Fueled by the idea of love, Myrtle and Gatsby, the two most ambitious characters in the book, try to push through the gates of the upper class in order to be amongst the elite and to be regarded as their superiors. However, while the two characters are both willing to violate conventional standards of right and wrong for money, Gatsby’s motivation for wealth and status is fueled by his love for Daisy, whereas Myrtle utilizes her “love” with Tom in order to attain wealth and status. The final question that readers have to ask at the end of the book is: who had the most success? Both Gatsby and Myrtle are the two bridges between the lower and upper classes in that they do not come from a privileged background yet they take action that allows them direct contact with the wealthy upper class. They both represent goal-driven individuals unhappy with their status in society and state of their lives who are …show more content…
determined to change their circumstances. Instead of sitting back and watching passively, like most characters, both Gatsby and Myrtle decide to take action and try to change their situation. Initially, Myrtle is so full of energy and has so many plans that she has to write them down. While Gatsby and Myrtle both desperately desire wealth and status, their motivations for changing their lot in life are at opposite ends of the spectrum.
While Gatsby always wanted wealth, his main incentive to become rich is his love for Daisy, the true love of his life. Gatsby uses money for love. Myrtle, on the other hand, truly desires money. Myrtle uses “love” in the form of a so-called romantic relationship with Tom to attain the lifestyle she desperately desires. Even though she says that she loves Tom, Myrtle, the most independent woman in the story, wants wealth so much that she puts up with a lot of humiliation at the expense of Tom whom she really is just using to better her social status. Myrtle’s affair with Tom is not because she actually loves him more than George. What she really loves is the life that she thinks that Tom can get her. Her motivations are more superficial than Gatsby’s and are illustrated by how impressed she was with Tom’s suit and her distain for the fact that George had to borrow another man’s suit to marry
her. Both Gatsby and Myrtle are willing to do anything to achieve their goals even if it involved breaking the law or mores of society. Myrtle skips through classes by the route of infidelity. Myrtle lives in the Valley of Ashes with George where she is low class in stature but high class in her mind. With Tom in their apartment in New York, she lives like the upper class Daisy. She buys expensive dog collars and throws wannabe posh parties. Myrtle is willing to break the moral code of being faithful to her husband in order to attain wealth. Similarly, Gatsby jumps classes through criminal activity: bootlegging and gambling. Gatsby is willing to drop out of school and chose a life of crime to become wealthy. He comes from a modest background, but after he meets Dan Cody, he reinvents himself and changes his name. He partners with other gangsters to make money during Prohibition. Both Gatsby and Myrtle are ultimately killed because of their lovers by a mistake. They both seem to take the punishment for other character’s mistakes. Myrtle is run over by Daisy, but Myrtle thinks it is Tom's car coming to rescue her. Gatsby is shot in his pool because George thinks he is Myrtle's lover and the one who ran her over.
Gatsby, Myrtle and Tom lie to themselves and others through their words and actions. Gatsby and Myrtle attempt to be social climbers; Gatsby loves the idea of Daisy and Myrtle loves the idea of Tom and what he can provide for her. They both try to appear as someone they are not: Gatsby tries to appear as a successful man who comes from a wealthy family while Myrtle longs to appear as an upper class woman. Their lies have tragic results since Myrtle, Gatsby and Mr. Wilson all die needlessly. However, Tom, who seems to be successful, lies because he is selfish and thinks only about fulfilling his personal needs. Clearly, The Great Gatsby demonstrates that deceiving others, for any reason, inevitably leads to tragedy for the individual and others who touch their lives.
Tom knew Myrtle better than any of the main characters. He had met her on a train headed for New York. When the train reached the city, she went with him in a taxi, and their affair began. Tom never made much of an effort to keep their relationship secret. In fact, he almost paraded her around in the presence of his acquaintances. They made frequent trips into New York so that they could be together. Myrtle was Tom's escape from his own life in East Egg. While Daisy provided him with a wealthy, acceptable social image, she was not much more to him than a mere possession. His affair with Myrtle offered him a chance to defy his social expectations. Their relationship was important to him because of this opportunity to escape. When Myrtle died, it shook him deeply, especially because he believed Gatsby had been driving the yellow car. After leaving George Wilson's garage the night of the accident, he managed to drive slowly until he and Nick were out of sight. Then he slammed his foot down on the accelerator, driving much faster. He began quietly sobbing, privately mourning her death. He immediately blamed Gatsby for bringing their relationship to an abrupt halt. "That God damned coward!" he cried. "He didn't even stop his car." His feelings of anger and hurt were greatly intensified by the day spent in New York....
The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald F.S, 1925) is a novel which focuses on narrator Nick Carraway after he moves to New York in 1922. Nick is drawn into the world of wealthy and mysterious neighbour Jay Gatsby, and his quest to rekindle his love with Nick’s cousin Daisy Buchanan. This does not quite go to plan, and an unraveling chain of events leads to a fatal hit-and-run with Gatsby’s own death following shortly after. This essay will however be focusing on the women of the novel: Daisy Buchanan; Jordan Baker; and Myrtle Wilson. These three women are all radically different from one another upon first glance, but all are subject to the sexism of the time period. Fitzgerald portrays love as a battle, a “struggle for power in an
At first glance, The Great Gatsby is merely a classic American tragedy, portraying the story of a man's obsession with a fantasy, and his resulting downfall. However, Fitzgerald seems to weave much more than that into the intricate web of emotional interactions he creates for the reader. One interesting element is the concepts of greatness each has. For Daisy, it lies in material wealth, and in the comfort and security associated with it. Daisy seems to be easily impressed by material success, as when she is touring Gatsby's mansion and seems deeply moved by his collection of fine, tailored shirts. It would seem that Tom's relative wealth, also, had at one time impressed her enough to win her in marriage. In contrast to that, Gatsby seems to not care a bit about money itself, but rather only about the possibility that it can win over Daisy. In fact, Gatsby's extreme generosity gives the reader the impression that Gatsby would otherwise have never even worked at attaining wealth had it not been for Daisy. For Gatsby, the only thing of real importance was his pursuit of Daisy. It would seem that these elements are combined, too in the character Myrtle.
On one level The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald comments on the careless gaiety and moral decadence of the period in which it was set. It contains innumerable references to the contemporary scene. The wild extravagance of Gatsby's parties, the shallowness and aimlessness of the guests and the hint of Gatsby's involvement in crime all identify the period and the American setting. But as a piece of social commentary The Great Gatsby also describes the failure of the American dream, from the point of view that American political ideals conflict with the actual social conditions that exist. For whereas American democracy is based on the idea of equality among people, the truth is that social discrimination still exists and the divisions among the classes cannot be overcome. Myrtle's attempt to break into the group to which the Buchanans belong is doomed to fail. Taking advantage of her vivacity, her lively nature, she seeks to escape from her own class. She enters into an affair with Tom and takes on his way of living. But she only becomes vulgar and corrupt like the rich. She scorns people from her own class and loses all sense of morality. And for all her social ambition, Myrtle never succeeds in her attempt to find a place for herself in Tom's class. When it comes to a crisis, the rich stand together against all outsiders.
The main quote from The Great Gatsby that shows that if you try to live above your class you will be punished if from chapter seven where it states, “A moment later she rushed out into the dusk, waving her hands and shouting--before he could move from his door he business was over.” (Fitzgerald 137) This “business” that Fitzgerald was referring to was Myrtle being
Jay Gatsby and Myrtle Wilson, both symbolize the American dream that people go after, the want for wealth and power and to be in the higher social class. That is why Fitzgerald has two such different but similar characters in the novel. To show how high they want for money is, how much hope it really brings to people. Too much money is everything, money is a means for survival in this world. And that's what Gatsby and Myrtle show through their high vitality and high levels of want and need to become part of the wealthy social class.
Love is already a battlefield, but what if two people are loving the same person? Which one of these men will prove their love. There can only be one man on top of the battle. Who will be top dog. Who will have the most desired love. In Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, Tom and Gatsby both love Daisy, but their approach is very different.
Daisy and Myrtle both want money but only one of them does and that’s Daisy. Myrtle lives in a two story building by a slow gas station that her and her husband runs. Daisy is always wearing top notch dresses and accessories while Myrtle is the opposite. She wears dingy somewhat old clothes. Not to mention, Daisy does absolutely nothing with her days. She just does whatever she pleases to do. Myrtle has to help her husband with their business just so they can survive and try to get business at their gas station. She can’t just doddle like Daisy. I believe they both have the same hopes and dreams but they’re just starting out different. I also think their hopes and dreams are the same as in their love life too. Daisy wishes to be with Gatsby and Myrtle wants to be with Tom. Although, Myrtle probably wants to be with Tom because of the life he could give her, Daisy already lives that life and she still would even if she went with Gatsby instead. So I think that Daisy is aiming to be happy with this choice and since Myrtle is so desperate to have money she doesn’t care if Tom is a cheater or mean. You can see in this quote from the “The Great Gatsby” while Myrtle is with Tom she buys all kinds of presents for herself and she doesn’t feel bad about it. She takes her time and gets whatever she wants.
Daisy and Edmond are different now because Edmond is scared because the stuff he has seen in the war people dying and more. He can barely talk to her, there relationship is different now. They don't talk much, but it is getting better. They are talking more, but not a lot, It will probably take a long time to fix their relationship. One of the quotes Edmond says is “There were thousands of stories just like this, one and mostly they didn't end happily” When Daisy got pick up from and went back to the Usa and she was there for along time. (Like 3-4 years) When she was in the Usa, Edmond was captured by the enemies and he seen kids starve and die. He was a lot of scars on his body and in his mental mind. Edmond seen kids and adults die and seen
There were many parts in the Great Gatsby that discusses about love, Its one of the most known parts in the book. The author of the Great Gatsby is F. Scott Fitzgerald the main character consists of Jay Gatsby, Nick Caraway, Daisy Buchanan, Tom Buchanan, Myrtle Wilson, and many others. Love, desire, and sex are a major motive for nearly every character in the Great Gatsby.
Gatsby on the surface, does truly appear to be pursuing Daisy. However, Gatsby’s need for Daisy could rather be an unconscious facade. The facade covers up the depressing truth. The truth is that Gatsby has been pursuing the “idea” of Daisy. “Idea” as in an interpretation of her that may not be entirely true. A five year gap separated the time between Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship before the war and their meeting postwar. Five years was plenty of time for Gatsby to idealize a completely unrealistic ideal of Daisy. The Daisy he idealized would pick up their love right where they left off prewar. Gatsby grew way too close to this idealization and set all his hopes on this. It seems as if the relationship does not work, it will break Gatsby.
F. Scott Fitzgerald laced The Great Gatsby (1925) with his own social commentary on the decay of Jazz Age society due to white Americans. Fitzgerald knew of the growing divisions among America’s white community in the nineteen-twenties, and he utilized The Great Gatsby’s characters to show how the division will cause the end of the Jazz Age. Tom Buchanan, a arrogant man from old money, optimizes the views of eugenicists like Lothrop Stoddard, who believed in levels of whiteness within the white race; ultimately, Tom’s love interests provide the backbone for Fitzgerald’s distaste for the social stratification of the white community. Daisy Fay Buchanan, Tom’s picturesque wife, represents the peak of the whiteness spectrum, and Myrtle
The want for an extravagant life is the thing that draws Myrtle into having an unsanctioned romance with Tom. This choice damages her marriage with George, which prompts her demise and loss of genuine joy. Myrtle has the expectation and want for an impeccable, well off and renowned sort life. She appreciates perusing tattle magazines which speak to her desire for the life of "the rich and well known". This shows how the one reason she needs to be with Tom, is on account of he speaks to the life of "the rich and acclaimed". At the point when Myrtle initially got hitched to George Wilson, she suspected that she was wild about him and believed that they were cheerful being as one. Myrtle says, "The main insane I was the point at which I wedded
As a nurse, I also found in Jay Gatsby an injury, a physical pain that tormented him day and night. The pain that a nurse can look at and try to cure and heal, but yet is somewhat impossible. It is the pain of Denial. However, Jay Gatsby was not the only one that had an American Dream and got hurt, there were others, others that died because they thought that their American Dream was real. Take for instance, a young lady named Myrtle. She was a wife and at the same time a lover of another. She was the lover of Tom, who was Daisy's husband, and Daisy was Jay Gatsby's love. A good connection there, right? Myrtle loved Tom, with all her heart. He was her American Dream, and yet she didn't find love near him, but death among his wife, who killed her accidentally. A tragic for a young lady like Myrtle.