"His voice faded off and Tom glanced impatiently around the garage. Then I heard footsteps on a stairs, and in a moment the thickish figure of a woman blocked out the light from the office door. She was in the middle thirties, and faintly stout, but she carried her surplus flesh sensuously as some women can. Her face, above a spotted dress of dark blue crepe-de-chine, contained no facet or gleam of beauty, but there was an immediately perceptible vitality about her as if the nerves of her body were continually smouldering. She smiled slowly and, walking through her husband as if he were a ghost, shook hands with Tom, looking him flush in the eye. Then she wet her lips, and without turning around spoke to her husband in a soft, coarse voice.."
In this passage, we are first introduced to Myrtle, Wilson's wife. Through Nick's interpretation of Myrtle, we can visualize what she looks like, and even make inferences about her personality from what the narrator has observed about her. Nick describe Myrtle as faintly stout and having a thickish figure; giving us a visual image of her figure. He also says that she carries her stout figure sensuously. From this we can infer that Myrtle is confident about how she looks and carries herself well. Another example of this is when Nick says that her faced contained no gleam of beauty, but there was a vitality about her. This explains how Myrtle has a lively personality, and she has an immediate effect on those around her. Through Nick's use of imagery, we can almost perfectly visualize Myrtle's experience. Through Myrtle's initial interaction with Tom in the passage, we can see how comfortable she is with him and how little she cares for her husband. This is proved when the narrator states that Myrtle walked through her husband as if he was a ghost, shook hands with Tom. This also shows that she prefers Tom over Wilson and this could foreshadow problems between the two men.
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