Wilson owns a run-down garage in the Valley of Ashes…. She tells Nick that Tom actually wants to leave his wife, but that he cannot because of her religion. According to Catherine she is Catholic. Hover for more information. How did Myrtle know right away she had made a mistake marring George? I knew right away I made a mistake. Myrtle lords it over her guests and reveals how miserable she is in her marriage. The party breaks up after Tom punches Myrtle in the face and breaks her nose.
After Tom meets up with Myrtle Wilson, the three of them get into a cab, and Myrtle proceeds to ask Tom to buy a dog for their apartment. We get our first look at Myrtle in Chapter 2 , when Nick goes with Tom to George Wilson's garage to meet her, and then to Myrtle's apartment in Manhattan for a party. On that day, she buys a dog, has sex with Tom with Nick in the next room , throws a party, and is fawned on by her friends, and then ends up with a broken nose when Tom punches her after she brings up Daisy.
This doesn't prevent her from continuing the affair. Later on, in Chapter 7 , George starts to suspect she's having an affair when he finds her dog's leash in a drawer at the house. He locks her upstairs in their house, determined to move out west once he gets the money from the car sale he's waiting on from Tom. Myrtle glimpses Tom, along with Nick and Jordan, as they drive up to Manhattan in Gatsby's yellow car.
Myrtle and George fight later that evening, and Myrtle manages to run out of the house after yelling at George to beat her and calling him a coward. Just then, she spots the yellow car heading back for Long Island. Thinking it's Tom, she runs toward and then out in front of the car, waving her arms. But Daisy is driving the car, and she decides to run over Myrtle rather than get into a head-on collision with an oncoming car.
She hits Myrtle, who dies instantly. Myrtle's death emotionally and mentally devastates George, which prompts him to murder Gatsby who he mistakes for both his wife's killer and lover , and then kill himself. The death car. Wilson had changed her costume some time before and was now attired in an elaborate afternoon dress of cream colored chiffon, which gave out a continual rustle as she swept about the room. With the influence of the dress her personality had also undergone a change.
The intense vitality that had been so remarkable in the garage was converted into impressive hauteur. Her laughter, her gestures, her assertions became more violently affected moment by moment and as she expanded the room grew smaller around her until she seemed to be revolving on a noisy, creaking pivot through the smoky air.
Here, we see Myrtle transformed from her more sensuous, physical persona into that of someone desperate to come off as richer than she actually is. Wielding power over her group of friends, she seems to revel in her own image. Unlike Gatsby, who projects an elaborately rich and worldly character, Myrtle's persona is much more simplistic and transparent. Notably Tom, who immediately sees Gatsby as a fake, doesn't seem to mind Myrtle's pretensions—perhaps because they are of no consequence to him, or any kind of a threat to his lifestyle.
Here we see Myrtle pushing her limits with Tom—and realizing that he is both violent and completely unwilling to be honest about his marriage.
While both characters are willful, impulsive, and driven by their desires, Tom is violently asserting here that his needs are more important than Myrtle's. After all, to Tom, Myrtle is just another mistress, and just as disposable as all the rest.
Also, this injury foreshadows Myrtle's death at the hands of Daisy, herself. While invoking Daisy's name here causes Tom to hurt Myrtle, Myrtle's actual encounter with Daisy later in the novel turns out to be deadly. When George confronts his wife about her affair, Myrtle is furious and needles at her husband—already insecure since he's been cheated on—by insinuating he's weak and less of a man than Tom.
Also, their fight centers around her body and its treatment, while Tom and Daisy fought earlier in the same chapter about their feelings.
In this moment, we see that despite how dangerous and damaging Myrtle's relationship with Tom is, she seems to be asking George to treat her in the same way that Tom has been doing. Myrtle's disturbing acceptance of her role as a just a body—a piece of meat, basically—foreshadows the gruesome physicality of her death.
Michaelis and this man reached her first but when they 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 as though she had choked a little in giving up the tremendous vitality she had stored so long.
Even in death, Myrtle's physicality and vitality are emphasized. In fact, the image is pretty overtly sexual—notice how it's Myrtle's breast that's torn open and swinging loose, and her mouth ripped open at the corners.
This echoes Nick's view of Myrtle as a woman and mistress, nothing more—even in death she's objectified. This moment is also much more violent than her earlier broken nose. While that moment cemented Tom as abusive in the eyes of the reader, this one truly shows the damage that Tom and Daisy leave in their wake, and shapes the tragic tone of the rest of the novel.
The graphic and bloody nature of Myrtle's death really sticks with you. You will most likely be asked to write about Myrtle in relation to other characters especially Daisy , or in prompts that ask you to compare the "strivers" in the book including also Gatsby, George Wilson with the old money set Tom, Daisy, Jordan.
To learn how best to approach this kind of compare and contrast essay, read our article on common character pairings and how to analyze them. In either case, Myrtle's most important chapters are 2 and 7 , so close read those carefully. When writing about her, pay close attention to Myrtle's interactions with other characters. And if you're writing an essay that discusses Myrtle as someone trying to live out the American Dream, make sure to address her larger influences and motivations.
We'll take a look at some of these strategies in action below. For readers new to Gatsby, Tom and Myrtle's relationship can seem a bit odd. There is obvious physical chemistry, but it can be hard to see why the classist, misogynist Tom puts up with Myrtle—or why Myrtle accepts Tom's mistreatment.
For Tom, the affair—just one in a string he's had since his honeymoon—is about taking and being able to get whatever he wants. Having an affair is a show of power. Especially since he's been taking her around popular restaurants in Manhattan 2.
He's so assured of his place in society as a wealthy man, that he's free to engage in some risky and socially inappropriate behavior—because he knows no one can actually touch his wealth or social position. It feels immoral to try to replace someone with money, so much so, that people will often ask for more, even when dealing with remarkably large sums of money. They would get drunk or high, they would also have flappers that would dance and the parties were usually huge.
She and so many other people were like this at parties like. Tom Buchanan, is the husband of Daisy in F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby that has a big lack of morality throughout the book.
Tom has a cruel; strong body tone and he lives in East Egg. In the novel, Tom Buchanan takes the role of the antagonist because he prevents Jay Gatsby from living happily ever after. This is in two ways first it's in Gatsby's head which happens throughout most of the book and then by actually denying him from being with Daisy and he also takes actions which lead to Gatsby's death. Tom Buchanan is first introduced as an excellent sportsman but he's wealthy, restless, and cruel, which is a terrible combination.
Everyone passes judgement it's a natural human behavior. This advice is both a blessing and a curse. 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.
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