The House of Mirth: Blog 15- pages 252-THE END!

   I hate unhappy endings. So, yes this novel was a huge disappointment to me.
   As much as I was not expecting the ending, I am not very surprised, either. I just hate when a book ends, leaving everyone to make their own assumptions about what happened next, but here we are with a hundred unanswered questions. However, the ending does comply with our ongoing theme of materialism. Plainly, simply: money, wealth, power, reputation, and those materialistic things do not assure happiness in life. And for some people that's okay. For Mr. Rosedale, Bertha Dorset, Percy Gryce, Mr. and Mrs. Bry, and many other characters, that is okay for them. But for Lily Bart, Seldon, and Gerty Farish, it's not. It may have taken Lily an entire novel and a random run-in with Nettie Struther-practically a stranger- for her to finally come to terms with this fact of life. "But it had taken two to build the nest; the man's faith as well as the woman's courage" (Wharton 260). Giving up love for money may work for some people, but Lily has a big heart, and Seldon was right all along- that kind of a life would never satisfy her. And realizing this, makes me all the more upset with the way things ended. I truly believe after all those times I was disappointed thinking she would change and didn't, I believe now that she really was going to change this time and become the person that I wanted to see the entire novel. The one who chooses love. But it was a tragedy, and tragedies don't have happy endings.

House of Mirth: Blog 14-pages 241-252

    So, Lily Bart is not cut out for the world of working-shocker! Just as she doesn't know how she is going to go on any longer, Rosedale shows up to save the day, to save Lily. They agree to marry as soon as Lily uses the letters to clear things up with Bertha. Then, just as all the readers think it's the end of the story, we are wrong once again. It is only the beginning of the end, and there are still a few lessons to be learned. Primarily, she needs to recognize and admit to all the mistakes with Seldon- the man she actually did truly love and lose. Stopping by his house on the way to Dorsets', Lily finally lets her guard down and is honest, pouring her heart out to poor Seldon. She admits that it was his love, and belief in her was what kept her going all this time. Though she desperately wishes things could be different, she is convinced that they can't be. Finally we see that Lily recognizes and regrets the mistakes she made, people she hurt, and all the things she ever took for granted. This may not be the turning point for the plot line in the novel, but it is definitely a turning point for our main character who, while in struggling to secure her place in society, thought she had wound up all alone with nothing. It is now that she realizes that she will always have these friends like Seldon and Gerty who were there through the whole thing. Wharton writes, "I remember your saying such a life could never satisfy me...that is what I wanted to thank you for. I wanted to tell you that I have always remembered..." (Wharton 250).

House of Mirth: Blog 13-pages 221-241

    This section of Edith Wharton's House of Mirth may as well be titled, Let's Start Over Again. New job, new place to live, new reputation. Our main character finally did make some life changes, but are they the right ones? Working as an assistant to a new character, Mrs. Hatch, Lily finally has a real job that includes living in a hotel! However, Mrs. Hatch is not exactly the most reputable person in New York, so when that doesn't work out, she is left to live at Gerty's flat for the time being. But she is sick of being a "moocher"-to put it in modern terms- off of her friends, so she goes to work at a hat shop.
    Meeting Rosedale sort of gives me a sense of how serious Lily's situation is. He and Lily have a pleasant discussion, but he has such a difficult time believing that she is actually in the working class. The place that she's currently residing symbolizes this as well- Lily Bart: member of New York's Working Class. It seems as though she is living the life of "dinginess" that her mother warned her about.

House of Mirth: Blog 12-pages 201-221

   As the House of Mirth by Edith Wharton is slowly coming to the ending, we see that Lily has fallen almost completely off the ladder of high society. Almost completely broke, with her inheritance money soon to be used to pay off her debt to Gus Trenor, life is not looking up anymore for our poor protagonist.
    Furthermore, when she confronts Rosedale, and brings up his previous marriage proposal, he denies it. He isn’t stupid and knows that Lily only needs him now because of the ongoing circumstances between Lily and Bertha. But he does say that he would be willing to take Lily back if she cleared her name and settled things with Bertha using the letters. More specifically, it is written: "he would marry her tomorrow if she could regain Bertha Dorset's friendship" (Wharton 209). Which brings me to a good point: the letters have now come back into the novel, as a weapon to be used to get back at Bertha, but for now, Lily has not succumbed to their power. She loves Seldon too much to let his reputation be tainted by those letters. 
    However, come autumn, Lily is intent on changing things for herself. She and Carry Fisher begin a job search, while Gerty Farish-concerned as ever for her friend-is trying to get Seldon to help out Lily. Maybe as the book nears its end, Lily will finally accept who her real friends are and where her life is at this point, and stop giving in to the pressures of materialism. Not everyone in life gets to come out the victor, sometimes we lose.

House of Mirth: Blog 11-pages 183-201

Lily’s financial situation has led to some new major changes in her lifestyle in this section of Edith Wharton’s House of Mirth. I see this as the falling action of the novel. Having almost no money to support herself, she is relying a lot on the support of her dear friend Gerty Farish. Thanks to Carry Fisher, she was able to spend the summer with some new characters, the Gormers, in Alaska. Wharton writes, “She knew that Carry Fisher was right: that and opportune absence might be the first step toward rehabilitation, and that, at any rate, to linger on in town oit of season was a fatal admission of defeat" (Wharton 191).

One other thing Lily has to think about is getting married. If she could manage to get married, she could still save her reputation. The way Carry Fisher puts it, she has two options: George Dorset or Rosedale. She actually considers marrying Rosedale, though she wants the marriage to be out of love.

What really makes things interesting for Lily, though, is when George Dorset comes to Lily asking for forgiveness. Lily, aware of the danger that being seen with Mr. Dorset proposes, quickly turns him away, focusing all of her attention on Mr. Rosedale for the time being.

House of Mirth: Blog 10- pages 168-183

    In this next section of Edith Wharton’s House of Mirth, we are more acutely aware of the Dorsets’ situation, and its possible consequences for Lily. Seldon sees the potential problems for Lily and strongly advises her to move out of the yacht before things get bad. She doesn’t take his advice at first, and unfortunately she will come to greatly regret that decision. Bertha Dorset, in an attempt to save her own reputation, throws Lily out under the bus saying that she tried to  have an affair with her husband and it made her very jealous. After all Lily had done for Bertha during the entire trip, entertaining her husband so she could enjoy the company of Ned Silverton! I was so disappointed to read that about Bertha, however, I was not at all surprised.
    These kinds of situations go on in the real world as well. All of us have known that person who wants to be your friend to get something out of you. Then the second things get bad, they take off running and leave you to pick up the pieces. This would be Bertha in a nutshell. Our antagonist has found yet another way to prevent our protagonist from surviving in the “society”. And poor Lily just accepts it for what it is, and Edith Wharton describes it perfectly, “She had risen, and stood before him in a kind of clouded majesty, like some deposed princess moving tranquilly toward exile.”
    What happens next throws all the characters in the novel for a loop, though not surprising at all to myself. Mrs. Peniston passes away and leaves her fortune to Grace Stepney, only leaving a small amount to Lily to survive on for a while.

House of Mirth: Blog 9- pages 147-168

Nice, France

As Book II of Edith Wharton’s House of Mirth commences, as a reader, we have to pick up quickly on the new setting. No longer in New York, most of the “society” we have gotten to know in the first book are in Europe traveling abroad. Opening the second book, it is mid- April now, and we know that the majority of them are currently in Monte Carlo and Nice- including Seldon, Carry Fisher, Mrs. Stepney, Mrs.  Bry, Lily, the Dorsets, and others. I personally found the change of scenery to be awesome. All of the character are admiring the beauty of France and Monaco, which I know myself to be true since I have been to Nice and driven through Monaco. Both are so marvelously beautiful and having that experience myself makes me all the more appreciative of the characters in the book and their descriptions of the sights. Good diction and imagery by Wharton, paint beautiful pictures for all the readers. For example, Wharton describes, "Unclouded sunlight enveloped sea and shore in a bath of purest radiancy" (Wharton 157).

The characters, especially Lily and Seldon, had had a more difficult few months back in New York with stresses brought on by money problems, and other more emotional troubles. Unfortunately, vacations don’t last forever, and their problems will just be waiting for them when they get back. For now though, they get to enjoy the beauty of their surroundings.  

Lastly, a new conflict is introduced as Mr. George Dorset realizes that his wife has been having an affair with one of the people on the trip, Ned Silverton. At the end of the second chapter, George even decides to send for Seldon, a lawyer, to prepare himself for what might be coming.