Around Tom, Myrtle pretends to be just as rich, constantly talking about buying things and wearing fancy clothes. She passes off compliments as if she is used to hearing them, for example when remarked on her lovely dress, she replied:.
"It's just a crazy old thing. I slip it on sometimes when I don't care what I look like." (Pg 33). .
Despite her efforts she is still only a mistress, and at the end of the day she must go home to a small apartment above her husband's garage, which she describes as being "unprosperous and bare". (Pg. 25) She dreams of a better life, of rising up the class scale. However, this will never happen. Her husband's hard work and her own affair with Tom can never result in the realization of Myrtle's dream. Her dream of riches and of belonging to a social elite blinded her from the chance that perhaps she could have tried to make her marriage with George work and hence achieve happiness and was, in fact, this very dream that resulted in her downfall. .
George Wilson, Myrtle's husband, also wishes to come into some money, namely through Tom's car, which he hopes to buy and then sell again and make some money out of it. However, unlike Myrtle, George does not wish to join Tom's social class. Instead, his main dream is to for his wife and him to move to the West, as he suspects his wife having an affair and wants to take her away from it all: .
"I've been here too long, I want to get away I just got wised up to something funny the last two days I"m going to get her away" (Pg. 118).
While everyone else is moving in, George is the only character in the whole book who dreams about moving out, which makes him a contrast between lifestyle and morality. Ironically, George is depending on Tom to save his marriage with Myrtle by selling him the car, but it is Tom who is sleeping with his wife and who ultimately destroys it.
In contrast to these two characters are Tom and Daisy Buchanan.
