From Gatsby’s changed name to …show more content…
Myrtle is awestruck with the possessions that Tom can buy for her, and it reflects in her flimsy personality. Tom buys her a dog, and Myrtle stupidly asks whether it is a boy or a girl, which clearly displays her lack of simple knowledge (Fitzgerald 28). As a character, Myrtle has no substance and deceives people she meets by pretending she is part of the upper class with Tom. Myrtle does not have a solid excuse to not want to be with her husband, she just wants an escape to her rich life. The deception does not end with Myrtle, as Tom tells her that he would divorce Daisy if she were not Catholic (Fitzgerald 33). Tom lies to smoothly cover up his wrongdoings in order to make himself look like a better man. More problems arise in the plot when Tom decides to bring his mistress, Myrtle, to their 5th Avenue apartment. In a heated argument about Daisy, Myrtle repeats Daisy’s name over and over to Tom, who slaps her, simultaneously breaking her nose while shutting her up (Fitzgerald 37). Tom had hit her hard enough to help her grasp the fact that she will never be part of the same social standing as him, even though he occasionally lets her live in the fantasy of someone she is …show more content…
Daisy takes a liking to both Gatsby and Tom, and leads both of them on in the book. This leads to an intense argument between Gatsby and Tom over her love for each of them. Being the shallow person she is, Daisy agrees with Gatsby that she “never loved [Tom]” but goes back on her word, and hides behind Tom’s wealthy figure (Fitzgerald 132). Daisy has already tricked Gatsby into believing that she loved him like she once did, and her petty need for luxurious belongings leads her to deceive him. The fact that he cannot see past her exterior proves that he is lost in an unrealistic fantasy. Though Gatsby never fully realizes how Daisy betrays him, it is apparent by her interactions with other characters that she acts differently than she appears. When Daisy allows Gatsby to take the blame for Myrtle’s death, she was acting in vain to keep up her ideal image. Daisy dishonestly acts to love Gatsby and this fact is evident when she does not attend Gatsby’s