For the women in The Great Gatsby, love can be very complicated. Both Daisy Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson are women in love: Daisy with the impetuous Jay Gatsby, and Myrtle with Daisy’s brutish husband, Tom. Both women’s lovers seek to control aspects of their lives, and both Daisy and Myrtle willingly submit, often to their own detriment. However, Daisy is privileged and cool, where Myrtle is passionate and foolish. While both Myrtle and Daisy are kept women and victims of ill-fated love affairs, Daisy survives the novel and continues in relative happiness. Myrtle, on the other hand, is killed by Daisy’s negligence. That Myrtle, impoverished and desperate, literally gets run-down by the woman who has everything she wants demonstrates that the American Dream often leaves out those who need it most.
Both Myrtle and Daisy use their extramarital affairs to satisfy needs their husbands cannot. Myrtle, the wife of mechanic George Wilson, detests her blue-collar lifestyle and aspires to claw her way out via an affair with wealthy Tom Buchanan. Myrtle is so blinded by her pursuit of Tom that she fails to notice her own devoted husband; instead, she can only think of the material things that Tom can provide. She resents her husband because “be borrowed somebody’s best suit to get married in,” a move she feels demonstrates his lack of class and breeding (Fitzgerald 35). This gesture demonstrates that George understands Myrtle’s obsession with the finer things, so much so that he went out of his way to impress her and make her happy by trying to look handsome and refined on their wedding day. Instead of appreciating George’s consideration, Myrtle can only deride that he did not own a suit to begin with, like Tom would have. Even though Tom will never marry Myrtle, she is willing to throw away her own life for his. Daisy Buchanan, Myrtle’s romantic rival, is caught in a similar situation with her lover, Jay Gatsby. Daisy does not seek affection from Gatsby in order to fulfill material needs, like Myrtle, but is still looking for something that is not part of her marriage: love.When Daisy and Gatsby are together, she is “possessed of intense life,” something that she can never be in her cool and well-bred life with Tom (96). Intensity is not something that Daisy can find in old-moneyed East Egg. Instead, Daisy is usually possessed of only the material comforts that Myrtle so badly craves. Gatsby provides an alternative to that superficial monotony. Daisy’s quest for intensity and a passionate romance momentarily cause her to risk the stability of her life with Tom. The romantic pursuits of both women demonstrate a shared goal, much like the American Dream: to transcend one’s current circumstances in order to achieve happiness. However, only one of them will emerge successful.