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Masks In The Great Gatsby

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We wear masks to hide who we personally are and to brighten our own public image of what we want others to think of us. We wear such masks to appeal to others (we want them to like us) because we like them; even though their allure may very well be the same mask we’re wearing. In The Great Gatsby, a novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Myrtle is always trying to run away from her real life and act like someone she isn’t. Myrtle Wilson hides behind a mask with her desire to be rich and to forget about the poor life she really has; consequently, her husband finding out about her affair leads to her death.
Because of the reality of her situation, Myrtle feels a certain envy to the rich life (desire); she takes that envy as motivation, and fakes her way …show more content…
For instance, when we see Myrtle first meeting up with Tom, “she had changed her dress [...] bought a copy of Town Tattle [...] [and] let four taxicabs drive away before she selected a new one” (Fitzgerald 27). Myrtle does so much more (and buys so much more) at the beginning of the meet-up than the end because she’s trying her hardest to severely change the atmosphere she was just previously in (a poor house with Wilson). By the time she’s in the apartment, she’s comfortable with her mask. The first few minutes was adjusting it to her face. She isn’t only adjusting her mindset, she literally changes her dress and looks out for a new cab. She is keen to look out for these things, for if she had worn any other dress she’d wear at home, or rode any normal old cab, it would have reminded her of what she’s been trying to avoid. For example, in Careless People, Churchwell writes, “Gatsby’s [and Myrtle’s] great error [are their] belief in the reality of the mirage” (Churchwell XI). What plays a key role here, is that Myrtle really believed that the mask she was wearing was her true self. She wants all there is to remember, to be that of wealth. It’s vital in what Myrtle is doing- she needs to fully embrace the mask so that anything else (her poor life) is pushed away, forgotten. Myrtle literally changes herself and tries to do everything she can to forget …show more content…
For example, “A moment later [Myrtle] rushed out into the dusk, [and was hit by Gatsby’s car” (Fitzgerald 137). Myrtle is reaching for the one last hope in escaping her own face. Her face is reality and the-person- who-she-think-is-Tom, is the mask. She’s addicted to the mask so much, and when it’s deprived from her, she tries anything to get it back. But that’s exactly what ends her. Myrtle tries to escape reality, trying to escape her face, her fate. For instance, “The deeper consequences of Gatsby's oedipal desire begin to unfold when Daisy kills Myrtle Wilson with Gatsby's car” (Adam Meehan). Myrtle is killed by everything she’s ever wanted. She runs to the car thinking it’s Tom. That’s what kills her. But the actual killer is Daisy. Daisy is literally everything Myrtle could ever dream of: wealthy, careless, and married to Tom. Myrtle is killed trying to chase after who she thinks is Tom because Myrtle want to go back to the life he had given her. But Myrtle is killed by someone she wasn’t familiar or spoiled with: Daisy. This is symbolic of how she could never come close to what she always tried recreating, but is directly and literally killed by it. Myrtle does not want to live with her face, for only the mask has given her any satisfaction; she is killed because of such a desperate clutch on something that wasn’t

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