The House of Mirth

Cristiana Cannizzaro Professor Brownmiller WS 271 February 9, 2015 The Role of Money for Lily Bart in “The House of Mirth” Money can take over a person’s life, because without money one cannot buy what he or she desires in order to be successful and wealthy in society. In “The House of Mirth” by Edith Wharton, it is no surprise that much of Lily Bart’s life revolves around money because of the late 19th century materialistic values that the upper class society exhibits in the novel. In this

Assignment one – Discuss the significance of Lily Bart’s death at the end of The House of Mirth. You should consider the implications both for the protagonist’s social milieu and for women in general at this point in American history. The significance of Lily Bart’s death. As a writer looking towards the twentieth century Wharton faced the challenge of telling the history of women past the age of thirty. The age of thirty was established as the threshold by nineteenth-century

Lily Bart is 29 years old in early 20th century America, unwed and unattached to any family money. The House of Mirth follows her story, ten years after her family is financially ruined and she is orphaned, as she desperately clings to the wealth of her friends and attempts to marry into money. Among the many suitable prospects, Lily finds Lawrence Selden, a bachelor who exists on the edge of rich society with no fortune of his own and no desire to acquire any, the most alluring. References to the

Woman as Commodity in Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth At the turn of the 20th century, the social and economic climate of urban America saw a boom in industry and productivity. Within this microcosm of economic prosperity, social elites participated in a constant exchange of opportunities, ideas, and social exploitations. In Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth, the atmosphere of high society deeply emulates the atmosphere of the market itself. Wharton utilizes economic terminology and vocabulary

brought about through their own actions, other brought about simply through life, or fate. Since tragedy is so common among humanity, an author can create an immediate connection between the reader and the story through use of tragedy. Both The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton and “Babylon Revisited” by F. Scott Fitzgerald use the main characters, Lily and Charlie, to portray a theme of tragedy brought about by fate, which is relatable to every person who has experienced loss in

In The House of Mirth, a book often described as a book of manners, Edith Wharton describes the plight of Lily Bart, an unmarried woman at the end of the Victorian era. It can be appreciated how Wharton, a member of the time period’s elite circles herself, wrote the novel using her own experiences and ideas regarding the elite’s activities, giving The House of Mirth an unparalleled sense of authenticity. Throughout the novel, it becomes clear that Lily’s troubles can be sourced back to a combination

During the late 19th century, strict and confining gender roles existed for women throughout the United States. Expectations regarding these gender roles varied based upon the social class in which a woman was born. Edith Wharton in The House of Mirth, explores the lives of women who aspired to be part of New York City’s highest social class. Specifically, the author follows the life of Lily Bart and her quest for acceptance and financial security in high society. Lily Bart intrigues me as I cannot

From Gender Roles to Gender Goals Edith Wharton’s novel, House of Mirth, written in 1905 centers around Lily Bart, a single woman in her late twenties, who is constantly struggling to maintain her status in high society. Lily navigates herself through the upper class with a “double consciousness”. This double consciousness enables her to recognize “...that [she] is at the same time inside and outside the ideology of gender; and conscious of being so, conscious of that twofold pull, of that division

Wharton seeks to find an exit from the confines of the marketplace mentality. Dimock’s final argument, then, is that the House of Mirth is Wharton’s critique of a system that places arbitrary values on human experiences for the sake of short-term capital gain. In “Debasing Exchange: Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth,” Wai-Chee Dimock seeks to prove how The House of Mirth acts as an illuminating critique of the society in which it is set, namely how and why social interactions are defined by

hard to get timing right. However is timing really all that matters? In House of Mirth by Edith Wharton, Wharton proposes the question, was Lily Bart and Lawrence Selden’s fate inevitable or could they have prevented it? Other than Timing, different upbringings and miscommunication both were factors that kept Lily and Lawrence apart but also could have brought them back together. Through the first chapters of House of Mirth, it is made clear that Lily and Lawrence have chemistry. However, this chemistry