The Role Of Myrtle Wilson In The Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald's acclaimed novel The Great Gatsby, a reflection of life in Long Island and its surroundings during the Roaring Twenties is a story of dreams or more fittingly for some—nightmares. Myrtle Wilson, a woman who aspires to revel in the riches of America’s elite, stops at nothing to try and realize the ambitions she has set forth for herself. In her pursuit, Myrtle finds a way to attempt to scale the social and economic hierarchy by becoming a mistress to an immensely wealthy man, completely discrediting her marriage to a man struggling to make ends meet. Myrtle’s avenues as a woman are extremely limited, mainly because she hails from the primarily lower class Valley of Ashes, a barren wasteland, tantalizingly set between

the sumptuous Eggs of Long Island and Manhattan. Similarly, there is the former James Gatz, the teenager trapped in confines of the invariable and monotonous Midwest, who later invents himself as Jay Gatsby, Gatsby, his creation, becomes the living embodiment of the somewhat corrupted transformation of Gatz into a persona with affluence and a manufactured pedigree. Gatsby’s unfaltering pursuit in life is to use the prestige and wealth he has created to capture the heart of his lover, Daisy Buchanan. Both Gatsby and Myrtle are unsuccessful in their attempts to reach their objectives, as both their dreams and their existences ultimately perish at the hands of the actuality of the outside world. In a sense, their stories are equally cautionary tales of how blindly following a superficial and perverse dream while allowing it to engulf one’s sense of self, leads to one’s downfall.
Myrtle’s treatment of her husband suggests she comes from a place of classable supremacy, leading a life of vast wealth, but she is quickly put back into her position by society, forced to see reality.

Myrtle is a “faintly stout” woman who “carrie[s] her surplus flesh sensuously,” a lady who, in defiance of her classless and dead surroundings, is “continually smoldering.” Consequently, projecting herself as one leading a superior life of vitality and substance in a place of human anguish (25). She is married to a struggling mechanic named George Wilson, who despite his unabating love for her, is a “ghost” in her eyes and someone she can order around, unable to provide for her the way Myrtle desires—materialistically. She even goes as far to say George “[is]n’t fit to lick [her] shoe,” highlighting her arrogance which stems from her fantasy of running off with the absurdly wealthy Tom Buchanan (34). In one instance, her pretense of being a lady of great wealth is magnified when Myrtle surrounds herself in the opulence of Tom’s apartment, and “gather[s] up her dog and her other purchases and [goes] haughtily in” (28). These descriptions of her actions show how she has let the facade of being of a higher stature completely envelop her true self. Myrtle also goes to the length of inviting “the McKees come up” to Tom’s apartment, further disguising herself as his true love, and as a result, attempting to lead the life Daisy Buchanan, his actual wife (28). In effect, she tries

to play the part of his deserving and wealthy lady, believing this was the lifestyle for which she was destined. Conversely, Tom who comes from true and immense affluence views her as inferior and when Myrtle goes too far, insisting she can say Daisy’s name, “whenever [she] want[s] to!” With this interjection, she suggests false equality with the high-class Daisy and promptly gets put in her place for overstepping her boundaries (37). With a “short deft motion” Tom swiftly ends her delusion of wealth by “[breaking] her nose with an open hand,” proving he views her as nothing more than a second-class object whom he can use for sex—not actual love (37). Tom brings to light and curtails Myrtle’s masquerade of superiority. His violent objection to her putting herself on the same level as Daisy forces her back into the parameters of her class and guts Myrtle’s sense of parity between her and Tom. Myrtle’s failed attempt at experiencing life as a true lover of a magnate in Long Island has strong parallels to Gatsby’s unsuccessful undertakings in achieving his own goals.
James Gatz’s “invent[ion]” of his persona Jay Gatsby is reflective of the juvenile desire for wealth that “a seventeen-year-old boy” would have (98).

Coming from a family of “shiftless and unsuccessful farm people,” the newly conceived “Gatsby” was desperately yearning for a life chock-full of financial success. Gatsby hopes to indulge in the lavishes of America’s elite and become a “son of God,” and “be about his Father’s business” (98). He grows tired of the doldrums of the Midwest and seemingly wasting away his life trapped in the inescapable purgatory that is North Dakota. Gatsby envisions wealth and living a life full of luxury on the fabled East Coast, commencing a life primarily founded on lucre. As Owl Eyes notes, Gatsby is a “regular Belasco,” meaning he stops at nothing to set up the life of his dreams (45). Gatsby has a near unrelenting nature of manufacturing a contrived atmosphere in which he is the main beneficiary, which leads him to a maligned perception of reality. When he eventually encounters “the king’s daughter, the golden girl,” Daisy, Gatsby feels he finds his purpose in life (120). Encapsulating everything Gatsby had ever wanted and by being the living manifestation of his dreams of wealth and status, Gatsby finally finds the perfect woman to play the role of his lover. Daisy’s voice is “full of money,” and as a result he does anything to please her, proving his inherent craving for wealth (120). Realizing that he did not stand a chance with Daisy

without accruing an exorbitant amount of money, combined with an unremitting desire to be with her, pushes him to want to make money quickly, turning him to illegal business. Gatsby produces lavish parties placed in the “factual imitation of some Hôtel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy...” hoping to use his newly-erected wealth to manufacture a sense of true pedigree grand and authentic enough to capture the heart of Daisy (5). Gatsby’s tireless efforts in constructing a backdrop palatial enough to appease the superficial and materialistic supposed love of his life, seemingly stemming from his covetousness for monetary gain. Despite his work in setting up the stage for his visions of a perfect life, Daisy does not share the same sentiments as Gatsby. Moreover, when Tom exposes him as a “bootlegger “and states “he sold grain alcohol” during the time of the Prohibition, she realizes that he does not carry the stature nor the old, established money for her to be with him, forcing him face the reality that he is not who he perceives himself to be (133). As a result, Gatsby’s quest for Daisy—or more abstractly, his interpretation of the American Dream, ceases as the curtains close on the production he so tirelessly creates. Nevertheless, his quest roots itself in greed and stands in substantial similarity to the notions and aims of Myrtle, who also allows avarice to be the impetus of her life.
Despite taking different routes to attain wealth and the American Dream during a time full of immense economic disparity, Myrtle and Gatsby draw comparability, due to both having equally contorted misconceptions of reality. Despite this, Gatsby is a heroic figure, one whose voyage roots from valor and complete intimacy, while Myrtle is a lustful woman without any principles or standards. Still, coming from lower-class backgrounds, both Myrtle and Gatsby envision a life full of sheer opulence. In the end, their dreams are not realized, and their expeditions produce no real or tangible results. Myrtle herself is painted as classless, immoral and reckless in her way of living, coined by her statement: “‘you can’t live forever!’”(36). Using her platform as Tom’s mistress as an attempt to indulge in the amenities of those above her in stature, Myrtle vows to get a taste of the culmination of the American Dream. Her ceaseless drive to escape the shackles of the social hierarchy leads her to live a life falsely parading herself as a woman from money. In one instance at the party at her and Tom’s “love nest,” Myrtle interjects: “These people!” referring to the “boy” she hires for her party, disassociating herself from her actual class, furthermore showcasing Myrtle’s fabricated estimations of her superiority (69). Gatsby, on the other hand, is viewed as a man fixated on capturing the love of his life, inclining for a chance to prove his worth as an affluent man in America. For his efforts, he is seen as a living embodiment of perseverance and assiduousness. As a result, Gatsby is illustrated as a hero, one whose story is of rags to riches and putting his lover before himself for a chance at a life-long realization of intimacy. Instead, Gatsby allows himself to be entirely restrained by a complacent want that is unable to adapt to the realities of life, clearly shown when he insists Daisy “in her heart has never loved anyone except me!” (130) Evidenced by the portrayals of Gatsby and Myrtle, is the socially-constructed double standard of the Twenties, despite both equally at fault for their amoral ardors and perpetual shortcomings.
Similarly holding misguided reasons for trying to achieve their ultimate ends, both Gatsby and Myrtle should be viewed in the same vein, one of allowing superficial desires to engulf their identities. Myrtle’s life is “violently extinguished,” and Gatsby’s life ends at the hands of Myrtle’s husband George, showing how indiscriminately adhering to pretenses in hopes of attaining surface-level desires can come with a dire price (137). Often lost in the reading of the story, is the hypocrisy of the sympathy many have for Gatsby while conversely bashing Myrtle even though both of their yearnings originate from places of materialism. As the German-American psychologist, Erich Fromm asserts, “Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction.” Gatsby and Myrtle’s long-standing lust for exorbitant riches and a grander sense of class that comes from erroneously impersonating those who come from Old money embody how allowing rapacity to immerse itself in one's life and take complete precedence can cause one to fall into an eternal void of dissatisfaction, reflected in dreams never fulfilled.