Throughout life, people put on a mask to hide their true selves from everyone around them. It’s always an appearance versus reality type of thing. Someone could pull themselves together quite well but in reality, they are worse. That is a common argument presented by F. Scott Fitzgerald in “The Great Gatsby” and Paul Laurence Dunbar in the poem “We Wear the Mask.” Almost every character in “The Great Gatsby” can be related to this poem in some way. In Dunbar's poem, he states that people wear the mask that “grins and lies” and it hides “cheeks and smiles.” That relates to Jay Gatsby and the character he created for himself. His character of Jay Gatsby has been used so much, it has basically became who he is. He is no longer the James Gatz …show more content…
“But let the world dream otherwise” can relate to Daisy because she can effectively pull of that she is unbothered affair and everything else going on. She has a mask of ignorance in a way. She chooses to believe only what she wants. She doesn’t want to come off as weak so she ignores everyone else and sticks to her careless mind. Even though she is a more miniscule character in the book, Myrtle Wilson wears a mask. Myrtle is unhappy in her marriage with her husband, George. When her and George met, she had thought that he was a man with a lot of money. Once they got married, she soon realized he wasn’t a rich man at all after he borrowed “somebody’s best suit to get married in.” Despite the fact that he didn’t have much money, Myrtle just puts a fake smile on her face and stays with him while still having an affair with Daisy’s husband Tom. Then, there’s Jordan Baker. Her mask is quite different than the other characters. Jordan cheats. She stayed away from “clever” and “shrewd” men. She was very dishonest and didn’t want to “endure being at a disadvantage.” When she is with Nick, she can be herself. She doesn’t feel the need to wear a mask that covers up her true self when she is with. She needed a break and wanted someone she could be real …show more content…
Tom has a very imposing attitude right off the bat. He acts like he is extremely happy with Daisy and that nothing would ever change that. In reality, he goes off, buys a dog with his mistress, Myrtle Wilson, takes her to an apartment and as soon as she begins to bring up Daisy, he loses it and breaks her nose. His mask makes him seem comfortable and relaxed about everything, which isn’t true. He blows his cover when he finds out about Gatsby and Daisy having been together before the war. In a way, that connects to the line “Nay, let them only see us, while we wear our mask,” because no one is going to want their true selves to show if it’s bad. He tries to keep it together in someway but, it can be difficult to keep your true self hidden for so
She thinks that being rich and famous will give her the happiness she is seeking. While Daisy is truly unhappy with her husband and their relationship and just wants some sort of love no matter who it is
This quote contains symbolism as Daisy is the ultimate symbol of the American Dream for Gatsby. She is wealthy and well off, and she fits right into his elaborate dream.
Unlike Daisy, who comes from old money, Myrtle is from the lower middle class. Myrtle hopes to climb the social ladder by cheating on her husband with Tom Buchanan.
Masks are a way an individual expresses themselves with various types of people. We are given different occasions and have to act a certain way to do so. Gergen states that the cause of having a mask is “When an individual seeks approval from this diverse range of personalities,he or she adopts a wholly different mask or public identities.” (197) Each person has a different personality when they are with certain people, based on actions and reactions. For instance, when having a guest visiting for the first time, we tend to look our best and choose the best way to make them feel welcome. We tend to hide things that don 't seem “appropriate” and take out things that seem new. We probably don’t notice, but we create a mask based on appearance since we are hiding the reality based on their first
The Great Gatsby is a book filled with dynamic characters, written by a dynamic person. Throughout the book, the themes and situations are on many symbolic levels. The Great Gatsby is such a novel, that the hero is portrayed to the reader by a man who, with seemingly no effort, will not judge a man easily. He perceives him, takes him in, and analyzes him. This man’s name is not, in fact, Gatsby, but Nick Carraway, the narrator of the story. The man who is being perceived, of course, is Jay Gatsby, our hero.
He wears a mask of being a family man, when in reality he doesn’t pay attention to his family at all. He has a mistress in New York named Myrtle and he goes to see her often, but wears a mask to disguise the fact that he isn’t a great husband and family man. In the scene were Gatsby wants Daisy to tell Tom she never loved him Tom puts on a mask of being a of loving Daisy so much and he tells her that, but he actually cheats on her all the time with more than one women (Fitzgerald 139). It’s proven that he has had more than one affair when they are in the apartment with Gatsby, Nick, Jordan, and Daisy brings up Chicago (Fitzgerald 139). Tom also wears a mask of being an amazing rich man that has everything he could ever want to have. In reality he doesn’t have everything and he isn’t happy and you can see this in his jealousy of Gatsby and in the affairs he has showing he’s not completely happy with
When looking at Jay Gatsby, one sees many different personalities and ideals. There is the gracious host, the ruthless bootlegger, the hopeless romantic, and beneath it all, there is James Gatz of North Dakota. The many faces of Gatsby make a reader question whether they truly know Gatsby as a person. Many people question what exactly made Jay Gatsby so “great.” These different personas, when viewed separately, are quite unremarkable in their own ways.
Dwight Lyman Moody has once said "Character is what you are in the dark," which is proposing that people hide who they truly are in lightness because they're afraid to let society know the real them. Society has become cruel and they force people to do things they don't want to, but at the same time, society can bring out the better side of you.
She views her husband as nothing as clearly illustrated in The Great Gatsby when the novel states “walking through her husband as if he were a ghost, shook hands with Tom, looking him flush in the eye.” walking through him is showing she doesn't even view George, Her husband, as though he is in the room, She just goes straight to Tom because he’s her ticket out of this life Myrtle put herself into. She then says to her George, “Get some chairs, why don’t you, so somebody can sit down.” She just wants to make plans with Tom. Her husband is only distraction to her. She has no relationship with her husband. As soon as she found out that he had borrowed his suit she knew her would all be going downhill. Myrtle was now a victim of her own desperation, because of her marriage to
She became used to him being unfaithful to her that she suggests to him after leaving him during Gatsby wild party “ and if you want to take down any addresses here’s my little gold pencil” (105). Tom and Myrtle relationship caused problems more in Myrtle life rather than Tom’s because unlike Tom’s wide, Wilson was unaware about her unfaithfulness and reacted way differently by becoming sick. In Nick’s perspective, he explains, “He had discovered that Myrtle had some sort of life apart from him in another world, and the shock had made him physically sick” (124). Wilson behaves in way by having her locked in a room until he gets the car to move away but soon enough for jealousy to strike among Myrtle about Tom and his wife which later causes her death. Her death occurred because of the greatly amount of envy she has towards Daisy and her lifestyle with Tom. The feelings that she felt showed upon her by having “…one emotion after another crept into her face like objects into a slowly developing picture” (124). This single small affair between Tom and Myrtle became something bigger than expected by a heart broken husband, dishonesty, and death among a mistress. This crime is much relatable to many affairs in the world that ends really bad divorces and trust issues from the dishonesty from their significant
Daisy knows very well that tom is cheating on her, but doesn’t care because it's more convenient to stay in her unhappy marriage. Even though she wants to be with Gatsby, she wants to keep her social status and being with Tom makes this all the easier. Now, this is quite the opposite of Myrtle. She has a loving husband who would do anything for her, but her social status is all she cares about. Myrtle is willing to hurt George and ruin their marriage in order to climb up the social ladder. Neither of these women have respect for themselves. Both Daisy and Myrtle allow Tom to treat them
Myrtle Wilson did not have a lot in the beginning, but she gained a new life with Tom when she tried to reinvent herself for him. Things like new dresses, a big apartment, and fancy outings with Tom became the new “normal” for Myrtle. On the other hand, Myrtle lost the respect of her husband and friends when everyone found out about her affair. In addition to losing respect, Myrtle also lost herself, both mentally and physically, when she tried to keep secrets and live a double life. She became someone she did not recognize, and although her end in the novel was tragic, it was a cost that she had to
Though Myrtle Wilson makes an attempt to escape her own class and pursue happiness with the rich, she ends up gaining nothing and eventually dies. She is basically a victim of the group she wanted to join. Myrtle tries to become like Tom by having an affair with him and taking on his way of living, but in doing so she becomes unsatisfied with her life. Her constant clothing changes show that she is unhappy with her life, she changes personalities every time she changes her dress: "with the influence of the dress her whole personality had also undergone a change.
The first time that the reader catches an insight of Myrtle, Fitzgerald develops Myrtle to be a mere object of Tom's’ desire. Fitzgerald does this to extenuate the fact that Tom will not move on past Daisy to be with her. Tom “got some women” that supposedly is a secret but there is a lack of secretism on Myrtles end seeing as she is now calling during evening meals from “New York” just to talk to Tom. This further proves that she is in need of attention, something her husband can not fully give her at any random moment of the day. Myrtle is willing to express herself even when she’s already married. It reveals that she is deceiving her own husband, who is later mentioned in the novel. This allows for Myrtle to be looked down upon by the reader, it also entails her to be seen as an attention seeker. Again, Fitzgerald appeals to present-day behaviors by allowing Myrtle to be viewed as someone who wants to be showcased. Almost everyone can relate that they’ve wanted attention in their life at some point. This connects Myrtle to the reader's past or current feelings. Fitzgerald uses this to let readers feel compassion for Myrtle which emphasizes all she needs is for someone to properly love her, treat her, and show her what she needs to do to become successful in her
Myrtle’s ambition proves to be her fatal flaw in being the tragic hero. The goal of her ambition is to lead her to a higher social status. In pursuit of her ambition she expresses that her husband, George Wilson, serves as an obstacle since he is in the opposite direction of where she wishes to be. She expresses disgust in George for committing actions that are considered lowly by her standards. She was particularly unenthused with her husband after it is revealed that “he borrowed somebody’s best suit to get married” without telling her. (35) She expresses her marriage as regretful, which illustrates her ambition to strive for better, being Tom. Essentially it illustrates that she would rather be treated with little respect to achieve status, rather than to be treated with respect without status. Myrtle not only exudes her ambition through her pompous attitude, but also in the manner in which she carries herself. She is a young woman in her “middle thirties, and faintly stout, but (carries) her surplus flesh sensuously,” and although she is not attributed with beauty she is somewhat charismatic. (25) The way in which she carries herself may be considered sexual, and her persona is alluring for men such as Tom. Her seducing persona illustrates her ambition in being a temptress in order to move up the social ladder.