The House of Mirth: Rhetoric Stage Reading

Do you sympathize with the characters? Which ones and why?

My sympathy goes to Lily. She is the innocent victim of the society determination which dictates how women should live, and beyond that, they would be crushed. Lily becomes what she is now, because she was born in that society, and was brought up by her mother with one determination: not to be poor, because poorness is disgusted; to love luxury; and to achieve it she must attract a rich man to marry her. Lily Bart’s small world contains of politics and business, money and power. You have it, you win; you lack of it, you lost. How can an orphan, inexperienced girl like Lily could have survived in the world like that?

Does the writer technique give you a clue as to her “argument”—her take on the human condition?

If using nature objects can be called ‘technique’, I think Wharton, as a Naturalist, argues that human is shaped by how he is brought up: environment, education, society, culture. It would be difficult to adapt with another different ‘habitat’; just as animals could not survive, and might even extinct, when they are plugged onto different habitat. There might be few who can survive, but cubs would need their mother to guide and protect them. In this story, sadly, Lily does not have anyone to guide her.

What exactly is the writer telling you?

Wharton wants to criticize the injustice practiced by the society upon women; they restricted women’s movement by prejudices. She also pointed out their hypocrisy. Married women (and men) could do anything immoral as long as they were protected by money and marriage institution; whereas single women would be banished forever if they ever had scandal, no matter whether they were really guilty or not. They were guided by the power of money and fame, but ignored morality.

In what sense is the book true?

Some of the problems in this book exist today in our modern world; the hypocrisy, the power of money and fame which become magnet for many people; that true friendship begins to be mere concept. However, nowadays women have more influence than before, and their place is almost equal—almost!—with men’s.

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The House of Mirth: Logic Stage Reading

What does the central character want? What is standing in her way? And what strategy does she pursue in order to overcome this block?

Lily Bart wants a happy, independent, and luxurious life. Unfortunately she is orphan and poor, and the society she lives in does not provide any means of independent income for women. On the contrary, it crushes poor women to make way for the rich ones. Her only option is to marry a rich husband, no matter she loves him or not. (who said women didn’t do business and politics at that era? It’s just more delicate than what men did!).

Who is telling you this story?

Wharton told it from third-person objective. I don’t know why, but she sometimes called the heroine as Lily, but at other times, Miss Bart. Was it just for variation, or did she mean something with it?

Images and metaphors

I found many imagery of water in this novel; the words like: wave, flood, sink, drowned, ocean, floating, etc. They usually represent Lily Bart’s unfortunate events, as if to highlight her helplessness against the powerful society movements, just like a tiny object in the ocean—it is swayed and crushed without the power to fight back. This object could not survive because the ocean is not its habitat. The same applied to Lily Bart; she does not belong to the society she was brought up for. One of the water metaphors:

“Over and over her the sea of humiliation broke – wave crashing on wave so close that the moral shame was one with the physical dread. […] His touch was a shock to her drowning consciousness.”

Beginnings and endings

This book is opened with passivity and stagnation. Lily talks with Selden about how a girl with her ambition must force herself into the society, and marriage with a rich husband is a must. There is also a sense of imprisonment; I can feel from the opening that Lily is a free character; she knows what she must do (marrying a rich husband), but she is reluctant to make the commitment.

The ending is a resolution. Whether Lily has intentionally ended her life or not, even Selden knows that she won’t be happy if she had lived. Her dream is not correspond with the law of society at that time. Selden and Lily distinguish from the others because they have uncorrupted moral; but Selden survives because he is financially independent, whereas a girl does not provided with that privilege.

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The House of Mirth: Grammar Stage Reading

[source]

Lily Barts’ Battle to Freedom: How a poor but sophisticated girl struggles to make money without submitting herself to men’s dominion, keeps suffering under social determination, does not fit in working class, excluded from any social place, and finally gives up in solitary tragic death.

Book 1

Lily Bart is trying to catch a husband at her 29 years of age; the richer the better. Lawrence Selden proposed to her, but she rejects him for not being rich. Her pick is Percy Gryce—very rich but boring—but instead of sealing the case immediately, she let herself wavering from him. Gryce married another girl after Bertha Dorset spreads bad things about Lily. Then Gus Trenor introduced the innocent Lily to the stock market; invested money in the girl; insisting to get sex for exchange, which she disgustingly rejects. Her conservative aunt hears about her bad conduct, and she only left her small money, only enough to pay her debt to Trenor.

Book 2

Simon Rosdale and George Dorset also want to marry Lily and promise financial safety, but she rejects them all. Instead, she departs to Mediterranean with the Dorsets, only to be humiliated by Bertha Dorset, and banished from her social circle and most her former friends. She tries to climb the social ladder by attaching herself to new riches, only to be associated by another scandal. Finally Lily enters the worker life, but fails too. Selden tries to help her in marriage proposal, but she relinquishes her past, and ‘accidentally’ takes overdose sleeping pills.

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