The House of Mirth

1302 Words3 Pages

Lily Bart lived in the upper part of New York society. She loves nice things and extravagance. However, throughout the House of Mirth Lily plays a game. She wants to be virtuous, stay in the social circle, and have the money to keep up with the demands of her so called friends. She involves herself so much into the social life she loses all chance of gaining her riches virtuously or through true love. She misses her chances inevitably: from Percy to her dear aunt to her indecisiveness of men and marriage. In the end she cannot get what she believes is satisfactory to her so she drags herself into infinite slumber.
Edith Wharton wrote the House of Mirth during the Realist Movement. Realism in Wharton's writing is influenced by Darwinism. When rumors spread of Lily and George’s conquests, Lily’s reputation is smashed. Even though she survived through being broke, gossip stops her existence. The past will always haunt her. When Lily decides to keep her morals intact and not smash George’s wife Bertha back by exposing Bertha’s escapades with the man Lily fancies, the readers know she is doomed to unhappiness.
More than Darwinism, Wharton’s writing correlates with Lamarkism, which is quite interesting in itself. Wharton justifies Lily’s death, because in her final moments of life Lily recognizes that she has never had "any real relation to life" (248). In Lily's epiphany, Wharton exposes Lily's separation from the superior life of the city that she once desired and the hand she is dealt. Through Lily, Wharton criticizes the traditional paths of this society and the disillusion of happiness and the inevitable fall and destruction of Lily’s society.
Wharton blames New York society for Lily's fate. Lily is not destroyed by the culture s...

... middle of paper ...

...hat is not about wealth and class. He is the only one that knew all sides of her. Selden is the last view the reader witnesses in this novel. His viewpoint helps the reader conclude that her death is the right thing to happen contextually. No matter what, nothing could happen the way Lily wanted. Nothing could happen the way Selden wanted. “[T]he conditions of life had conspired to keep them apart” (267). Her death is the end of Lily and Selden’s disjointed love. The ending of the novel does what the end is supposed to do. It ties up loose ends. Everything is “made all clear” (268).

Works Cited

Wharton, Edith. The House of Mirth. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1905. Kindle.
Kim, Sharon. "Lamarckism And The Construction Of Transcendence In “The House Of Mirth”." Studies In The Novel 38.2 (2006): 187. Biography Reference Bank (H.W. Wilson). Web. 18 Mar. 2014.

Show More
Related

  • Forgiveness in Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, and The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

    1085 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...heir parents resulted in damaged relationships and escapes into the unknown. Chris was intelligent and well rounded, but he had several flaws, specifically his inability to make peace with his parents. He could not dismiss the mistakes his parents had made and hurt not only himself but also his entire family in the process. Lily was young, but mature beyond her age. She made impulsive decisions, such as running away with her nanny, but it did not ruin the flawed relationship with her father. Instead, it led to the truth she so desperately needed and a better relationship with her father. Lily’s leaving was the best thing she could have done for herself. Both Chris and Lily left with similar intentions but saw different results. Chris reached the realization that isolationism is not the best policy, and Lily was brought into a world filled with love and truth.

    Read More

  • Allusions In The House Of Mirth

    780 Words  | 2 Pages

    Edith Wharton’s novel, The House of Mirth, is the story of a girl named Lily Bart trying to find a place for herself in society. Wharton used allusion throughout the book to aid the reader in understanding the events of the narrative. The following essay will highlight three allusions Wharton used, and explain how they helped the reader to understand the corresponding events from the book.

    Read More

  • Quotes From The Secret Life Of Bees

    312 Words  | 1 Pages

    I really was impacted by T. Ray’s quote during the height of the tension about Lily’s past mistakes, “ ‘It was you who did it, Lily. You didn’t mean it, but it was you’ ” (Kidd 299). This moment was one of my favorites because it showed the growth the lead character had made toward not only forgiving her mother, but forgiving herself. When Lily chases after her father to finally get the raw truth about the fateful day her mom died, it reveals that she is finally ready to come to terms with her past, no matter what really happened. At the beginning of the book, she can’t accept her mother’s death, her disappearance, and her lack of love from her parents. Coincidentally, she grasps at any excuse to punish herself because she is unsure of who she is.

    Read More

  • Ethan Frome

    612 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout “Ethan Frome,” Edith Wharton renders the idea that freedom is just out of reach from the protagonist, Ethan Frome. The presence of a doomed love affair and an unforgiving love triangle forces Ethan to choose between his duty and his personal desire. Wharton’s use of archetypes in the novella emphasizes how Ethan will make choices that will ultimately lead to his downfall. In Edith Wharton’s, “Ethan Frome.” Ethan is wedged between his duty as a husband and his desire for happiness; however, rather than choosing one or the other, Ethan’s indecisiveness makes not only himself, but Mattie and Zeena miserable.

    Read More

  • The Witch Wins in Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

    1087 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ammons, Elizabeth. “Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome and the Question of Meaning.” Studies in American Fiction, Vol. 7, No. 2,

    Read More

  • Fantasy is an Escape from Fear in Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome

    978 Words  | 2 Pages

    Perhaps Edith Wharton's reason for writing Ethan Frome, was that it so vividly reflected her own dreary life. Abandoned of any love as a child from her mother and trapped in a marriage similar to that of Zeena and Ethan, Wharton found herself relying on illicit love. This illicit love was also her favorite topic of writing, which helped her to escape her own tragedies. She spent many nights in the arms of other men searching desperately for the love she believed existed, but had never felt, which is evident in all of her writings.

    Read More

  • Irony in Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

    1031 Words  | 3 Pages

    Edith Wharton’s brief, yet tragic novella, Ethan Frome, presents a crippled and lonely man – Ethan Frome – who is trapped in a loveless marriage with a hypochondriacal wife, Zenobia “Zeena” Frome. Set during a harsh, “sluggish” winter in Starkfield, Massachusetts, Ethan and his sickly wife live in a dilapidated and “unusually forlorn and stunted” New-England farmhouse (Wharton 18). Due to Zeena’s numerous complications, they employ her cousin to help around the house, a vivacious young girl – Mattie Silver. With Mattie’s presence, Starkfield seems to emerge from its desolateness, and Ethan’s vacant world seems to be awoken from his discontented life and empty marriage. And so begins Ethan’s love adventure – a desperate desire to have Mattie as his own; however, his morals along with his duty to Zeena and his natural streak of honesty hinder him in his ability to realize his own dreams. Throughout this suspenseful and disastrous novella, Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton effectively employs situational irony enabling readers to experience a sudden shock and an unexpected twist of events that ultimately lead to a final tragedy in a living nightmare.

    Read More

  • Ethan Frome And The House Of Mirth, By Edith Wharton

    920 Words  | 2 Pages

    Wharton’s parents raised her in aristocratic society. Her father, George supported the family working in real estate, while her mother Lucerita was a stay at home mom. Her mother was devoted to high society, and was unsupportive of her interests in writing. (Todd and Wetzel) Unlike her mother, Morton Fullerton supported Wharton. While in England, Wharton met Fullerton. As their relationship progressed, she became close friends with Katharine Fullerton. Katharine was Morton’s orphaned sister, that his family took in. (Witkosky) While Wharton was in England her husband was seeking “cures” for his depression. As portrayed in the novel, Ethan Frome’s wife Zeena was constantly seeking cures for her illness. Like Teddy, Zeena was isolated from society and kept to herself. Ethan’s wife was devoted to high society because she came from an aristocratic home. Therefore, Zeena never supported Ethan’s interest in becoming an engineer. Wharton’s mother was alike to Zeena when it came to how her life was lived. Ethan’s lover, Mattie Silver, was taken in by the Frome’s in the novel. She had no family who wanted her just like Katharine Fullerton. Mattie was raised by the Frome’s in a society she did not know how to adapt to because she was never taught how. “Mattie is attempting unsuccessfully to fit in a society she does not understand.”

    Read More

  • The Reading Experience In Ethan Frome, By Edith Wharton

    844 Words  | 2 Pages

    The creative writing techniques that Wharton uses within her writing enhance the story and make it worth reading. Wharton is very descriptive in almost every aspect of her story. This gives the reader another element to the story rather than just reading dialogue or general descriptions. A point where Wharton gets descriptive, is when she starts to explain Frome’s house and how “ the image (of itself) presents of a life linked with the soil, and enclosing in itself the chief sources of warmth and nourishment, or whether merely because of the consolatory thought that it enables the dwellers in that harsh climate to get to their mornings’ work without facing the weather, it is certain that the ‘L’ rather the house itself seems to be the center, the actual hearth-stone of the New England farm” (Wharton 11). This shows how detailed Wharton can get. It not only gives the reader a g...

    Read More

  • The Age Of Innocence, By Edith Wharton

    1120 Words  | 3 Pages

    In The Age of Innocence, women are viewed in a white light of innocence. Promiscuity was excusable, even expected of men, but for women sexuality was a part of the criteria to be accepted into society or find a husband. Women were expected to be loyal to their husbands, accept restrictions, and never divorce. Archer sees May exactly as he is expected to, as a pure young woman in need of guidance. However, May had powers of her own that weren’t taken into account by Newland. May had her loyalty, duty, and most importantly, her pregnancy. May had been aware of Newland’s desire to be with Ellen for some time. New York society never would have approved of his choice to do what would make him happy, but May takes matters into her own hands in her final fight for Newland. May reveals that she is pregnant, and this piece of news immediately eliminates Archer’s choice to leave May. Finally, Newland cannot gather up the courage to go against the morals of New York society. He has no choice but to put the interests of his family above his own desires once again. The idea of a female character revealing her intuition and shred of social power ultimately forces Newland, and the reader, to question who is really in

    Read More

  • The Legacy Of Edith Wharton: The Legacy Of Edith Wharton

    1320 Words  | 3 Pages

    Edith Wharton, originally named “Edith Newbold Jones”(Cliff Notes), was born on “January 24, 1862 in New York City to George Frederic Jones and Lucretia Stevens Rhinelander Jones and died on August 11, 1937”(Cliff Notes). She was born into a wealthy family and was a “designer, short story writer and American novelist”(Cliff Notes). Wharton descended from the English and Dutch cultures. She had two siblings, one known as “Frederic Rhinelander Jones” (Cliff Notes) who was sixteen years older than her, and “Henry Edward Jones eleven years older”(Cliff Notes). While her brothers attended boarding school, Wharton became “raised as an only child in a brownstone mansion on West Twenty-third Street in New York City”(Cliff

    Read More

  • Forgiveness In The Secret Life Of Bees

    1757 Words  | 4 Pages

    Over the course of several months, August guides, teaches, and helps Lily to accept and forgive herself. August once knew Deborah, and she knows that Lily is her daughter, but she does not confront Lily about the issue. Instead, she waits until Lily puts the puzzle pieces together and discovers for herself the relationship between her mother and August. August knows she is not ready to learn the truth about her mother when she and Lily first meet, so she waits for Lily to come to her. When Lily finally realizes the truth, she comes to August and they have a long discussion about Deborah. During this discussion, Lily learns the truth about her mother; that her mother only married T. Ray because she was pregnant with Lily, then after several years she had enough of living and dealing with T. Ray, so she left. Lily is disgusted by the fact that her mother would've done something like this, she did not want to let go of the romantic image of her mother she had painted in her mind (“‘The Secret Life of Bees’ Themes and Symbols of The Secret Life of Bees). Lily struggles to stomach the fact the her mother truly did leave her and she spends some time feeling hurt and angry, but one day, August shows her a picture of Lily and her mother. As Lily looks at the picture she is comforted and thinks, “May must’ve made it to heaven and explained to my mother about the sign I wanted. The one that would let me know I was loved” (Kidd 276). Seeing

    Read More

  • Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

    1390 Words  | 3 Pages

    Edith Wharton, a famous author of many outstanding books, wrote a chaotic love story entitled Ethan Frome. The story took place in the wintery town of Starkfield, Massachusetts. Wharton was a sophisticated young woman who found love in sitting down and holding people’s attention by way of a pen. Wharton wrote yet another thriller that told the tale of two love stricken people that barely found it possible to be together; which later forced them to fall into the temptation of love that cannot be controlled. Wharton had many different writing styles but for different books meant different needs. In Edith Wharton’s novel, Ethan Frome, frustration and loneliness play roles in disappointment while imagery, symbolism, and individual responsibility provide the novel with a tortuous plot.

    Read More

  • How Does Death Influence Lily's Life

    439 Words  | 1 Pages

    My favorite thing about this passage is that even then there was still some type of woman empowerment, even if it was rare. That she didn’t encourage her or tell her to just stay in the house. Lily’s teacher says this to her when Lily hints that she wants to be a hairdresser. This is significant because it shows that Lily’s self-esteem is low from living with T. Ray (her father). After Mrs. Henry says this to Lily, Lily

    Read More

  • An Analysis Of To The Lighthouse

    1839 Words  | 4 Pages

    Lily definitely undergoes a transformation, from being unable to make sense of her painting to an artist who completes her painting, through which she finally establishes her homosexual identity aesthetically through art. From “the Lighthouse had become almost invisible, had melted away into a blue haze, and the effort of looking at it and the effort of thinking him landing there, which both seemed to be one and the same effort, had stretched her body and mind to the utmost. Ah, but she was relieved” (169), Woolf highlights Lily’s enthusiasm when she was able to eliminate Mr Ramsay from her physical, emotional and psychological realm. By mentioning that the Lighthouse has melted away, Woolf metaphorically emphasizes the deconstruction of the patriarchal conditions through which Lily has come to terms with her homosexual identity. Lily clearly feels liberated and independent, although after undergoing great amount of emotional and psychological torment where she suppressed her homosexual desires in the face of patriarchy. By expressing and figuring out her emotional and psychological turmoil through art and her painting, Lily is able to visualise her immense independence autonomous of the patriarchal conditions. Hence, Lily finally asserts a masculine ambiance similar to the men in patriarchal order, where she can eventually be who she wants to be without any external pressure, particularly from male hegemony, that tells her how she is expected to act like a woman. Thus, Lily does not simply advocate gender equality, but radically promote acceptance of homosexuality as the truer reality of woman empowerment and

    Read More

More about The House of Mirth

Open Document