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How Is Myrtle Portrayed In The Great Gatsby

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Almost at the very beginning of the book, Tom Buchanan introduces Nick to Myrtle, his mistress who lives in the Valley of Ashes. As he takes in his surroundings in the impoverished strip, Nick notices a billboard of a faceless image of the bespectacled eyes of Doctor. T.J Eckleburg, a retired optometrist. These eyes represent many things at the same time. They are a representation of the eyes of God staring down on and judging the decaying morals of society. After World War One, people were living everyday like it was their last because they saw how fast life could be taken away from them. “But his eyes, dimmed a little by many paintless days, under sun and rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground.”(Fitzgerald 26) Much like the billboard, God has been long forgotten by the people. …show more content…
In a way, one can say to the people living in the valley of ashes, God is dead. The eyes, and what they symbolize, also help to develop the theme of betrayal and corruption. Fitzgerald makes it so that Tom and Myrtle’s affair takes place right before the eyes of God and under the nose of a meek man like George Wilson. “She might fool me but she couldn’t fool God.”(Fitzgerald 152). Wilson says this to Myrtle once he finds out that she has been cheating on him. Although for a long time, people disregarded God and morality, there is only so much that can happen before it is time for judgement. There was so much immorality going on in the valley of ashes and it got to a point where God had to intervene. Although Wilson could not see that Myrtle was having an affair with Tom, God could see it all with his all knowing

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