Why Does Tom Like Myrtle

In well-nigh books and movies, the "other woman"—the woman having an thing with a married human—is oft painted as a villain. But what near in The Corking Gatsby, a novel in which both married women (Myrtle Wilson and Daisy Buchanan) are having affairs? Peculiarly given that ane (Daisy) ends upwards killing the other (Myrtle), is Myrtle just a 1-notation "other woman," or is in that location more to her?

Myrtle's function in the story isn't as large as Daisy'southward, Gatsby's, or Tom'southward. However, she is crucial to the plot of the story, and especially to its tragic conclusion. Find out more about Myrtle'due south part in Gatsby in this guide!

Article Roadmap

Myrtle as a character
- Concrete description
- Myrtle'southward history earlier the novel begins
- Actions in the novel
Grapheme Analysis
- Myrtle quotes
- Common discussion topics and essay ideas

Quick Note on Our Citations

Our citation format in this guide is (chapter.paragraph). We're using this system since there are many editions of Gatsby, so using page numbers would only work for students with our re-create of the volume. To observe a quotation we cite via affiliate and paragraph in your book, you can either eyeball it (Paragraph 1-l: beginning of chapter; 50-100: centre of chapter; 100-on: finish of affiliate), or apply the search function if you're using an online or eReader version of the text.

Myrtle Wilson's Physical Description

Then I heard footsteps on the stairs and in a moment the thickish figure of a adult female blocked out the light from the office door. She was in the heart thirties, and faintly stout, but she carried her surplus mankind sensuously as some women tin. Her face, in a higher place a spotted clothes of dark blueish crepe-de-chine, contained no facet or gleam of beauty but there was an immediately perceptible vitality about her equally if the fretfulness of her body were continually smouldering. She smiled slowly and walking through her husband as if he were a ghost shook easily with Tom, looking him affluent in the eye. (two.15)

Unlike Nick's description of Daisy, which focuses on her voice, mannerisms, and charm, and unlike his description of Hashemite kingdom of jordan, which focuses on her posture and athleticism, Nick's description of Myrtle focuses well-nigh entirely on her body itself. Perhaps this fits with her role as Tom'southward mistress, but information technology besides indicates Nick sees little in Myrtle in terms of intellect or personality.

This description besides speaks to the strong physical allure between Tom and Myrtle that undergirds their affair. This attraction serves as a foil to the more deep-seated emotional attraction between Gatsby and Daisy, the novel'due south primal thing.

Myrtle Earlier the Novel Begins

We don't know a ton nearly Myrtle Wilson'southward background except what we can gather from the passing comments from other characters. For example, we get the sense Myrtle loved her husband when they got married, simply has since been disappointed by his lack of cash and social status, and at present feels stifled by her twelve-yr marriage:

"I married him because I thought he was a admirer," she said finally. "I idea he knew something almost breeding, but he wasn't fit to lick my shoe."

"Yous were crazy nigh him for a while," said Catherine.

"Crazy near him!" cried Myrtle incredulously. "Who said I was crazy about him? I never was any more crazy about him than I was about that man there."

She pointed suddenly at me, and every one looked at me accusingly. I tried to show by my expression that I had played no part in her past.

"The just crazy I was was when I married him. I knew right away I fabricated a error. He borrowed somebody'southward best suit to go married in and never even told me about it, and the man came after it one day when he was out. She looked effectually to see who was listening: " 'Oh, is that your suit?' I said. 'This is the first I ever heard about it.' Only I gave information technology to him and then I lay downward and cried to beat the band all afternoon."

"She actually ought to become away from him," resumed Catherine to me. "They've been living over that garage for xi years. And Tom's the first sweetie she e'er had." (2.112-vii)

She begins her affair with Tom Buchanan after he sees her on the railroad train and later presses against her in the station:

I was going up to New York to see my sister and spend the night. He had on a dress arrange and patent leather shoes and I couldn't go on my eyes off him simply every time he looked at me I had to pretend to be looking at the advertising over his caput. When we came into the station he was next to me and his white shirt-front pressed confronting my arm--and then I told him I'd accept to call a policeman, but he knew I lied. I was and so excited that when I got into a taxi with him I didn't inappreciably know I wasn't getting into a subway train" (2.120).

Myrtle desperately wants to come up off as sophisticated and wealthy despite her humble roots. Nick finds her efforts tacky and vulgar, and he spends a lot of time commenting on her wearing apparel, mannerisms, and conversational style.

She is oblivious nigh upper-class life: she tells her sister at i point Tom doesn't divorce Daisy because Daisy is Cosmic. This is a minor within joke on Fitzgerald's part—since Tom and Daisy are role of the community of uber-WASPy residents of E Egg, there's most no chance that Daisy could be Cosmic. That Myrtle thinks accepts Tom's lie shows that she is not a well-schooled as she thinks she is about the life and community of the elite class she wants to exist a part of.

Still, before the novel begins, Tom has gotten comfortable showing Myrtle around in popular restaurants and doesn't hibernate the affair. Perhaps this causes Myrtle to misunderstand what she means to Tom: she doesn't seem to realize she'due south merely 1 in a string of mistresses.

To see Myrtle's life events aslope those of the other characters, check out our timeline of The Great Gatsby.

Summary of Myrtle's Activeness in the Novel

The idea of Myrtle Wilson is introduced in Chapter 1, when she calls the Buchanans' house to speak to Tom.

We go our get-go look at Myrtle in Affiliate two, when Nick goes with Tom to George Wilson's garage to meet her, and then to Myrtle's apartment in Manhattan for a party. On that day, she buys a dog, has sex with Tom (with Nick in the adjacent room), throws a party, and is fawned on past her friends, and then ends upwards with a broken nose when Tom punches her after she brings up Daisy. This doesn't prevent her from continuing the affair.

Later on, in Chapter 7, George starts to suspect she's having an matter when he finds her dog'southward leash in a drawer at the house. He locks her upstairs in their house, determined to move out west one time he gets the money from the car sale he's waiting on from Tom. Myrtle glimpses Tom, along with Nick and Jordan, equally they drive up to Manhattan in Gatsby'due south yellow car.

Myrtle and George fight later on that evening, and Myrtle manages to run out of the firm after yelling at George to beat her and calling him a coward. But then, she spots the yellow car heading back for Long Island. Thinking it's Tom, she runs toward so out in front of the auto, waving her artillery. Only Daisy is driving the car, and she decides to run over Myrtle rather than get into a head-on collision with an oncoming car. She hits Myrtle, who dies instantly.

Myrtle'southward death emotionally and mentally devastates George, which prompts him to murder Gatsby (who he mistakes for both his wife's killer and lover), then kill himself.

The death car.

Key Myrtle Wilson Quotes

Mrs. Wilson had inverse her costume some time before and was now attired in an elaborate afternoon dress of foam colored chiffon, which gave out a continual rustle as she swept about the room. With the influence of the dress her personality had also undergone a change. The intense vitality that had been so remarkable in the garage was converted into impressive hauteur. Her laughter, her gestures, her assertions became more violently affected moment by moment and as she expanded the room grew smaller effectually her until she seemed to be revolving on a noisy, creaking pin through the smoky air. (ii.56)

Here, we see Myrtle transformed from her more sensuous, physical persona into that of someone desperate to come off as richer than she actually is. Wielding power over her group of friends, she seems to revel in her ain epitome.

Dissimilar Gatsby, who projects an elaborately rich and worldly character, Myrtle's persona is much more simplistic and transparent. (Notably Tom, who immediately sees Gatsby every bit a fake, doesn't seem to mind Myrtle's pretensions—mayhap because they are of no consequence to him, or any kind of a threat to his lifestyle.)

"Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!" shouted Mrs. Wilson. "I'll say it whenever I want to! Daisy! Dai----"

Making a curt deft movement Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open paw. (2.125-126)

Here we see Myrtle pushing her limits with Tom—and realizing that he is both violent and completely unwilling to be honest nigh his marriage.

While both characters are willful, impulsive, and driven past their desires, Tom is violently asserting here that his needs are more important than Myrtle's. Later all, to Tom, Myrtle is just some other mistress, and merely every bit disposable every bit all the residual.

Too, this injury foreshadows Myrtle'due south expiry at the easily of Daisy, herself. While invoking Daisy's name here causes Tom to injure Myrtle, Myrtle's actual run across with Daisy later on in the novel turns out to exist deadly.

"Beat me!" he heard her weep. "Throw me down and crush me, you dirty little coward!" (vii.314)

When George confronts his wife nearly her thing, Myrtle is furious and needles at her husband—already insecure since he'due south been cheated on—by insinuating he'south weak and less of a homo than Tom. Also, their fight centers around her body and its treatment, while Tom and Daisy fought earlier in the same chapter nigh their feelings.

In this moment, we run into that despite how unsafe and damaging Myrtle'due south relationship with Tom is, she seems to be asking George to treat her in the same fashion that Tom has been doing. Myrtle's disturbing acceptance of her function as a just a body—a slice of meat, basically—foreshadows the gruesome physicality of her death.

Michaelis and this man reached her first but when they had torn open her shirtwaist notwithstanding damp with perspiration, they saw that her left breast was swinging loose like a flap and there was no need to listen for the heart below. The rima oris was wide open and ripped at the corners every bit though she had choked a piddling in giving up the tremendous vitality she had stored and then long. (7.317)

Even in death, Myrtle'south physicality and vitality are emphasized. In fact, the epitome is pretty overtly sexual—find how information technology'southward Myrtle'southward breast that'south torn open up and swinging loose, and her mouth ripped open at the corners. This echoes Nick's view of Myrtle as a woman and mistress, zippo more—even in death she'southward objectified.

This moment is also much more violent than her earlier broken nose. While that moment cemented Tom as abusive in the eyes of the reader, this ane truly shows the damage that Tom and Daisy exit in their wake, and shapes the tragic tone of the residual of the novel.

The graphic and bloody nature of Myrtle'due south decease really sticks with y'all.

Mutual Essay Topics/ Areas of Give-and-take

You will most likely be asked to write near Myrtle in relation to other characters (peculiarly Daisy), or in prompts that ask you to compare the "strivers" in the book (including also Gatsby, George Wilson) with the former coin set (Tom, Daisy, Hashemite kingdom of jordan). To larn how all-time to approach this kind of compare and contrast essay, read our commodity on mutual character pairings and how to clarify them.

Information technology'south less likely, only not impossible, that you will be assigned a Myrtle-specific essay.

In either instance, Myrtle'south almost important chapters are 2 and 7, so close read those carefully. When writing about her, pay close attention to Myrtle's interactions with other characters. And if you're writing an essay that discusses Myrtle every bit someone trying to alive out the American Dream, make sure to address her larger influences and motivations. We'll take a await at some of these strategies in action below.

Why Do Tom and Myrtle Gather? What Do They See in Each Other?

For readers new to Gatsby, Tom and Myrtle's relationship can seem a bit odd. At that place is obvious physical chemical science, but information technology can be hard to see why the classist, misogynist Tom puts up with Myrtle—or why Myrtle accepts Tom's mistreatment.

For Tom, the affair—just one in a string he's had since his honeymoon—is most taking and beingness able to get whatever he wants. Having an affair is a prove of ability. Especially since he's been taking her effectually popular restaurants in Manhattan (2.four), it'due south clear he's non exactly hiding the relationship—instead, he's flaunting it. He's so assured of his place in society as a wealthy homo, that he's free to engage in some risky and socially inappropriate beliefs—because he knows no one tin can actually bear on his wealth or social position.

For Myrtle, the thing (her first) is nigh escape from her life with George, and a taste of a world—Manhattan, money, nice things—she wouldn't otherwise accept access to. It'south clear from how Myrtle moves and speaks that she'south confident and self-assured, and assumes that her relationship with Tom is a permanent ticket into the earth of the wealthy—non just a fleeting glimpse.

The fact that Tom sees Myrtle every bit dispensable but Myrtle hopes for more in their relationship is painfully apparent at the end of Affiliate two, when she insists on bringing up Daisy, and Tom responds by breaking Myrtle's olfactory organ. Only despite this nasty encounter, the two go on their human relationship, suggesting that this kind of corruption is the norm for Tom'southward diplomacy, and Myrtle is too eager to stay in the new world she'southward plant—or even believes that Tom volition notwithstanding leave Daisy for her—that she stays also.

Past the end of the novel, Myrtle doesn't seem to have been completely mistaken nearly Tom's affection for her. After all, Tom says he that he "cried similar a baby" (9.145) when he found dog food for the dog he's bought her in Myrtle'south apartment. Of form, since it's Tom, his grief is probably self-pitying than selfless. Either way, their relationship is indicative of both their values: Myrtle'south ambition and Tom's callousness.

What Does Myrtle's Life (and Tragic Ending) Say About the American Dream?

Myrtle, like George and Gatsby, was obviously not born into money, and instead is relying on her own wits to brand it in 1920s America. In a manner quite like to Gatsby'south, she consciously adopts a different persona to try and get access to a richer circle (while George seems to be the only one relying on honest work—his shop—and honest relationships, through his loyalty to Myrtle, to improve his lot in life).

But Myrtle aims too high, and ends upward killed when she mistakes Gatsby's yellow motorcar for Tom's, and runs out in the route assuming the car will stop for her.

In the same style that Gatsby overestimates his value to Daisy, Myrtle overestimates her value to Tom. Fifty-fifty if Tom had been driving the car, and even if he had stopped for her, he would never take whisked her away from George, divorced Daisy, and married her. Furthermore, the fact she causeless the garish yellow machine was Tom's shows how little she understands the strong, old money world Tom comes from.

Myrtle'south complete misunderstanding of Tom, as well equally her violent decease, fit the overall cynical message in the book that the American Dream is a false promise to those born outside of the wealthy class in America. As hard as anyone tries, they don't stand a chance of competing with those in America built-in into the quondam coin grade. They will never understand the foreign internal rules that govern the old money set, and volition never stand a chance of being their equal.

How Does Myrtle's Dwelling Reflect Her Character, Attitudes, Beliefs, and Values?

This is a prompt that you can obviously use for any of the characters, but it'southward specially interesting in Myrtle's case, since she has two residences: the house above the auto shop that George owns, and the flat that Tom Buchanan rents for her in the city.

Myrtle's home with George is a dark, hopeless image of working class life in America: it's an flat above a bare garage, nestled in the dreadful Valley of Ashes. George is utterly mired in this home, fifty-fifty coated with a thin layer of ash from the factories outside. In dissimilarity, Myrtle is vivacious and free of the ash, which gives her a layer of separation from her actual home.

Myrtle's apartment with Tom is overstuffed and gaudy, and she seems much happier and more at habitation at that place. The mix of high-brow pretension in the decor with her low-forehead entertainment speaks to how Myrtle values the appearance of wealth and composure, but doesn't actually understand what upper-grade gustation looks similar the style Tom and Daisy Buchanan do.

And so while the Wilson's garage is a attestation to the struggle of the working class in American in the 1920s, Myrtle and Tom'southward apartment is a physical representation of the airs Myrtle puts on and the appearances of wealth she values.

Myrtle's taste in decor overlaps quite a bit with Rex Louis XIV'south.

Why Exactly Does Myrtle Run Into the Road?

One of the novel'southward most important events is also one that can be confusing for students: namely, Myrtle'south expiry at the stop of Chapter seven. How exactly does she end up in the road? What does it have to do with her strange encounter with Tom, Nick, and Jordan in the garage earlier in the 24-hour interval?

The incident is confusing because we come at it from many narrative angles:

Setup from Nick'due south point of view
Michaelis'southward inquest testimony almost the accident
Nick'southward description of the accident scene right later on Myrtle'southward death
Gatsby's explanation of the accident to Nick afterwards the fact
Boosted information from Michaelis in Affiliate viii about George's actions both before and after Myrtle'due south death
A final revelatory confession from Tom about his office in George'southward violence in Chapter 9

Piecing together these three takes on the incident, this is what happens, in order:

Earlier the blow, George has begun to suspect Myrtle's affair.
George locks Myrtle upwards above the garage, maxim "She'due south going to stay there till the twenty-four hour period afterwards to-morrow, and and then we're going to move abroad" (seven.311).
Michaelis, uncomfortable, finds an alibi to leave.
Tom, Jordan, and Nick drive up to the gas station in the yellow car. Tom brags that the car is his. Myrtle looks downstairs and concludes two things: start, that Hashemite kingdom of jordan is Tom's married woman, and second, that Tom owns the yellow car.
Later that evening, Myrtle fights with George almost being locked up. Nosotros don't run into much of this fight. All we know is that she cries "throw me downwards and crush me!" (7.314) to George.
Meanwhile, Gatsby and Daisy are driving back from Manhattan to East Egg after the Plaza Hotel showdown.
Myrtle runs outside.
Exterior, Myrtle sees the yellow motorcar and assumes information technology'southward Tom on his way back to Long Island.
Myrtle runs out to the car, waving her arms, likely because she thinks Tom will stop for her and rescue her from George.
At the same time, another automobile is driving in the opposite management towards Manhattan.
When Daisy sees Myrtle in the road, she has to make a quick decision: either run over Myrtle, or swerve into the oncoming automobile to avoid Myrtle.
Daisy first drives toward the oncoming automobile, simply at the last 2nd, turns back into her own lane and hits and kills Myrtle instead.

What's Next?

Nevertheless a bit confused nearly the climax of the novel? Get a detailed recap of Chapters seven, viii and 9 to sympathise exactly how the 3 deaths play out.

Larn more about Myrtle's matrimony and her relationship with Tom over at our post nearly love and relationships.

Still a chip confused about the old money/new money/working class themes? Read about social class in the novel in our postal service on the role of social classes in this novel.

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About the Writer

Anna scored in the 99th percentile on her SATs in high school, and went on to major in English at Princeton and to become her doctorate in English Literature at Columbia. She is passionate about improving student access to college educational activity.