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Letter To The House Of Mirth, By Edith Wharton

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Recommended: Essay on gender roles in literature

Dear Mr. Poduska, I am writing this letter to recommend that the book The House Of Mirth, written by Edith Wharton, be considered for integration into the English 10 Honors reading curriculum. Personally, I would recommend that it became a requirement before entering English 10 Honors and be read in the summer after freshmen year. The reasoning is that this story has a plot in which the main character attempts to defy several societal expectations and in trying to emerge successful she faces rejection from society, a common theme amongst the stories we have read thus far in the English 10 Honors course. It is probable that in reading another book with a common theme, readers will find that they have a much easier time comprehending and analyzing …show more content…

Lastly, this is story that readers would consider anything but a bore. It is an authentic literary piece which not only entertains its readers, but supplies them with knowledge as it exposes the wicked truths of the American high society during the Gilded Age; and Furthermore it depicts the hindrances that impeded women’s decisions and choices. The House Of Mirth, written by Edith Wharton, tells the unique and tragic story of the irresistible and beautiful character of Lily Bart. The plot of the story revolves around her not being married even while she had reached the age of twenty-nine. Notwithstanding the fact that Miss Bart had practically been raised to become an ideal wife of the upper class, originating from a family background with significant social ties, Lily is left as an impoverished orphan due to the loss of her father’s wealth along with the death of both her parents. Despite having lost almost everything, Lily holds on to one main objective in her life: To find and marry a man of wealth in order to secure herself a place in the upper class society. The story begins with Lily Bart, described with great physical beauty, being noticed by a friend of the name Lawrence Selden; a young lawyer, with not too much wealth whom Lily views

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In hopes of discovering more about her mother, Lily travels to Tiburon but unexpectedly develops a maternal relationship with August, ultimately compelling her to lie about her identity and purpose in Tiburon because “[She] love this place with [her] whole heart” (225), and is certain that this is the life she wants.

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Lily carries the burden of shooting and killing her mother and she is not very close with her distant and abusive father. Lily and her caretaker Rosaleen began a journey to Tiburon, South Carolina, where Lily tries to find a sense of belonging and discover more about her mother. In Tiburon, Lily finds independence and a sense of self. May, June, and August take care of Lily and Rosaleen just as they did Lily's mother Deborah. The Boatwrites help Lily heal from her past trauma and Lily helps the sisters with their beekeeping and honey business.

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The sisters helped her to get her spark back after losing it for almost ten years. Also, a brief article by Aislinn McCormick, reveals a personal opinion that Lily “finally feels loved” while living with the Boatwright sisters. At the end of the book, Lily

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In the story, Kidd’s use of characterization successfully reveals the theme that people's lives are more complex than they appear. Kidd demonstrates this theme using the characterization of Lily, T. Ray, May, and Deborah. One character that Sue Monk Kidd uses to portray the theme, is the main character Lily. In the beginning of the story, the author shows that Lily can be both mature and immature at times. An example of her maturity in the text is when she says, “People who think dying is the worst thing don’t know a thing about life” (Kidd 2).

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Continuing, another theme that led us through Lily’s adventure of growing up was her discovering how important storytelling was. She was going through gruesome horrid things, and when she read things like Shakespeare she realized how important it was because it helped her escape to a fantasy world for a little bit of time. Lastly, Lily learns the power of the female community. Lily grew up without a mother, so for a large chunk of her life she didn’t know the real power the female community held.

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Edith Wharton’s book Ethan Frome is concurrently a flashback and a re-creation of a man’s past an unidentified narrator wishes to unearth. The reader never knows the “truth”—that is, the story from a main character—but instead receives scraps through the filter of the nameless narrator. He concludes the events and pieces together a tale from the comments of other minor characters as well as snippets from his own imagination to form his version of the flashback to events twenty-five years ago. Ostensibly, though, the story of Ethan Frome is a heartrending and dramatic representation of irony, both as a literary technique and an authorial worldview, but is more notable for the ongoing thematic message of deafening silence in character development. Edith Wharton describes her

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She finds herself in a small town called Tiburon in South Carolina, living with August Boatwright who was once her mother’s maid. After staying in Tiburon for a while, Lily calls her father, curious if he knows what her favourite colour is. They only spoke for a short period of

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Instead of loathing T.Ray, she begins to search for a love that she feels he should and can feel for her. Throughout the novel Lily craves love, love she never felt from her parents. She has finally found the love she sought in Tiburon. After discovering what happened with her parents Lily learned not to judge as much. Lily overall has grown into a more fully engaged

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Right from the beginning of The House of Mirth, Wharton accentuates the issue of women being objectified in New York City’s wealthy class. There are many expensive, rare, and gilded objects and furnishings, including Percy Gryce’s Americana collection, set throughout the novel, and women, like these possessions, are also portrayed to be decorations made to be admired and publicly displayed. In short, women were like collectible objects: “it was perhaps her very manner of holding herself aloof that appealed to his collector’s passion for the rare and unattainable” (113). Rosedale’s statement quite literally describes Lily Bart as a beautiful item he wishes to obtain. Moreover, women—especially ones of exceptional beauty like Lily Bart—were social

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In his article entitled, “The Naturalism of Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth” Donald Pizer discusses Wharton’s focus of naturalism in her novel, The House of Mirth. Pizer argues, “The House of Mirth may best be read as a form of naturalistic fiction” (241). Though some people disagree on what type of naturalism Wharton’s novel is, Pizer states “Whether Lily’s fate is shaped by the capitalistic exchange values of her society or by its patriarchal power structure or by some variation of these two central readings the novel” is naturalistic (241). Overall, Pizer maintains that Wharton used a specific form of naturalism—challenging that naturalism exclusively pertains to social determinism—that is distinct from her contemporaries:

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