Who Is Myrtle's Death In The Great Gatsby

In the 1920s, America was going through an age in which people cheated and didn’t respect women. The Great Gatsby is a story about love and money as throughout the book the author purposely writes about these themes to show humanity’s characteristics. Although George Wilson in the end assassinated Jay Gatsby, it was Daisy’s fault he pulled the trigger in the first place. Daisy was the person behind the wheel that caused the death of George’s wife, Myrtle Wilson. This caused George to believe it was Gatsby operating the automobile, but it was not. After the death of Myrtle, Gatsby is explaining what happened when he “tried to swing the wheel”. He broke off, and suddenly I guessed at the truth. Was Daisy driving a car? "Yes," he said after a moment”(Fitzgerald 110).

Even though Daisy could be blamed for the death of Jay Gatsby, George Wilson has been a twisted man even before he committed his heinous crime. His wife, Myrtle, didn’t think highly of him as her last words before she tragically passed away show how she had no respect for her significant other at all. Myrtle, in a frightened manner, screamed “‘Beat me!’ He heard her cry. ‘Throw me down and beat me, you dirty little coward!’”(Fitzgerald 105). George’s wife, Myrtle, calls him a coward, showing that even though George might have respect for her, she doesn’t have any respect for him. Furthermore, Gatsby’s love and affection for Daisy caused him to go to extreme lengths for her. In a sense, Gatsby caused his own downfall because of the extreme measures he took for his lover. Gatsby bought a house, threw parties, looked at the newspaper in hopes of getting with Daisy again. He was so obsessed with Daisy so much that “Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay”(Fitzgerald 63). Love can cause a person to do crazy things, and Gatsby is a perfect example of