Cultural Criticism: The House Of Mirth

Two main focuses that encompass life are love and money. Since the invention of money, it has been a competition to see who can become the wealthiest and therefore the most successful. But are people really successful if they are unhappy without a person to love in their lives? This essay will investigate the importance of love and money in the novels The Great Gatsby and Pride and Prejudice. Therefore, the essay will focus on the research question: “What effects do love and money have on the authors’ portrayal of the main female characters in the novels The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen?”

The narrator Nick goes into detail about the history and the relationship between Daisy and Gatsby. Gatsby and Daisy meet while Gatsby is in the army, Daisy growing up wealthy and Gatsby a poor young man has no right being with her, Gatsby gives Daisy a sense of security and they have a short relationship. One night when they are together they kiss and Fitzgerald writes, “She had caught a cold, and it made her voice huskier and more charming than ever, and Gatsby was overwhelmingly aware of the youth and mystery that wealth imprisons and preserves, of the freshness of many clothes, and of Daisy, gleaming like silver, safe and proud above the hot struggles of the poor” (Fitzgerald 150). While poor people are struggling in life, Fitzgerald refers Daisy to money. Throughout Daisy’s life she doesn't experience, struggles and instead lives a life with money that gives her anything she wants. Gatsby on the other hand is poor and sees what money gives you, Gatsby sees that money puts someone above people like him. In reality Daisy isn't living a life she appears to be, she is using men in the army to fill her void of loneliness, if she doesn't have money the men wouldn't all be in love with her. She puts herself as a prized possession for them to have because she has money. Daisy at a young age, and when she gets older uses her money to assert herself over others.

One of the major topics that can be explored in The Great Gatsby is the sociology of wealth. Fitzgerald uses physical location – setting- as a sort of short-hand for the various aspects of American society he wants us to care about. West Egg represents the newly wealthy, the gaudy and improper; East Egg represents the moral hollowness of old wealth, prim and proper but corrupt. New York stands for the pursuit of pleasure, while the Valley of Ashes represents the social and moral decay that has resulted from the unfettered greed and gluttony of society’s uber-rich. Gatsby was not ready and prepared for the corrupt world when he joined West Egg. He is constantly surrounded by evidence of the unhappiness that success can bring. Daisy and Tom’s marriage is an example for this symptom. It is full of deceit and lies and they are both looking for something different and greater. Gatsby is blinded by the fact that money cannot buy love. Therefore, there is a reason it is said that “money cannot buy happiness” - not that rich people aren’t still going to try in Fitzgerald’s novel. As a result, money is not everything, but for certain people it seems like materialism is. Daisy chose money over love when she chose to marry Tom over waiting for Gatsby. She ends up with a cheating husband and with all the money in the world, but no real happiness or sense of fulfillment. Her attempt to find happiness in her material possessions is typical for such

Lily has successfully evaded Trenor up until this point; however, Trenor has effectively tricked Lily into spending time alone with him in an empty house. Trenor corners her, saying “[you] thought you could turn me inside out, and chuck me in the gutter like an empty purse… that ain’t playing fair…Of course I know what you wanted…but I tell you Miss Lily, you’ve got to pay for making me think so—’” (118). Trenor believes that he has bought Lily with his loans; he believes that he has the right to her time, her social position, and her person. His monetary contributions far outweigh Lily’s social contributions to this society in which they trade stock; moreover, Trenor knows that he has the power to ruin Lily socially and financially. In this moment, Lily realizes that she has no intrinsic worth outside, and her dignity and self-respect

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby details the tribulations that come with being immensely rich or extremely poor. One such example is the original decision by Daisy to bypass Gatsby and instead get married to Tom. Later on in the book, it is revealed that Daisy was in love with Gatsby and he was in love with her, but they couldn’t get married, primarily because they occupy different social strata (Fitzgerald 151). She instead marries Tom and immediately regrets it. Fitzgerald crafted this situation to make commentary on how money and the need to be around it, can cause people to cut

She is expressed as dealing with “teenage problems” if I do say so myself a lot of issues that most teenagers have: identity, popularity, self-consciousness, and parental issues. The 14-year-old throughout her story feels a deep sense of longing for her mother as she did not know her, because she died when Lily was only 4 years old. In Chapter 1, Lily talks about how she misses her mother, and how she feels completely responsible for the fact that she doesn't have her. This quote, "This is what I know about myself. She was all I wanted. And I took her away," is significant to the whole plot, because it helps us understand one of Lily's main concerns and desires. I myself have lost a parent at a very young age, and struggled to comprehend what happened, and how it would effect me through the course of my life. Lily Owens notices that she does not fit and is held back from that fact that her father does not care about Lily's life nor her needs. In Chapter 1, Lily indicates that she is “..worried so much about how I [she] looked and whether I [she] was doing things right, I [she] felt half the time I [she] was impersonating a girl instead of really being

This time period had specifically defined roles for men and women, and the author of The House of Mirth has reversed these accepted norms while The Invisible Man remains true to the roles of men. In The House of

Daisy is one of the main characters whose obsession with wealth influences her life decisions. “ Her voice is full of money” (Fitzgerald 128). this quote shows that even people around Daisy can hear the longing for money in her voice. She is obsessed with money and thinks that if she has it she will achieve happiness. “ She wanted her life shaped now, immediately- and the decision must be made by some force-of love, of money, of unquestionable practicality-” (Fitzgerald 161). Daisy thought money and love would make her life more fulfilled and she believed it was the only way for it to be more adequate. She wanted her life to be perfect and she was willing to go with whoever could provide her more money and love. In Daisy’s marriage with Tom she felt a lack of love because of Tom’s mistress, which is why she was drawn to Gatsby once again. When Gatsby and Daisy first met he was lacking money but they were in love. Daisy was consumed by the idea that she must have both money and love in order to get happiness, that she ended

Because of Wharton's slight deviation from naturalistic conventions, a literary debate exists among critics as to the validity of viewing The House of Mirth as a novel which embodies

First, a distinction must be made between direct and indirect transaction. Lily can happily live in a world where wealth circulates obliquely and freely. When Lily stays as a guest at Bellomont eating fine food at her hosts expense, she is not receiving payment for goods or services. Instead, her charm has earned her the benefits of friendship with the rich. Lily is not exactly being paid to be charming; instead, being charming attracts the generous hospitality and entertainment of wealthy friends. The distinction between this type of benefit and direct compensation is enormous. When the reader encounters Lily in Chapter Ten of Book Two, Lily has fled from the world of Norma Hatch to the milliners shop--and it was an offer of direct reward that made it necessary for Lily to escape. Wharton writes, "The sense of being involved in a transaction she would not have cared to examine too closely had soon afterward defined itself in the light of a hint from Mr. Stancy that if she saw them through, she would have no reason to be sorry" (293-3). Lily has no qualms about living as a guest of her rich friends, but the idea of selling her charm and becoming a sort of social mercenary holds no appeal for her: "The implication that such loyalty would meet with a direct

No one around her really valued true love, it is believed that money would be the source of Daisy’s happiness. Everyone around her knew that she valued money. Money was what her world revolved around, she even spoke like she was full of money. “Her voice is full of money,’ he said suddenly… ‘It was full of money-that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals’ song of it… High in a white palace where the king’s daughter, the golden girl” (120) Sadly, Daisy’s husband is having an affair with another woman, but Daisy knows that this affair is happening. All these years she stayed with her husband, because she wanted to keep her status. Now that her old love is back in town and he is also very wealthy, Daisy now feels she can leave her husband. Daisy truly believes that money is the key to keeping herself happy. Money is worth way too much to her and seems to be the only valuable object in Daisy’s life.

     Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth is an affront to the false social values of fashionable New York society.  The heroine is Lily Bart, a woman who is destroyed by the very society that produces her.  Lily is well-born but poor.  The story traces the decline of Lily as she moves through a series of living residences, from houses to hotel lodgings.  Lily lives in a New York society where appearances are all.  Women have a decorative function in such an environment, and even her name, Lily, suggests she is a flower of femininity, i.e. an object of decoration as well as of desirability to the male element.  We see this is very true once Lily's bloom fades, as it were, a time when she

Her father is described as a neutral figure and her memory of him is hazy at best. This lack of a father figure led to Lily’s attitude towards men. Because of this Lily always denies herself suitable marriages because she always feels she can do better. Lily is conflicted between the man she loves and the man with money. She loves Seldon but she deems him too poor for her perfect marriage. After much thought, Lily decides to marry Peter Gryce who is exceedingly wealthy but is too late as he is already engaged at the time of her decision. Lily cannot decide between love and money both of which are important aspects of her life. She is unwilling to compromise between the two which eventually leads to her downfall. Lily needs to marry a man with wealth and a stable status in high New York society because she needs a source of income to supplement her own unstable wealth.

In the early 19th century, social class or status was everything to individuals back then. Social status was everything to people, just by saying they were better than others. Also, by saying they were “higher statuses” than one another was such a huge deal back then, which higher statues and ranks were about how had money and who didn’t. As people say history repeats itself, I believe that, for instance, nowadays people are always trying to outdo one another. Edith Wharton expressed a variety of different dimensions throughout House of Mirth, which included social, cultural, political, economic. Edith Wharton elaborates a story about Lily Barton, a young lady in her mid 20’s, who is continuously trying to achieve social statuses while dealing with other life struggles. She struggles trying to find someone rich to marry and ends up not being able to become wealthy either. When she struggles to try and find who she wants to marry she tends to get discourage and ends up putting herself in a serious amount of debt that she is unable to pay back. While in debt, she has trouble sleeping, and starts taking medicine to help with this problem. When she had enough money to pay off this debt she uses it to her advantage and pays off all her debt, however why paying off her debts Lily was still taking her sleeping pills and ends up over dosing, which causes her to die. After, this short summary of House of Mirth, did Lily social status affect her life? Did her social status actually

Daisy Buchanan is a old money wealthy wife of Tom Buchanan, living a rich and successful life, but unhappy with her marriage. She was fully aware of Tom’s affair, and decided to have her own with her old lover, Mr. Gatsby. She’s known to be all about money, careless, indecisive, daunting, and beautiful. At the time where she met her true love, Gatsby, 5 years ago, she had ended her journey of many of guys coming into her life. She just wanted money and fame like the rest of the snobs. “Her voice is full of money.” he said suddenly”(pg.120) Even Daisy’s lover is aware that she only cares about money. Even as she tries to get away from Tom, she is forced back with him as she accidently kills Myrtle, with Gatsby, in Gatsby’s car. Daisy will never be happy with her marriage, and probably never happy with the life she lives, especially after murdering someone in involuntary manslaughter.