Why does Myrtle behave with such hauteur, both toward her husband and in the city apartment?F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby

In his portrayal of the search for the American Dream in
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays a vital Myrtle
Wilson seeking a way to improve her situation.  Her husband, an anaemic, spiritless man,
lives in the Valley of Ashes, a desolate place; he does not satisfy any of the desires
of Myrtle, who aspires to live on a higher social level, a level which she perceives as
superior.

So, when she enters into an affair with the
wealthy Tom Buchanan, Myrtle feels that she has elevated herself socially.  With Tom in
the New York apartment, she feels alive, important, and elevated socially.  But, just as
Gatsby's dream is illusionary, so, too, is Myrtle's.  The magazines that rest on the
coffee table are not socialite magazines, but gossip sheets, copies of the "Town
Tattle."  The dress that she wears is one purchased by Tom in which she pretends that
she has many others. When Mrs. McKee remarks that the dress is pretty, Mrs. Wison
rejects the compliment "by raising her eyebrow in
disdain":

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"It's just a crazy old thing," she said. "I just
slip it on sometimes when I don't care what I look
like."

By putting on these
airs, by acting superior to the hotel help, Myrtle Wilson feels that she has elevated
herself socially, that she somehow is entitled to be superior and have a part of the
life of those who can afford anything that they want.  Acting in this manner is an
escape for Myrtle from the dismal life that she leads in the land of gray ashes. For a
brief time, she can pretend; however, sometimes she starts to believe in her American
Daydream and misunderstands her importance as, for instance, when she disparages Daisy
only to have her nose broken.

With his juxtaposition of
characters from different areas, Fitzgerald makes observations about the people who
inhabit West Egg and East Eggand the surrounding areas as well.  The East Egg and the
Valley of Ashes are moral wastelands, and the people who enter this area become
submerged in the moral wasteland themselves. This is true of Mrytle Wilson; rather than
elevating herself, she becomes entrenched in the wasteland of
amorality.