Hollywood Characters

I have looked at some different Hollywood characters that relate to Myrtle's character. In order to help me do the research, I have worked on a list of traits that Myrtle has and then considered people who relate to the same things.

Traits:

- Desperately looking for love

- Unappreciative of the things she has

- Lower class seeking for Upper class life style

- Not beautiful, but still seen as attractive (easy)

- Bad fashion sense

- Desperate to know the life of the rich (gossip magazines)

- Lives in the poor valley between the rich area

- Difference in class

- Affair with a rich man

The Ugly Step Sisters - Cinderella:

I have suggested these characters because there are some interesting resembalances between them and Myrtle. For example, the sisters are not beautiful, dress badly, want what they cant have and are desperate to better themselves. However, the role reversal of class between Cinderella and the sisters doesnt represent this character. The fact of their apperance, attitude and that they are desperate to be like someone else does.

However, you could almost say that Myrtle is like Cinderella. She isnt beautiful or kind hearted like Cinderella, but she is from the lower class and she is loved by someone who is above her. The resembelance to the step sisters is much more likely though!

The Way We Were (1973):

There story of the film 'The Way We Were' is based upon a couple who are in love but their political views drive them apart. I think this could represent the whole story of The Great Gatsby, with the themes of love, seperation, social disagreements and heirarchys. Myrtle and Tom are not madly in love, in Toms eyes anyway, but they are together behind closed doors. The fact that they are of a different class (and that they are both married) is whats tearing them apart. A bit like this films story line of political views tearing them apart.

Gone With the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell (1939):

Scarlett O’Hara, a young woman living in the south during the civil war. Always the daddy’s girl she soon realizes that in this hard time she can no longer be served and has to struggle to survive. She has to deal with confederate soldiers using her house as a headquarters, and life without service from a group of maids. Deals with her love of a man engaged to another woman, and the lust of rhett butler after her.
Similar themes to The Great Gatsby such as love, social status, dreams and era.

Film Trailer (1954):