Lily's House Of Mirth

In Edith Wharton’s House of Mirth, the protagonist, Lily Bart loses her fortune and her parents at the formative age of nineteen. Lily relies on the memory of her parents to secure herself a luxurious life with a wealthy socialite husband, but her memory is stagnant and incomplete. Lily’s understanding of men does not extend far past the allure of her beauty for two reasons: her mother overemphasized the power of beauty and Mr. Bart had a negligible presence in her life. Lily perpetually allows prospective husbands to slip through her thin fingers, for she sets her standards impossibly high and second guesses every strategic move. Wharton discusses her failed engagements with Dillworth, Percy Gryce, and the Italian Prince to emphasize the

As a consequence of lacking parental discipline, she bears a reputation, as she discloses to Selden, for having expensive taste and endeavoring to marry for money. For example, when Selden asks about a former suitor, Mr. Dillworth, she casually responds, “his mother was frightened--she was afraid I should have all the family jewels reset. And she wanted me to promise that I wouldn't do over the drawing-room" (10). Here, Lily’s nonchalant answer suggests just how deeply attached Lily’s reputation is to her; moreover, Lily does not deny her intentions to meddle with the Dillworths’ assets. Her tone suggests that Dillworth’s mother was being unreasonable in her conditions and, on this account, Lily could not marry Dillworth. Later, Lily’s expensive taste ruins her prospects with Percy Gryce when Bertha Dorset exposes her gambling habits and her borrowing money. In fact, Percy runs “straight home to his mother” who will “protect him” (75), from her sexual allure. In both of the aforementioned cases, mothers intervened to stop their sons from marrying into a financial sinkhole. Lily’s ambivalence toward her failed engagements demonstrates that she is not emotionally attached to these men but sees them purely as a ticket to wealth and society. Also, Lily cannot look past Selden’s finances even though she connects with him on an intellectual and personal basis; compared

After hearing about Percy Gryce’s engagement to Evie Van Osburgh at Gwen Van Osburgh’s wedding, Lily expresses her jealousy of the Van Osburgh girls not in regards to whom they marry but to their mother’s deft hand in placing them into “enviable niches of existence” (90). Lily describes Mrs. Van Osburgh as the sole steward for her daughters, mere pawns in the game of marriage. Aware of her own shortcomings, Lily admits, “The cleverest girl may miscalculate where her own interests are concerned, may yield too much at one moment and withdraw too far at the next” (90). Lily proclaims herself “the cleverest girl,” overestimating her ability to allure all the men around her with her beauty and flirtiness, but she sees that her attributes do not carry her all the way to marriage. She sees that her attributes hold only temporary power, while “the shelter of a mother's love” and “a mother's unerring vigilance and foresight” (90) do not waiver with naivete; a mother does not get distracted by the allure of attractive young men and romance. Here, Wharton’s choice of the word “shelter” illustrates Lily as homeless and vulnerable, for her mother neither protected her nor gave her the structure on which to depend, instead, Mrs. Bart gave Lily’s beauty the responsibility of finding a