House Of Mirth : A Victim Of Circumstance

Once Lily accepts what she has done and learns that her mother's death did not make her a bad person, her conflict can finally be resolved. As a result of resolving her conflict, she is able to mature because of the struggle, just like other people are able to grow and evolve from their own mistakes. This is evident when she admits "Before coming here, my whole life had been nothing but a hole where my mother should have been, and this hole had made me different, left me always aching for something, but never once did I think what he'd lost or how it might've changed him" (Kidd 293). Lily finally realizes that her mother's death has not only affected her, but also her father, T. Ray, and the calendar sisters. Through the course of Lily's struggle, Lily learns a lot about life and matures into a wiser

Lily starts off stuck living in an unloving, abusive household and decides to free herself from the negative atmosphere that she had been living in her whole life. Lily is perpetually abused by her father. He forces her to kneel on Martha White's, gets exasperated every time she speaks, and yells at her for no reason. Lily is not the only one noticing the terrible treatment, Rosaleen does too. Once after Lily had to kneel on the Martha White's Rosaleen said to her, “Look at you, child. Look what he’s done to you” (Kidd 25). Noticing the unloving treatment Lily gets, Rosaleen knew that their household was demoralizing place for Lily to be in, which is why she didn’t question when Lily when she later runs away. Lily one day realizes she needs to do something about her horrible life at home. While sitting in her room she hears a voice in her

Through out the book I have found numerous amount shocking events on why Lily left. Some Reasons why Lily left was because she wanted to know if her mom actually left her when Lily was just young girl. When Lily was little she had over heard her mom and T-Ray fighting one day in the hallway. Right when Lily looked in the hallway she saw a gun on the floor and she decided to pick it up; right when Lily picked it up she heard a loud bang

First, in the novel money is the most important thing and social standing depends just on how much wealth one has. Therefore, it makes sense that Lily’s whole demeanor and emotional state is almost completely dependent on money. Lily has acquired lots of debt from gambling and when in this state she feels as if she owes something to the people who have lent her money. She absolutely hates that feeling, as she wants to solely be independent and have a man give her wealth. “She was realizing for the first time that ... the maintenance of a moral attribute should be dependent on dollars and cents”, this quote was describing

Since her mother died she has had to put up with her abusive father who doesn't really care about Lily. Having to not only deal with this but the fact that she doesn't have any friends in school doesn't really help. “People who think dying is the worst thing don’t know a thing about life.” Lily says this in the beginning of the novel. This is an important quote showing Lily’s bravery because Lily’s life has been profoundly affected by her mother’s death. This statement suggests that living with someone else’s death can be more painful than dying. She grew up without a mother and the taunting guiltiness that she killed her own mother. In some ways I share this quality with Lily. At times I can be a brave person but like everybody else I'm not always so brave. One time when I was brave was when I was first coming into the high school. I was always so nervous at just the thought of high school so when the big day came I was very anxious. I was brave enough to get through it all and now I'm more comfortable in the

When a parent dies, any child will cling to the other parent for emotional support and comfort for dealing with such a loss. In Lily’s case, she wanted her fathers support more than anything but he was cold, abusive, and stuck in the past, that he wasn’t able to give her anything except for take his anger out on her, when she disobeyed him. Although if someone does not get that support from the other parent, and if someone else is there that is understanding and kind, its amazing to see how much you can start to really rely on them and grow a close relationship. When Lily deals with the loss of her mother and the poor treatment of her father, she doesn’t know what to do with herself, she has a load of all different kind of emotions, and it really harms her well-being. Lily deals with guilt because she has visuals that she was the one that killed her mother, and on top of that she has her father telling her that her mother left her and she just abandoned her, making Lily feel unimportant and then at the same time guilt. Rosaleen is the closest role model that Lily has for a mother, Rosaleen cares and sticks up for Lily but Lily doesn’t really have the mother-daughter connection with her. Although Rosaleen provides comfort for Lily, she helps her with her father and in return Lily defends Rosaleen as well as save her life from the hospital after she got beaten.

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

Rosaleen was Lily’s maid while she was living with her father, T-Ray. Lily runs away from home with Rosaleen. At first Rosaleen doesn’t know where they are going and eventually Lily tells her. This quote is said by Rosaleen when she finds out what is really going on. “I get it. You ran off ‘cause of what your daddy said about your mother. It didn’t have nothing to do with me in jail”(Kidd 53). This quote is significant because it makes Rosaleen think that Lily doesn’t really care about her. Eventually August and Lily talk about Lily’s mother. Rosaleen and August knew about Lily’s mother. This quote is said by Lily while she was getting comforted by Rosaleen. “I wish you’d told me what you knew about my mother”(Kidd 264). This quote is significant because Lily realizes all the secrets that were hidden from her. Rosaleen taught Lily that the truth isn’t always great through keeping secrets from

This is not a good sign for Lily because she does not have love, respect, or acceptance from anyone.

Throughout the novel, Lily is able to depend only on herself and her own strength to get through tough times. When she was only eight years old, her family was hit by a flash flood that threatened their home. Her father

Mullen describes Lily’s situation as “Lily Bart has been predominantly framed as a tragic victim caught within the irresistible market forces of capitalism and the fatal contradictions of gender and class politics” (45). The novel, “The House of Mirth” filled with nuances of gender and class politics. Mullen points out a weakness in Lily’s character, her position in the forces of the capitalist circle. The females in the novel face the pressures from the social circle as well. Lily is a product of her culture and upbringing. Success is measured by the capital worth and how one would survive in their social class. Unfortunately, Lily didn’t have to chance to remain in her former social class circle, after trying to pay off her debts. She died the night that she received her

Yet, this very society that demand its women be superficial creatures that merit worth only by appearance is also one which immediately rejects a woman who seems intent on marrying a man with wealth-the one course open to women who wish to be accepted in society.  This may be where one of Lily's character qualities prevents her from being able to join such a society.  She is no good at hiding her desire to marry a man of wealth.  In fact, she even tells Selden, her true love, that she "is very expensive" and "must have a great deal of money" (Wharton  31).  These kinds of admissions make Lily appear to be the one thing this superficial society cannot bear-a scheming adventuress out to snag a rich

The cycle of wealth and poverty is fueled by Lily’s gambling habits and her addictions to the upper class life. Lily is a compulsive gambler as seen throughout the book. She gambles at social gatherings on games of bridge and realizes too late that she had lost most of her money. Later in the novel, Lily asks Gus Trenor to help her invest in the stock market. Lily also loses a majority of her wealth on maintaining her appearance both physically and socially. She spends money on pleasure trips to purchase new clothing and donates to a

Her first and recurring risk is with Lawrence Selden, a bachelor who tries to distances himself from Old New York. Lily’s first decision in the book was to go on walk alone and away from Grand Central Station with Selden, she gets caught coming from Selden’s apartment by Mr. Rosedale and risks again by lying about why she was in that building. Lily goes on another walk with Selden, but this time at Bellomont, as a result of this walk Mr. Percy Gryce decided to leave Bellomont without giving Lily a marriage proposal, which left her still in debt and financial ruin. Lily will “pay the ultimate price for throwing her lot in with Selden” since her risks with him always leave her in a worse off state than she was before she decided to interact with him (Shinbrot 41). Another person that Lily takes a serious risk with is Gus Trenor; he gives Lily financial advice and loans her some money and in return he wants sex from her (Wharton 116). This is a scary scene for Lily because it is a near rape situation and also because it starts rumors about Lily and Gus Trenor having relations which does not help her social standing, marriage prospects, or financial situation. Another big risk that Lily takes is going to Monte Carlo with the Dorsets, Lily accepts their invitation after the previously mentioned Gus rape scene happens, and she just decided to run away from her

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