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Marcy Roberts

Professor Pettay

ENG 112

9 May 2022

Wealth Determines All

New York City during the Jazz Age was a center of manufacturing, commerce, and

culture. In this story revolving around New York City, the exhilarating post prohibition party

scene is emphasized and largely run by the largely mysterious Jay Gatsby. This novel illustrates

the scandal and infidelity that were and still are commonplace. The division between old money

and new money is as strong as ever in this book, and those stuck in the middle always reap the

consequences. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald reveals that wealth and status determine

who a person can love through multiple characters' desires and actions.

Tom Buchanan and Daisy Buchanan's relationship displays the misfortunes that result

from a marriage born from the idea that wealth and status determine who a person will love. In

the book, it is established that when they were younger, Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby were in

a relationship and loved one another, they were ultimately separated and Daisy moved on to Tom

Buchanan. The night before her wedding, Gatsby sent Daisy a letter declaring his undying love

for her, promptly causing Daisy to break down, wishing to call the wedding off. However, the

morning of the wedding “she married Tom without so much as a shiver” (76), displaying that

even though she was clearly in love with Gatsby, she knew that he could not provide her with the

material comforts she required, so she decided to choose money and status over love. At the

beginning of the novel, Nick Carroway discovers that Tom Buchanan is unfaithful to his wife

Daisy. Daisy is aware of his indiscretion, and in chapter one, while speaking to Nick Carroway
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and her friend Jordan Baker, she states “the best thing a girl can be in this world is a beautiful

little fool,” (17) while talking about her infant daughter. This comment displays Daisys

dissatisfaction in her own life, wishing her daughter to be a fool so that she does not go through

the same difficulties in marriage. Daisy and Tom are undoubtedly bored and unhappy with each

other, which causes Tom to cheat on Daisy with Myrtle Wilson. The idea that boredom in a

relationship results in infidelity is evident in the book and in today's world. According to Joseph

Ducanto in the American Journal of Family Law,”one may seek solace in the other man/woman

relationship with the prime purpose of re-injecting life or purpose in an existence that may seem

to have become barren”. In today’s society, a majority of marriages dissipate because of

boredom in the relationship itself. This idea affects those like Daisy and Tom, who married each

other for socioeconomic reasons instead of love, and helps to explain why they went through the

misfortunes that occurred. Tom’s mistress Myrtle represents another example of the negative

side-effects of wealth interfering with love.

Throughout The Great Gatsby, the character of Myrtle Wilson demonstrates the tragedy

of being “the other woman”, stuck in a lower class and restricted to who she can love. Myrtle

Wilson is an ambitious social climber and wife to a man named George. She married George

because she “thought he was a gentleman… but he wasn’t fit to lick my shoe” (34). Myrtle did

love George when she married him, but her ambition for money and status ruined her then happy

relationship. She wishes to get out of the Valley of Ashes and away from her low-class husband.

To do this, she participates in an affair with Tom Buchanan. Both Tom Buchanan and George

Wilson are shown as abusive in their relationship with Myrtle, yet she still wishes to be with

them. This reaction to abuse is found in many lower-class women in reality as well. According to

L. Kumar in the Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care, “when women don’t get any
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kind of help or support, they may reach the mindset of learned helplessness”. This is what

affected Myrtle, she felt helpless against the abuse, believing the only attainable way to escape it

is to become a high-standing woman with money. In her relationship with Tom, she believes him

to be in love with her in the way she is in love with him. He only saw Myrtle as an object of his

desires, an escape from the boredom he was enduring with Daisy in their home. This is evident at

the end of the novel, when Tom’s immediate reaction to her death was to clear his name, stating

that “that yellow car that I was driving wasn’t mine” (140). His quick recovery and intentional

efforts to distance himself from the yellow Rolls Royce demonstrate that he cares much more

about himself than he ever did about Myrtle. Myrtle was in love with Tom because of his money,

and Tom saw Myrtle as expendable because of her lack of it, displaying the curse that both

fictional and real women in the lower class have on them. If a woman is born to a lower-class

family she is limited in nearly every aspect of her life, including education, love, and respect.

The ending of The Great Gatsby provides a conclusion to the story of Nick Carroway and his

peers, leaving every character lost and unsatisfied.

The hopeless ending of The Great Gatsby provides the final way that Fitzgerald

communicates that wealth and status determine who a person loves. The ending of the book deals

with the aftermath of Myrtle's death, and answers the question of Daisy and Gatsby’s

relationship. In a conversation between Nick Carrroway and Jay Gatsby discussing Daisy, they

state that “she's got an indiscreet voice," I (Nick) remarked. "It's full of——""Her voice is full of

money," he (Gatsby) said suddenly``. This quote proves that Gatsby is not truly in love with

Daisy, he is in love with her wealth and status. Gatsby’s never ending quest for wealth would

have been acquired by a marriage with Daisy, and this alone caused his love for her. At the end

of the novel, it is revealed that Tom Buchanan and Daisy will remain together, despite the
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infidelity, according to Nick Carroway, “they weren't happy, and neither of them had touched the

chicken or the ale—and yet they weren't unhappy either” (145). Daisy and Tom will never be

truly unhappy with each other because they are aware that because they come from similar

upper-class backgrounds, they will never have to face the same fate as Myrtle Wilson as long as

they are together. However, they are not in love with each other, causing social pressure to

prevent him from ever leaving Daisy. Tom and Daisy’s upper class status grants them safety as

they participate in affairs, while Gatsby and Myrtles lower class grants them nothing but pain

and death.

In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Ftizgerald uses multiple characters actions and inner

thoughts to reveal that wealth and status limit and define who and how a person can love another.

Infidelity is the main consequence of this idea, and it continues to be an issue in today’s society,

with the lower-class continuing to be more negatively affected than the upper class. During the

Jazz Age in New York City, manufacturing commerce and culture controlled the city and its

suburbs. A large part of the infamous culture of the 1920s is partying and infidelity, which runs

rampant in this novel.

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Works Cited

Ducanto, Joseph N. “Why Do Marriages Fail?” American Journal of Family Law, vol.

26, no. 4, Winter 2013, pp. 237–39. EBSCOhost, https://search-ebscohost-

com.eztcc.vccs.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=82541728&site=ehost-live.

Accessed 29 April 2022

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Scribner, 1925.

Kumar, L., et al. “He Hit Me; but It’s Okay! Female Submissiveness in Marital Abuse: A

Review in Indian Context.” Journal of Family Medicine & Primary Care, vol. 11, no. 2,

Feb. 2022, pp. 447–52. EBSCOhost,

https://doi-org.eztcc.vccs.edu/10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_1870_21. Accessed 29 April 2022