The Great Gatsby
Prompt #15 · The Great Gatsby
Prompt Type: Character Arc
Myrtle Wilson's aspirations and ultimate fate reveal the dangers of social climbing. Analyze how Fitzgerald uses Myrtle's character arc to illustrate the destructive nature of class boundaries and false promises. Explain how it contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.
Quote 1
"When we came into the station he was next to me, and his white shirtfront pressed against my arm, and so I told him I'd have to call a policeman, but he knew I lied. I was so excited that when I got into a taxi with him I didn't hardly know I wasn't getting into a subway train. All I kept thinking about, over and over, was 'You can't live forever; you can't live forever.' "
Chapter 2
Argument
Early in Myrtle's arc, this quote establishes her baseline aspiration through the anaphoric repetition of 'You can't live forever,' revealing her desperate urgency to escape her class position and seize the promise Tom represents, even as the phrase ironically foreshadows her literal inability to live forever.
Quote 2
“Mrs. Wilson had changed her costume some time before, and was now attired in an elaborate afternoon dress of cream-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.”
Chapter 2
Argument
At a turning point in Myrtle's development, this quote demonstrates how she performs upper-class identity through costume and manner, her 'impressive hauteur' revealing both her social ambitions and the artificiality of her transformation—a false promise that she can transcend class boundaries through mere appearance.
Quote 3
“Michaelis and this man reached her first, but when they had torn open her shirtwaist, still 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 beneath. The mouth was wide open and ripped a little at the corners, as though she had choked a little in giving up the tremendous vitality she had stored so long.”
Chapter 7
Argument
At the final stage of Myrtle's arc, this graphic imagery of her death—her body literally torn apart—represents the ultimate destruction wrought by her social climbing, as the 'tremendous vitality she had stored so long' is violently extinguished, fulfilling the novel's warning about the fatal consequences of crossing rigid class boundaries.