Gatsby : Minor Characters Flashcards
George Wilson
“Unprosperous and bare”
- direct juxtaposition with him at the end of the novel
“Damp gleam of hope”
- desperate to leave working class
- dependant on higher class
“Spiritless man”
Myrtle Wilson
“Thickish figure of a woman blocked out the light”
- not a flattering description
- she takes up space (compared to Daisy who is small and fragile)
- she blocks out the LIGHT —> Daisy
- she blocks out Daisy from Tom’s life
“Get some chairs”
- demanding, cruel tone (direct comparison with Daisy)
- controlling
Catherine, Lucille McKee, Chester McKee
All used to make Tom look good in comparison and present how people chase the American Dream
Lucille
“Shrill, languid, handsome and horrible”
- masculine, negative + unattractive (by social standards) and direct comparison with husband
“Most of these fellas will cheat you every time”
- powerful + opinionated
Chester
“Pale, feminine man”
- feminine + unattractive (by social standards) and direct comparison with wife
“He was in the ‘artistic game’”
- negative + pretentious
- weak + passive
Catherine
“Slender, worldly”
- attractiveish + feminine + bit of a slut
“Propriety haste”
- negative
“Laughed immoderately”
- powerful + egotistical
George Wilson (Anais)
• George is described as weighed-down, damp and “spiritless” → he is tied to the valley of ashes → “desolate”, “bleak”, “crumbling”, → it is very interesting how the least memorable character is the novel is the one who ends it all. He is the one who kills Gatsby. Fitzgerald could be trying to show how the poor were underrepresented in 1920s America and so George symbolises how they needed to be represented more.
• George is the tragic villain who ends it all with murder. It’s almost Shakespearian.
• “anaemic” and “spiritless” and “quaintly” – suggest that he’s something of a zombie. He seems to have bee drained of vitality and hope. This is FG showing how the American Dream was not always achievable for the poorer people. FG is criticizing the society of the 1920s and how the old money people were in charge and new money would never be equal to old money.
Myrtle Wilson
“[Myrtle] was in the middle thirties, and faintly stout, but she carried her surplus flesh sensuously as some women can. Her face, above a spotted dress of dark blue crêpe-de-chine, contained no facet or gleam of beauty, but there was an immediately perceptible vitality about her as if the nerves of her body were continually smouldering.”
• Nick’s first impression of Myrtle Wilson, recounted in Chapter 2, emphasizes a sense of “vitality” emanating from her physical presence. Despite not being a particularly beautiful woman, Myrtle possesses a liveliness and energy that proves captivating.
• In contrast with Daisy, who describes herself as “paralyzed,” the first time she sees Nick, and Jordan, who has a “hard” body, Myrtle is irrepressibly alive. Yet Nick’s description of her is hardly flattering, suggesting he finds something vulgar in her inability to disguise her “vitality.”
• In this sense, Nick’s first impression of Myrtle highlights the significant class difference between her and Tom.
• They juxtapose Tom and Daisy and represent the contrast between the working class and the upper, old money classes
Myrtle Wilson
“I want to see you,” said Tom intently. “Get on the next train.” // “All right.”
• Myrtle is dominant when it comes to George, but is submissive to Tom
• Desperate for Tom and his money
• This is her chance to a better life → when he hits her, she does nothing because she doesn’t want to lose the extravagant life she has with Tom
Myrtle Wilson
“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.”
• Although Nick describes Myrtle in terms that mark her as part of the working-class, she clearly possesses some items of expensive clothing (likely purchased by Tom) that indicate her upward mobility.
• In Chapter 2, Nick recounts how by changing her dress Myrtle transforms from a poor garage owner’s wife to a wealthy man’s mistress.
• A significant change in behaviour accompanies the change in her appearance. What he had previously perceived as a working-class “vitality” Nick now sees as an upper-class “hauteur”—that is, a form of disdainful pride.
Myrtle Wilson
“I married [George] because I thought he was a gentleman,” she said finally. “I thought he knew something about breeding, but he wasn’t fit to lick my shoe.”
• Once Myrtle, Tom, and Nick are away in the city in Chapter 2, Myrtle feels able to speak freely about her disastrous marriage to George Wilson.
• Here she insists she married the man based on a misunderstanding. Myrtle imagined that George shared her obsession with upward mobility and that he possessed the necessary refinement to improve their lives.
• Evidently, however, George did not live up to Myrtle’s expectations, and she, imagining herself far superior, claims that “he wasn’t fit to lick [her] shoe.”
Meyer Wolfshiem
• based on Arnold Rothstein → infamous Jewish-American mobster of NY
• after earning renown as a loan shark + gambler, he moved into liquor + narcotics and became a Kingpin for organised crime
• he was never convicted but was credited in helping to rig the 1919 World Series → Wolfshiem “fixed the world series”
• he was gunned down during a poker game in Nov 1928
