Lily Bart is one of the many tragic heroines who is ruined by her own materialism and romanticism. Although Lily is not painted as the story’s victim, the narrative informs readers of the limited options available to women in Lily’s position. Unlike her characters, Wharton does not pass judgement on Lily’s transgressions, rather she makes her protagonist’s changing circumstances make her aware of the way in which her values have brought about her own ruin. Alongside her satire of New York’s high society, with its oppressive customs and its pretence at niceties, Wharton criticises binary thinking. social identity is epitomised by its main character, Lily Bart, and by her eventual downward path (view spoiler). The narrative’s discourse of personal vs. Throughout the course of her novel Wharton interrogates themes of gender and class. Lily’s story provides a keenly observed social commentary, and Wharton does so without employing a heavily didactic or moralistic tone. Throughout the course of the narrative Wharton constructs and deconstructs Lily’s character, making her into much more than a social climber. While this is a story that follow’s a woman’s unsuccessful attempts at social climbing to define it simply as such doesn’t do it justice. Yet, socialite Lily Bart, strives to belong to it.

This group of selfish and wealthy individuals make for a rather unhealthy environment. Someone’s ruin or misfortune might not result directly to your advantage but it’s guaranteed to entertain (and possibly detract attention from your own ongoings). It’s very much an every person for themselves type of world (or as I like to call it, a shark eat shark kind of world). They are little more than jealous gossips, ready to temporarily forget their strict sense of propriety if it means to tarnish someone else’s reputation. Wharton throws light upon the discordance between their behaviour and their values. Her portrayal of this privileged class emphasises its pettiness, giving us the impression that beneath their refined appearances and manners lies hatred, envy, and hypocrisy. Her commentary regarding the prevailing behaviours found within this group of people is insightful, satirical, and witty. Wharton demonstrates incredible social nuance in her almost anthropological-like study of New York’s elite society. “The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.”Īs many readers have already pointed out, there is little mirth to be found in The House of Mirth (and I thought that The Age of Innocence and Summer had despairing endings…what a misguided fool).Īs with the majority of her works, Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth is chiefly concerned with depicting the conflict between social and individual fulfilment, and it focuses on the experiences of American’s upper social class during the turn of the last century.

The house of mirth book