False Facades In The Great Gatsby

Facades and false fronts drives the plot of The Great Gatsby. False Fronts is a way for the characters to do whatever they want without anyone knowing their true intentions. The characters use false fronts for many reasons, like in the case of Gatsby who is hiding the fact that he’s from a poor background, Myrtle who marries a person who she thought had lots of money but turns out he does not and then cheats on him, and Daisy who love one man but marries another who has lots of money and power. What is the same for all these characters is that they use false facades and masks to get the most out of their desires.

Many of the characters in The Great Gatsby use false fronts. There is one character though who outdoes everyone else; Gatsby
She met Gatsby just before he had to go to war and fell in love with him. She told him that she was going to wait for him until he came back. When Jordan is telling Nick about when she met Gatsby and Daisy and she said “Wild rumors were circulating about her-how her mother found her packing her bag one night to go to New York and say good-bye to a soldier who was going over seas. She was effectually prevented, but wasn’t on speaking terms with family for several weeks.” (Fitzgerald 75), Displays how much she was in love with her family. She was willing to go to New York at night, by herself,and in the middle of winter just so that she could send of Gatsby. When she was prevented her sadness was so great that she wasn’t on speaking terms with her family. She must have really loved Gatsby. While she was waiting for Gatsby to return she met a wealthy man named Tom who she got married to. On the wedding night Jordan saw Daisy crying and holding a letter. Daisy said to Jordan “‘here, deares.’ She groped around in a waste-basket she had with her on the bed and pulled out the strings of pearls. ‘Take’em all Daisy's changed her mine. Say: Daisy’s change her mind!’” (Fitzgerald 76). Daisy loved Gatsby very much, but when she met Tom, she put Gatsby at the back of her mind and got close to Tom. The day before her wedding day she got a letter from Gatsby, and she could not ignore what she was about to do. She must have realized that by
Myrtle is the wife of George Wilson, and the mistress to Tom. When she married George she thought he was a gentleman with money, but soon found him to be the opposite. When Myrtle is talking to Catherine and she said “The only crazy I was when I married him. I knew right away I made a mistake. He borrowed somebody’s best suit to get married in, and never even told me about it....’Oh is that your suit ?’ I said ‘ this is the first I have heard about it. But I gave it to him and then lay down crying” (Fitzgerald 35) shows how when she married to George she thought he had money. When she found out she did not express her discontent but instead put up a false front and used that hide her feelings. One of the reasons that Myrtle cheats on George is that he can’t buy her all that she wants, but Tom who is rich can. When Myrtle tells Tom to buy her a dog, he said to the dog seller “Heres your money. Go buy ten more with it” this shows how willing he is to spend money on his mistress. Myrtle is very object oriented so she cheats on Tom to get more possessions. Myrtle not only uses false facade to hide her discontent in her marriage but uses false front as an outlet, where she can get all the things she wants like gifts from Tom. False front seems to be the source of her problems by letting her continue this facade of her acting content, but at the same time the solution where she can be the mistress of Tom