have their “America Dream”. Daisy Buchanan is characterized as a “Golden Girl”.

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1431 Words | 6 Pages

Low-income and looked down on, Wilson is a window into what Gatsby’s life would have been had he not been presented a chance one day by Dan Cody, the man who introduced him to wealth. Just as skillful, Wilson is undervalued by the people in his life, repeatedly described as a man who has lost his colour, a “spiritless man. . . faintly handsome” (22), who “when he saw [Tom and Nick] a damp gleam of hope sprang into his light blue eyes” (22). For twelve years Wilson was married to Myrtle who must have been attracted to who he was, not who he is now, resigned to work. Describing him as “faintly handsome” (22) provides a clue to what had drawn Myrtle in, a young man who had once been handsome, hoping to get lucky, and still is as his eyes gleam at the sight of Tom who was baiting him with the offer of selling him a car, a chance to get lucky, like Gatsby.

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720 Words | 3 Pages

In the novel, Great Gatsby, the two main women presented are Daisy Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson. There are many similarities and differences between Daisy and Myrtle. For instance both of them are unhappy in their lives and they are love in with a different with person, not with their husband. Their marriage is a jail. They are both in love with Tom in a different way, Daisy is the wife and Myrtle is the mistress.

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637 Words | 3 Pages

The Disillusionment of the American Dream is evident in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. The main characters that exhibit this through their lives are; Daisy Buchanan, Myrtle Wilson and Mr. Jay Gatsby. All of these characters hold on to their dream, but all of these characters are somehow let down. The first character, Daisy Buchanan, has the dream of love. She grew up in a very wealthy home.

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