Colours Of The Great Gatsby Essay Research

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The vibrance and distinction of colours can be often used to represent certain aspects about people. In the novel The Great Gatsby they are used to describe the personalities of Myrtle and Daisy as well as Gatsby’s. With certain colours they wear they are able to express their identity, and it can also have an affect on their behaviour. Jay Gatsby exploits colours to show of his wealth. Through colours people are also distinguished to which social class they belong to. F. Scott. Fitzgerald uses colour to identify Myrtle’s, Gatsby’s, and Daisy’s personality and persona as well as the social status to which they belong.

Myrtle is the wife of Gorge Wilson who is an auto mechanic. She represents the lower class in society and more than anything she wants to become part of the upper class. Myrtle is very unsatisfied with her husband everything in her life is dull and gray. Even her husband is always covered in dull brown colour of dirt and he does not wear the kind of vibrant clothes that Tom Buchanan wears, the person with whom she is having an affair with. The apartment she shares with Tom in New York, is the complete opposite of the house she lives in. The Wilson’s home is in “a valley of ashes… where

ashes take to form of houses and chimneys… a line of gray cars crawls along… the ash-gray men…” (Fitzgerald, 23) The author describes the part of the region in which Myrtle lives, as well as the other people of the lower class as this very hideous place full of pollution. Her life with Wilson is very colourless, she does not attended any parties with him like the rich people do. Myrtle wants colour and joy in her life and that is why she has a romance with Tom who is part of the upper class. Once she is with Tom she begins to

act and dress differently. The clothes she wears are glamorous. The first time Nick meets Myrtle in the garage he describes her wearing “dress of dark blue… containing no facet or gleam of beauty…” (Fitzgerald, 25) When she is with her husband she wears dark colours unlike the rich people who where white or lavender. The dark shades of colours that she wears is perhaps to represent her unhappiness with her marriage and he social status in life. However when she is with Tom she dresses in light colours and her attitude is different as well. Nick has observed the change in her behaviour, “Mrs. Wilson had changed her costume to an elaborate afternoon dress of cream-coloured chiffon. With the influence of the dress her personality had also undergone change. The intents vitality that had been remarkable in the garage was converted into impressive hauteur.” (Fitzgerald, 31) When she is with Tom she is more happy and that is why she has chosen to wear light colours, her life is also not as dull when she is with with, she throws parties and she goes to restaurants with him. When she is with Tom it makes her think she is part of the upper class, she desperately desires to be part of them. Also when she is wearing the light coloured dress she has a different

personality as well, she becomes arrogant and snobbish just like some of the rich people are. The type of colours she is exposed to have an affect on her personality. When she is at home and everything is dark and gray she becomes very unhappy and dissatisfied but when she is around the rich people where she is surrounded with light and colorful things she becomes more joyous and outgoing. She thinks she is part of the higher class in society and she try’s her hardest to fit in. Jay Gatsby was in a situation like Myrtle being in the lower class and he has now become part of the upper class, which she has so long strived to achieve herself. Daisy uses the the colour white to express her personality and character. Whenever she appears she is always dressed in white. Nick describes what Daisy is wearing the first time he comes over for a visit. “They were both in white, and their dresses were rippling and fluttering.” (Fitzgerald, 8) A reason for why Daisy would and enjoys to wear and surround her self with that colour, is because she likes the image which is associated with it. White represents purity and innocence, that is how she likes to be perceived by others. All her life she has been surrounded by whiteness. Even when she was younger as Jordan describes her “she dressed in white and had a little white roadster.” (Fitzgerald, 75) The fact that she would own a white car would also indicate that she belonged to the upper class and was very wealthy. Daisy still wants to preserve her image of being very innocent. She wants her daughter to be just like she is. Daisy describes her growing up days as “white girlhood” (Fitzgerald, 20), she choses to define her life with the colour white, which is very simple. Her life was very simple and pure it was also very exclusive she would only associate with her type of people mainly the wealthy people and she could only marry someone of the upper class. White is a very simple colour and that is how Daisy would like things to be, very simple with out many complex problems and worries. In The Great Gatsby the author used colours to elaborate the personalities as well as the persona mainly of the characters Myrtle, Daisy and Gatsby. The colours which they were surround with had many different affects on their behaviour. Colours can influence a ersons mind and how they view of other people. Sometimes they can reveal the truth about some aspects of people while other times in can just give a false image or impression.