Mrs. Wilson

“‘I married him because I thought he was a gentleman,’ she said finally” (Fitzgerald, 34)

One of Fitzgerald’s most dynamic characters in the The Great Gatsby is Myrtle Wilson.  She must have boarded the crazy train at some point in her life.  Nothing she does or says makes sense.  She says she married her husband because she thought he was a gentlemen, and this turned out to be untrue.  Why, then, does she begin a relationship with a coward?  Honestly, this man Tom, if I can even call him a man, took very little shame in punching her in the face in front of a group of friends.  Fitzgerald gives Myrtle an air of carelessness and not just simply about her marriage.  She, along with Tom, seem to have no regard for the feelings of others.  However, I do not believe things were always like this; I think Fitzgerald indicates they lost sight of the point of caring before the novel opened.  I believe this careless way of dealing with life foreshadows trouble to come for their relationship.