The Great Gatsby: Daisy/Myrtle
After first glancing at The Great Gatsby, it didn't seem as if any similarities between the wealthy, dainty Daisy Buchanan, the object of Gatsby's worship, and Myrtle Wilson, the bawdy, mechanic's wife who was having an affair with Daisy's husband. In fact, it was felt that there was no comparison at all, because I felt that other than sharing an abhorable man, there was nothing else to look at. But after deeper analysis, there was more to their motives and personalities go deeper than that. For the most part, they both seem to have an affinity toward other men other than their husbands. Daisy has a minor fling with Gatsby that developed from past feeling they had for each other. Myrtle has an affair with Tom Buchanan that developed after meeting in a train car. Despite the fact they seem to have an indifference to the general feeling that cheating is wrong, they both have different reasons for doing what they did. Daisy cheated because she's a romantic of the worst kind; a romantic with no moral standing and a somewhat obscure sense of reality. The phrase "hopeless romantic" would be an understatement. This can be best reflected in her statement in chapter six when she claimed that she would be leaving Tom. But after Tom's
statement, "She's not leaving me...Certainly not for a common swindler who'd have to steal the ring he'd put on her finger,"(140) the almost resolute feeling of wanting to leave Tom had changed. Tom went on with insulting Gatsby's methods of acquiring money, and Daisy began to go back into Tom's will. To put it bluntly, Daisy's sense of morality depends on the strongest figure in the room, which made her susceptible to Gatsby's charms when she was alone with him. Myrtle on the other hand, was simpler in her choice of cheating on her husband. She was basically going on basic attraction. Her description of her initial attitude toward him was quite significant of this, "All I kept thinking about over and over was, ' You can't live forever. You can't live forever.'"(40) Despite their contribution to marital dysfunction in their lives, Daisy and Myrtle both have husbands that love them. Even though Daisy and Tom both have had extra-marital affairs, Tom has made it clear that Daisy is the one he finds worth coming home to, "... I love Daisy too. Once in a while I go off on a spree and make a fool of myself, but I always come back, and in my heart I love her all the time." (138) Marital problems are blatant in this statement, but it is still a true profession of love, as twisted as it is. Myrtle's husband has a more traditional love for his wife, but some may claim that
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Approximate Word count = 927
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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