The Great Gatsby: Character & Key Quotes: Myrtle Wilson

Interpretation and Understanding:

Myrtle Wilson is depicted as a sensual, audacious woman from the working class who aspires to climb the social ladder and escape her desolate life.
Fitzgerald presents Myrtle as very materialistic, using her affair with Tom Buchanan as an excuse to indulge in luxuries she would never have access to otherwise.
Myrtle’s death is symbolic of a crushed dream and the careless disregard of the upper classes towards those less privileged.

Exploration of Characters:

“I married him because I thought he was a gentleman…I thought he knew something about breeding, but he wasn’t fit to lick my shoe.”: This quote sheds light on Myrtle’s dissatisfaction with her husband George. She seeks material wealth and status and marries for the illusion of sophistication.
“With the influence of the dress, her personality had also undergone a change.”: Myrtle’s transformation in expensive clothes signifies her longing to belong to the class that Tom represents. Her change in demeanor represents the illusion wealth can project.

Major Themes:

“She smiled slowly and, walking through her husband as if he were a ghost, shook hands with Tom…“: This line demonstrates the class disparity and the theme of unfaithfulness. Myrtle disregards her husband and openly displays her disregard for him when she is with Tom.
“Her laughter, her gestures, her assertions became more violently affected moment by moment…“: As Myrtle consumes more alcohol, she becomes more audacious and disturbing, emphasizing the theme of indulgence and material wealth superseding ethics and emotional bonds.

Employment of Symbolism:

“The intense vitality that had been so remarkable in the garage was converted into impressive hauteur.”: The vitality Myrtle shows in her own social context is transformed into arrogance in the presence of the wealthy. This change symbolizes her transformative aspirations under the influence of materialism.
“Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!” shouted Mrs. Wilson. “I’ll say it whenever I want to!”: Myrtle’s obsessive repetition of Daisy’s name symbolizes her resentment and jealousy towards the upper classes, particularly the women, who she feels enjoy a life she thinks she deserves. At the same time, it symbolizes her fierce desire to break social boundaries.