Mrs. McKee

Mrs. McKee is the wife of Chester McKee, a photographer who lives in the apartment below the one Tom Buchanan keeps for his mistress, Myrtle Wilson. She is described as shrill, languid, handsome, and horrible, a combination that marks her as a creature of the same striving, hollow social world that Myrtle herself inhabits. Her brief appearance at the apartment party in Chapter 2 provides a sharp, satirical glimpse into the aspirations and petty vanities of the people who cluster around Tom's illicit affair.

Identity and Appearance

Mrs. McKee is introduced as part of a quartet of guests who arrive at Myrtle's apartment: her sister Catherine, the McKees, and the narrator Nick Carraway. She is a woman of strong opinions and a grating, self-important manner. Her most notable boast is that her husband has photographed her a hundred and twenty-seven times since they were married, a statistic that reveals both her vanity and her sense of her own importance as a subject. She is eager to assert her taste and social standing, immediately complimenting Myrtle's dress as "adorable" and later declaring that she almost made a mistake by marrying a man she considered beneath her. This confession, delivered with vigorous self-regard, exposes her snobbery and her belief that she has married upward by landing Chester McKee.

Role in the Apartment Party

Mrs. McKee is an active participant in the drunken, chaotic gathering. She attempts to direct her husband's artistic attention, pointing at Catherine and exclaiming, "Chester, I think you could do something with HER." This moment reveals her as a self-appointed arbiter of taste and a promoter of her husband's career. She also engages in the general gossip, including the discussion of Myrtle's unhappy marriage. When Myrtle, after drinking, begins to list the things she intends to buy, Mrs. McKee is part of the audience for her artificial laughter and boasts. Her presence contributes to the overall atmosphere of strained gaiety and moral squalor that defines the party.

Relationship with Her Husband

Mrs. McKee's relationship with Chester is one of domineering management. She speaks for him, directs him, and takes credit for his work. When Chester suggests changing the light for a photograph of Myrtle, she immediately contradicts him, saying, "I wouldn't think of changing the light." Her husband, a pale, feminine man, responds by shushing her, but the dynamic is clear: she is the more forceful personality, and he is the passive, professional instrument of her social ambitions. Their marriage, like the others glimpsed in the novel, is a transactional arrangement built on pretense and mutual exploitation rather than genuine affection.

Thematic Significance

Mrs. McKee, though a minor figure, serves as a concentrated emblem of the novel's critique of social climbing and the emptiness of the American Dream's lower rungs. Her pride in being photographed 127 times, her snobbery about her own marriage, and her shrill, commanding presence all point to a life lived entirely for appearances. She is a person who has no substance beyond the image she projects, and her desperate need to assert her status—through her husband's art, her own opinions, and her social connections—mirrors the larger, more tragic delusions of characters like Myrtle Wilson and Jay Gatsby. She is one of the "careless people" who populate the novel's world, but her carelessness is petty and small-scale, a reflection of the limited stage on which she performs her drama of self-importance.