Similarities Between Daisy And Myrtle In The Great Gatsby

The great Gatsby is originally a book written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1925 but later also became a movie. The tale takes place in the 1920´s and as a reader, you are able to visualize how life could be for those who are rich and for those who are miserable. In this literary analysis I am going to compare the two women Daisy Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson.

The biggest difference between the two women is that Daisy was and is still rich. She grew up wealthy and then later married Tom Buchanan, a wealthy man who inherited money from his family. Because Daisy does not know anything else but being rich and wealthy she wears her clothing with style and knows that she does not have to take it over the top. Myrtle on the other hand is not rich and has probably never been. She is married to her husband George, who owns some sort of garage in the valley of ashes. Myrtle is desperate to look rich and always goes over the top with her clothing to make it look as if she is.

Although the women comes from different social classes they have got quite a few things in common.

For example they both have affairs. While myrtle has an affair with Daisy’s husband Tom Buchanan, Daisy has an affair with her long lost love Jay Gatsby. Daisy met Gatsby before the war and promised to wait for him. Obviously she did not but you can clearly feel that she still has feelings for Gatsby and that is probably why she decides that being unfaithful toward Tom is the right thing to do. Also Daisy already knew that tom had an affair therefore she probably felt that she wanted some revenge. Although both women had affairs their motives of having one is not the same. Daisy had an affair with her long lost love whom she never forgot about and Myrtle’s motives of having an affair is the expensive gifts Tom bought

her.
While speaking about having affairs, another thing that the two women have in common is of course Tom and the way that he abuses the women. Tom is a very arrogant man and sees women as an object rather than human beings. The abuse that Daisy has to put up with is knowing that Tom does not bother about her feelings. For example Tom is so unfaithful toward Daisy that he answers a call from Myrtle during dinner and when he is with Myrtle she is only an object to abuse for his own satisfaction. Both women lives a life as object while a powerful man uses and abuses them because both women is lower class than he is therefore it is not worth taking the risk for either women to loose Tom.