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