Myrtle Wilson sees Tom Buchanan as her ticket to the upper class. She lives in the Valley of Ashes with her meek husband, George. When she sneaks off with Tom to an apartment he keeps for them, she acts superior, believing that she is already of a higher class because she is with Tom, and that eventually she will be his wife.
In Chapter II, Nick reluctantly goes along with Tom and Myrtle to a gathering in the apartment in New York. Small details reveal her attitude: she lets four taxis go by before she picks the newest one. She stops and buys perfume and cold cream at a drugstore, items Tom undoubtedly paid for and which her husband would not be able to afford. She buys a dog with the same impulsivity.
In the apartment, Nick watches her supercilious actions:
“Mrs. Wilson had changed her costume some time before and was now attired in an elaborate afternoon dress of cream colored chiffon…with the influence of the dress her personality had also undergone a change. The intense vitality that h been so remarkable in the garage was converted into an impressive hauteur. Her laughter, her gestures, her assertions became more violently affected moment by moment.”
Later, she talks about the bellhop as if he is of a lower class than she is; then she ‘swept into the kitchen, implying a hundred chefs awaited her orders there.’
Myrtle believes herself to be upper class because she is with Tom, yet her words and actions reveal her ignorance. She mispronounces ‘appendix’ as ‘appendictus’ and believes the latest celebrity gossip magazines are high-class reading. When Myrtle explains how she feels about her husband, her description is ‘violent and obscene.’
The apartment, which she thinks is so expensive and exclusive, is small and furnished with overly large furniture, making it cramped and awkward to navigate. However, Myrtle does not realize this.
Myrtle is trying to act how she believes an upper class woman would act, but she fails miserably. She merely comes off as cheap and tawdry.
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