The novel The House of Mirth written by Edith Wharton follows the tragic story of main character Lily Bart. The novel focuses on this upper class group in society and Lily's constant struggle and ultimate failure to keep her place in this group. Her decisions causes her social decline, ending ultimately with her death. Lily’s story follows the classic structure of a tragedy, most importantly including a tragic flaw and a great deal of suffering. After carefully analyzing Lily, it is clear that her tragic flaw is the need for a high financial and social standing. She is willing to give up a life of happiness and love for the more superficial aspects of a relationship. Due to the fact that Lily is aware of her own declining status, her story
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In this novel, Lily’s flaw is her need for a high financial and social standing. She does not see herself in any class below her. She even denies a proposal from a not so wealthy man named Selden, due to his financial differences. This can be inferred after Lily and Selden kiss at the party in chapter 12, “Ah, love me, love me — but don't tell me so!" she sighed with her eyes in his; and before he could speak she had turned and slipped through the arch of boughs, disappearing in the brightness of the room beyond (Book 1, chpt 12, pg 112).” Even though Lily does not say that she cannot be with him outloud, her actions are very clear. It is pointed out early in the novel that Selden does not have a high financial standing. From analyzing the types of men that Lily prefers, it is clear that she has the sole intention of finding wealthy and well established …show more content…
It was the strangest part of Lily’s strange experience, the hearing of these names, the seeing the fragmentary and distorted image of the world she had lived in reflected in the mirror of the working-girls’ minds. She had never before suspected the mixture of insatiable curiosity and contemptuous freedom with which she and her kind were discussed in this under-world of toilers who lived on their vanity and self-indulgence. Every girl in Mme. Regina’s work-room knew to whom the headgear in her hands was destined, and had her opinion of its future wearer, and a definite knowledge of the latter’s place in the social system. That Lily was a star fallen from that sky did not, after the first stir of curiosity had subsided, materially add to their interest in her. She had fallen, she had ‘gone under,’ and true to the ideal of their race, they were awed only by success-by the gross tangible image of material achievement. The consciousness of her different point of view merely kept them at a little distance from her, as though she were a foreigner with whom it was an effort to talk, (Book II, chpt. 10, pg 232).
This excerpt reveals a memorable moment in Lily’s downfall as she is able to begin to become absorbed in lower-class society. She hates her room in the boarding-house, she feels useless at being a working woman, and she learns how others view
In this novel, Lily’s flaw is her need for a high financial and social standing. She does not see herself in any class below her. She even denies a proposal from a not so wealthy man named Selden, due to his financial differences. This can be inferred after Lily and Selden kiss at the party in chapter 12, “Ah, love me, love me — but don't tell me so!" she sighed with her eyes in his; and before he could speak she had turned and slipped through the arch of boughs, disappearing in the brightness of the room beyond (Book 1, chpt 12, pg 112).” Even though Lily does not say that she cannot be with him outloud, her actions are very clear. It is pointed out early in the novel that Selden does not have a high financial standing. From analyzing the types of men that Lily prefers, it is clear that she has the sole intention of finding wealthy and well established …show more content…
It was the strangest part of Lily’s strange experience, the hearing of these names, the seeing the fragmentary and distorted image of the world she had lived in reflected in the mirror of the working-girls’ minds. She had never before suspected the mixture of insatiable curiosity and contemptuous freedom with which she and her kind were discussed in this under-world of toilers who lived on their vanity and self-indulgence. Every girl in Mme. Regina’s work-room knew to whom the headgear in her hands was destined, and had her opinion of its future wearer, and a definite knowledge of the latter’s place in the social system. That Lily was a star fallen from that sky did not, after the first stir of curiosity had subsided, materially add to their interest in her. She had fallen, she had ‘gone under,’ and true to the ideal of their race, they were awed only by success-by the gross tangible image of material achievement. The consciousness of her different point of view merely kept them at a little distance from her, as though she were a foreigner with whom it was an effort to talk, (Book II, chpt. 10, pg 232).
This excerpt reveals a memorable moment in Lily’s downfall as she is able to begin to become absorbed in lower-class society. She hates her room in the boarding-house, she feels useless at being a working woman, and she learns how others view