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The Moral Responsibility In The House Of Mirth

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In the House of Mirth, Lily Bart is not morally responsible for all of her actions whether or not her society had implemented standards. This goes against Harry Frankfurt's argument against the Principle of Alternative Possibility. The Principle of Alternative Possibility states that a person is only held morally responsible if they could have chosen otherwise. All the bad judgments that Lily made throughout the novel are the results of the way she was raised, and the environment she grew up in. Her actions mirrored her family. Fundamentally, Lily should not be morally accountable for her misconduct because she could not have chosen her own
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Lily is lost in her head, she doesn't know how to stick up for herself. She takes in all the abuse, both mentally and physically from T.Ray and she blames everything on herself. Throughout the novel Lily gains her confidence, bravery and strength by standing up to the challenges she faces throughout experiencing new cultures and way of knowledge. As the Novel went on Lily started to feel a connection with her mother.

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Lily ponders the idea of why it is so difficult for people to forgive. There is someone else Lily must forgive: herself. Lily's first reaction, when August tells her Deborah married T. Ray because she was pregnant with Lily, is that it was all her fault that Deborah was burdened with such a terrible husband. Then, when Lily tells August her story about how she happened to come to the Boatright house, she explains with tears and misery that she hates herself and is a worthless person who isn't worthy of love. Before she can become whole and love herself, Lily must forgive herself for killing her mother, and she must understand that this was an accident that she can't go back and fix.

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Lily comes from an interracial family. Her late mother, Deborah is an African- American, and her father T-Ray is white. Like all families during this time period, men still had control of the household and could treat their wives and children

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1302 Words | 6 Pages

Lily suffers from living with an abusive father. She also deals with the guilt of accidentally killing her mother, feeling unwanted, and not knowing the true reason her mother left. For example, “The gun shining like a toy in her hand, how he snatched it away and waved it around. The gun on the floor. Bending to pick it up.

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Although Lily is young, she feels that she has the right to make this statement because she has already experienced so much in her life. With that being said, people may judge Lily because of what she says or does but that is because not everyone knows about

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Lily’s mother however, was able to recognise the jobs that received more distinction. She was feeling extremely uncomfortable when Lily stated that she wanted a job that was not very well

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In Arthur Miller’s dramatic play The Crucible, John Proctor, the protagonist, symbolized truth and justice by displaying honor and pride in his name. The change in balance between those two attributes acted as a catalyst in defining moments of the play. In the beginning, Proctor equally reflected both pride and honor in separate events. However, when forced to make a decision, he chose honor over pride. Ultimately, both his honor and pride pushed him to commit the ultimate sacrifice.

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1325 Words | 6 Pages

This seems to make sense, as if one is a moral person, there must be some aim of the morality. She continues this by saying “For surely he must want others to be happy. To deny this would be to deny that benevolence is a virtue-and who wants to deny that?” (47) By saying this, she says that benevolence, or caring about others’ welfare or happiness, is definitely a virtue.

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The one person that was mainly influenced by this tragedy would be Lily because she had to suffer the pain of growing up without a

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1919 Words | 8 Pages

Lily barely knew her own mother, and T. Ray, her father, abuses her and could care less. Lily gets to experience the parent-child love from Rosaleen. Kidd asserts that the interaction between different races can lead to loving

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Both ben and the carer are discriminating against Lily 's age ben because he is taking advantage of the fact that lily

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878 Words | 4 Pages

The conflict of the story still remains the ladies want to decide Lily’s future because they don’t think she is able to but Lily is wanting to decide her own path in life. Welty states in the end of the story that Lily silently hands her head knowing she is defeated as she watches her hope chest go down the train tracks. At this point the hope chest now symbolizes her loss in her life

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730 Words | 3 Pages

Lily then consequently comes to find that the tables are turned and that her mother is the one who is in need of forgiveness. She shows her struggle by saying, “people in general would rather die than forgive” (Kidd 277). Capriciously, she contemplates the situation thinking for one moment “it is over and done,” but in the next she “would be picturing her in the pink house, or out by the wailing wall” (Kidd 278). Ultimately, after her entire debacle, with thrown honey jars as well as many headaches, Lily comes to learn that “you have to find a mother inside yourself” (Kidd 288). This idea sets Lily at ease giving her the knowledge that everything is going to be peaceful from this moment on and that she can take the time to learn to forgive others, just as she has to learn to forgive

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2118 Words | 9 Pages

Unlike the three ladies we must think about the consequences of our actions, especially when we are making decisions for others. Lily no matter if she had a disability was still human and deserved to be happy and not sent off to a place where she would be lonely and possibly sad. Ellisville could have been a special institute to help these “feeble-minded” people but as it was mentioned in the story it had over crowding and it just seemed like it wouldn’t be the best place for young Lily to be at. The biggest significance of the story was that the ladies finally in the end realize the mistake they are making by sending Lily to Ellisville and that Lily received that happiness and got the chance to what she wanted to do with her life, which was getting

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Lily exposes Nina to her sensual side as Lily personifies Black Swan. She had fear of Lily snatching the role of Swan Queen and vividly hallucinated Lily having sexual contact with Thomas. She began to get in touch with her darkness to retain her role and developed rebellious attitude towards her mother, for instance, she slammed the door in front of her mother after late night clubbing. She ultimately performed Black Swan with perfection. Her ego, that is herself, managed to stabilize her Id and superego, balancing her morals and sensuality because she said ‘I felt it..

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