# Myrtle Wilson — The Great Gatsby character guide

> Myrtle Wilson in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Myrtle, Mrs. Wilson

**First appearance:** 0004-ii

## Snapshot

The wife of a garage owner in the valley of ashes, she is Tom Buchanan's mistress and believes his money will rescue her from her life.

## Who they are

Myrtle lives above her husband George's failing garage, surrounded by the grey ash of industrial Queens, and clings to Tom as her escape from that world. When she is with him, she buys magazines and dresses and speaks with a confidence that vanishes the moment she returns home. Her hunger for a life she can only glimpse through Tom makes her both sympathetic and reckless, and her presence in the novel exposes the human cost of the careless wealth that surrounds her.

## Relationships

### [Tom Buchanan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_great_gatsby/characters/tom_buchanan)

_romantic_

Myrtle is Tom's mistress, who he uses for gratification and dominates, while she sees the affair as an escape from her dreary life.

### [Daisy Buchanan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_great_gatsby/characters/daisy_buchanan)

_rivalry_

They are indirect rivals for Tom's attention, representing the vast class divide between the wealthy elite and the working class.

### [Jordan Baker](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_great_gatsby/characters/jordan_baker)

_social_

They have no meaningful direct interaction, existing in completely separate social strata.

### [Tom Buchanan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_great_gatsby/characters/tom_buchanan)

_romantic_

Myrtle is Tom's mistress, who he uses for gratification and dominates, while she sees the affair as an escape from her dreary life.

### [Tom Buchanan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_great_gatsby/characters/tom_buchanan)

_romantic_

Myrtle is Tom's mistress, who he uses for gratification and dominates, while she sees the affair as an escape from her dreary life.

## In the story

### [Chapter II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_great_gatsby/chapters/ii)

Transforms in the apartment, adopting an affected hauteur; expresses contempt for her husband and revels in her connection to Tom.

### [Chapter VII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_great_gatsby/chapters/vii)

Her death is the chapter's climactic event. Mistaking Jordan for Tom's wife, she runs into the road and is struck and killed by the car Daisy is driving.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_great_gatsby/characters/myrtle_wilson
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_great_gatsby
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_great_gatsby/characters