Myrtle is after money and fame in her affair. The one thing Daisy gets out of her affair is love. It is no secret that Daisy and Tom are not happy. Gatsby allows Daisy to be genuinely happy. Daisy already has riches and fame.
They are both in love with Tom in a different way, Daisy is the wife and Myrtle is the mistress. As we get to know throughout the novel, both of them have an affair, Daisy meets again with her old love, Gatsby, and Myrtle is the mistress of Tom. Daisy comes from a wealthy upper-class family and she has been raised in privilege while Myrtle has to fight for everything she has. Myrtle is attempting to give the impression of a wealthy, high-class woman, but she does not have the figure of a high-class woman. She has a “thick fish figure” (25) which connotes that she is not a skinny type nor beautiful.
The quote, “Mrs. Wilson had changed her costume some time before, and was now attired in an elaborate afternoon dress of cream chiffon, which gave out a continental rustle as she swept about the room.” (30) displays how Myrtle acted because she envisioned Daisy floating around her and Tom’s mansion like a goddess therefore she found it pertinent to act and dress just like that. But Myrtle did not have everything that Daisy did, nor did she have the proper etiquette like the rich. She tried too hard to fit in that she embarrassed herself because she was unable to pull it off as well as Gatsby did. Myrtle wanted wealth to be like Tom and Daisy, but
Gatsby has been obsessed with Daisy, and ready to do everything in order to get back her love, even if he needs to do illegal stuff to earn his wealth to reach her status. But Myrtle is completely different from Gatsby; she is so obsessed with being in a high social class that she would do anything in order to reach her goal even if she needs to cheat on her husband. Gatsby very quickly fell in love with Daisy but due to his lower class status never could marry her. "She never loved you, do you hear? She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me.
Indeed, her marital fidelity, until her affair with Gatsby, and her distress over Tom’s involvement with Myrtle might suggest to some readers that Daisy desires emotional intimacy with her husband. Jordan’s description of Daisy after her honeymoon reinforces this interpretation: “I’d never seen a girl so mad about her husband. If he left the room for a minute she’d look around uneasily and say ‘Where’s Tom gone?’ and wear the most abstracted expression until she saw him coming in the door” (Fitzgerald
Whether Daisy didn’t want Gatsby as her “main man” because of his lower social status, or how Tom wanted someone to fool around with, that being Myrtle, no one can quite find the “perfect” person to fit their needs and desires, thus they felt the need to branch out and have other lovers to help satisfy their needs. The whole book can be seen as portraying a simple, yet powerful message: in order to find true love, you have to look past the apparent things on the outside that are appealing, and look down into a person’s heart to see what they’re really
While Tom and Daisy at least try to appear happy and loving, Myrtle and George are hardly identifiable as married. Myrtle has lost complete interest in George and any life that she has with him, and runs off with Tom to live the extravagant life that she’s always wanted. Even before George and Myrtle were married, Myrtle’s understanding was that George was wealthy and powerful. Upon finding out that he didn’t have everything that she dreamed of, she stopped being in love with the idea of being with George, leading to an affair with Tom years later. “She smiled slowly and walking through her husband as if he were a ghost and shook hands with Tom, looking him flush in the eye.” We can see the disinterest she has for George by comparing her attraction towards Tom.
She tries to fit in with the successful people around her and make a name for herself. She uses the affair she is having as a getaway to the world of the so-called elite. "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." (Fitzgerald 34) Myrtle married her husband not because she loves him or because he is successful, which he is not, but just to have the title of being married.
Tom clearly does love Daisy, or at the least, respects her to some extent, and doesn’t feel the need to leave her, this being evident when Myrtle comes in the room saying, “Daisy, Daisy, Daisy” and Tom, slaps her face, breaking her nose with the sharp movement. If he truly didn’t have any feelings for Daisy, or any plans on leaving her, he would not have hit his mistress for mentioning her name. Nick Caraway He’s acting somewhat out of character and seems to be easily persuaded. Throughout the night of the gathering, and even before than, Nick shows signs that he is changing to fit in with the company he is with. We know from the text that Nick rarely got drunk before this night, this being evident when he (the narrator) says, “I have been drunk just twice in my life and the second time was that afternoon.
Myrtle stated, “I married him because I thought he was a gentleman” (Fitzgerald 34). Fitzgerald hinted at irony in that moment because