The Great Gatsby is one of the most influential pieces in today’s society, detailing what it was like to live in 1920s New York. We learn about this time in history class and learn about the power and privilege of the aristocracy, but this novel details how that privilege comes with a price and how that you may appear powerful, but that power is just a facade for they may be just as powerless as the people in the lower class. That is the case for a young Myrtle Wilson for although she is a “high class” woman, she is oppressed by the people who claim to love her: Tom Buchanan and George Wilson.
Myrtle Wilson, wife of George and mistress of Tom. She is a woman who escaped the Valley of Ashes, the small industrial town between the two metropolises, …show more content…
Wilson is a character that helps invoke feelings in the reader. When confronted about her marriage she has to think about her actions and, in keeping with one of the central themes: keeping up appearances, replies with “‘I married him because I thought he was a gentleman,’ she said finally. ‘I thought he knew something about breeding, but he wasn’t fit to lick my shoe. (Fitzgerald Ch.2).’” The pathos is obvious here; Wilson supports Myrtle and cares greatly for her, as seen in chapter seven when she is hit by a car, but Myrtle not only cheats on him, but also despises him, and runs him down in front of her friends from the city. The psychology is complex here; despising Wilson may be Myrtle’s way of dealing with the guilt she must feel in betraying him, though we never see her treat Wilson with any affection. She is also put between a rock and a hard place as she has to explain why she married someone “beneath …show more content…
Myrtle acts as though she is very wealthy and has the privileges to do many things, for example, she is choosy about her taxis, she buys gossip magazines like the Town Tattle in order to fit in with the rich and famous, and yells at the help as if she is way above them. Myrtle and Tom’s apartment is decorated with nice things in theory, but in actuality the things do not fit into the apartment properly and that further illustrates how Myrtle does not exactly fit into the aristocracy
Myrtle Wilson, wife of George and mistress of Tom. She is a woman who escaped the Valley of Ashes, the small industrial town between the two metropolises, …show more content…
Wilson is a character that helps invoke feelings in the reader. When confronted about her marriage she has to think about her actions and, in keeping with one of the central themes: keeping up appearances, replies with “‘I married him because I thought he was a gentleman,’ she said finally. ‘I thought he knew something about breeding, but he wasn’t fit to lick my shoe. (Fitzgerald Ch.2).’” The pathos is obvious here; Wilson supports Myrtle and cares greatly for her, as seen in chapter seven when she is hit by a car, but Myrtle not only cheats on him, but also despises him, and runs him down in front of her friends from the city. The psychology is complex here; despising Wilson may be Myrtle’s way of dealing with the guilt she must feel in betraying him, though we never see her treat Wilson with any affection. She is also put between a rock and a hard place as she has to explain why she married someone “beneath …show more content…
Myrtle acts as though she is very wealthy and has the privileges to do many things, for example, she is choosy about her taxis, she buys gossip magazines like the Town Tattle in order to fit in with the rich and famous, and yells at the help as if she is way above them. Myrtle and Tom’s apartment is decorated with nice things in theory, but in actuality the things do not fit into the apartment properly and that further illustrates how Myrtle does not exactly fit into the aristocracy