The Great Gatsby

Daisy Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson are sharply different in their social class, their desires, and the way they try to navigate a world shaped by money.

The most obvious difference is class. Daisy belongs to the “old money” world of inherited wealth, living in East Egg with status, security, and refinement. Myrtle, by contrast, comes from the “no money” class, stuck in the bleak Valley of Ashes with her husband George, who struggles to make a living. This gap shapes everything about them. Daisy can take wealth for granted, whereas Myrtle is desperate to escape her lack of it.

Because of this, the women’s respective relationships with Tom reveal different motivations. Daisy stays with Tom not out of pure love but because she values the comfort and stability his wealth provides. She even admits she once loved both Tom and Gatsby, suggesting that her emotions are tangled up with security rather than loyalty. Myrtle, on the other hand, pursues Tom as a way to climb socially. She “desperately wants to improve her lot in life” and sees Tom as the means to do it, even though he treats her as an object. Where Daisy retreats into privilege, Myrtle reaches upward toward it.

Their personalities also contrast. Daisy is polished and indirect, often masking dissatisfaction with charm and a kind of dreamy detachment. She calls herself “sophisticated” and suggests that being a “beautiful little fool” is the safest way for a woman to live, hinting at her passive acceptance of her role. Myrtle is louder and more forceful. At Tom’s New York apartment, for instance, she drinks heavily, mocks Daisy openly, and tries to act like she belongs in a higher social circle. Her boldness, though, only exposes her vulnerability and the fact that she and Tom are not equals. This is especially obvious when Tom breaks Myrtle’s nose in response to her mockery of Daisy.

In the end, Daisy’s wealth protects her, while Myrtle’s lack of it destroys her. Daisy can retreat “back into [her] money” after she kills Myrtle in a hit-and-run car accident, leaving others to deal with the consequences. But Myrtle can’t escape in this way, and she is killed in a reckless moment tied to the same world of wealth she longed to join. The women’s differences reveal the gap between those who are born into privilege and those who risk everything trying to reach it.