Social Class In The Great Gatsby

Tom hurls accusations at Gatsby and chastises him for an affair, while he too does not respect the marriage with Daisy that he tries to defend. Jordan tries to tout her morality, claiming to act like a lady, but her record does not support that, as she cheats. ”She is incurably dishonest. She was not able to endure being at a disadvantage,” (63). Daisy crafts her likeness to the purity and fragility of a rose, which the others believe as her true identity.

Myrtle is the quintessential example of an impoverished woman living in the twenties, with an aspiration to reach the romanticized upper class through a rich aristocrat named Tom Buchanan. Although she thinks this is possible mean of escape, an aristocrat like Tom would never be seen with a measly peasant such as Myrtle. We see early on that Tom could have easily taken her out of poverty and into his lifestyle, but he chooses not too. Myrtle is resentful of her husband for putting her in her current situation, saying small remarks such as, "The only crazy I was was when I married him.” (23) Myrtle doesn’t understand that she will never be accepted into a higher social class.

Tom acts as an escape from poverty for Myrtle and her life changes drastically depending on which man shes spends her time with. With George, she continues to live a poor life filled with hard work but with Tom, she is able to live comfortably and lavishly. Her social standing and quality of life are directly connected to the man she’s

She aspires for wealth and privilege which leads her to have an affair with Tom. She seeks to gain riches and a higher social status in being with someone such as him all while ignoring and belittling her husband. Her relationship with Tom made her highly inferior. Tom would abuse her and see her as an object of desire that he could control. Myrtle, being the foolish women that she was, continued to remain in the relationship just so she could escape her lower status and in hopes of becoming wealthy.

Her and her husband both live in a tiny apartment above their automobile shop. It is obvious that Myrtle wants to be rich, and wants to be able to be like Nick, Daisy, and Tom. Myrtle tries to achieve this dream through her affair with Tom. He has money, so if she is with him she feels as though she is rich. It can be seen that George Wilson is trying to improve his life, and make both himself and his wife happy, by trying to make his business more successful and make more money.

These show that even though she can't afford these finer items, she's willing to put her marriage in jeopardy just to try and live as she can. Thus, her dream of living a life of luxury is just impossible since she wasn’t given the same opportunities as others and sacrificed more than she gained. Myrtle was a bad person; she lied to her husband to live like a higher-class person, used other people's money to afford these items, and ruined her husband's life. Her greed led to the deaths of her husband and Jay

She is popular, beautiful, and has old money. Baker is also rude, dishonest, and unethical. Every character holds a facade that they have obtained their dreams. Behind this mask they are truly unhappy ill-intentioned people. Daisy’s

“I want to get one of those dogs," she said earnestly. "I want to get one for the apartment. They're nice to have — a dog" (24). Myrtle was a woman that even regarded the circumstances of where she lived always wanted to be seen as more wealthy. Her affair with Tom, I believe, helped herself believe that.

She is wealthy, has short hair, does not dress like most women, and she plays golf. " 'Jordan's going to play in the tournament tomorrow'" (23). Her characters goal would be to spend more time with Nick. The theme would then be loved. The value of her character adds love to the novel with Nick, but also tells a part of Tom and Daisy's love story.

In The Great Gatsby, Myrtle's reality is that she is a poor mistress who lives in the Valley of Ashes. However, when she is with Tom she lives in a fantasy world of fancy gifts and nice items. For example, Tom pays for their apartment in the city and buys her a puppy at one of their frequent meetings. These tangible goods give Myrtle the appearance of a rich city girl making her much more confident in her self-identity. Another example in The Great Gatsby is Gatsby himself working all his life to gain the intangible ownership of Daisy’s heart.

In New York they can appear together in public even with his acquaintances without worrying to cause a scandal. Myrtle feels that because she is having an affair with Tom she has the right to call him anytime as she wants to continue believing she is a part of the higher social class. She lets Tom bash her around as she feels better to be treated badly by a rich man than to be just cared for by a poor one. Myrtle believes that she is a part of the upper class crowd and continually tries to control the people that she is mingling with. Myrtle has no appreciation for George and often disrespects him in a way that shows she comes from a higher social status than him.

Before meeting the man who would show her what living with a lot of money was like, Myrtle was just a simple woman. Her life might’ve been very monotonous, but at least she was living a good enough life. Some might argue that money did bring her a lot of happiness and didn’t destroy her happiness, but that is wrong because her infatuation with living in riches is what causes her to die, destroying any happiness she could have ever experienced in the future. The narrator states in chapter seven that Myrtle while speaking to George Wilson exclaims, “‘Throw me down and beat me, you dirty little coward!’ " A moment later she rushed out into the dusk, waving her hands and shouting before he could move from his door the business was over.”(pg. 137).

Myrtle downright ignores her own husband, “walking through her husband as if he were a ghost” and approaching Tom with a smile on her face (Fitzgerald 25-26). Though Myrtle and her husband have been married for a long time, Myrtle never got the money and status she wanted. As soon as she met Tom, all she could see was the money that surrounded him. In fact, she even changed her clothes around Tom, “attired in an elaborate afternoon dress of cream colored chiffon, which gave out a continual rustle as she swept about the room” (Fitzgerald 30). Myrtle often tries to come off richer than she is, proven by her various outfit changes in a small party where she wants to “prove herself a woman of Daisy's status through a melange of color, fashion, and commodities” (Goldsmith).

Throughout The Great Gatsby, Daisy is portrayed as a victim of infidelity and a confused girl who married the wrong man. However, her character plays a part in the selfishness of the American Dream as well. Fitzgerald subtly displays the materialistic side of Daisy Buchanan, as well as her clear disregard for those who do so much for her. Despite her inherited wealth, Daisy seems to still be drawn toward having more--and that is what the American Dream is all about. When she goes over to Gatsby’s house she is amazed by the size and luxury of it, and when she is bombarded with Gatsby’s colorful shirts she begins to cry.

In the book, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fiztgerald explores Roaring ‘20s American society through the lens of contrasting characters on different ends of the social hierarchy spectrum. Post WWI, the Roaring ‘20s was a decade of mass consumerism and urbanization, therefore leading to profound social change among all classes. The most significant representation of the elite class are Daisy & Tom Buchanan who come from old money, while Gatsby, who could be considered new money, had to climb the social ladder and inevitably met his downfall. Myrtle emulates the urban working class- striving to escape poverty in an era where elitism runs throughout every strata of society. F. Scott Fitzgerald's emphasis on character values and behaviors expresses