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A review by lalawoman416
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
4.0
Lily Bart was raised to be charming, social, and well, useless. She was born into New York society and taught by her parents to disdain everything "dingy" and beneath her. Lily, thanks to her extraordinary beauty, never really questioned the social norms and mores that shaped her. Tragically, her parents die, she becomes impoverished, and she is forced to live on the goodwill of her aunt. Her aunt, is somewhat of a stickler and disapproves of Lily's gambling, drinking, and socializing. She provides Lily with all the necessities but barely more. Lily resents her aunt for not understanding Lily's social obligations include dressing well and playing bridge for money. Still, Lily is unable to adjust her spending habits and lands into a bit of trouble because of it. Lily, an unmarried, beautiful woman garners the jealousy and disdain of the most influential patronesses of New York society. And because she is unwilling to play fire with fire descends in social standing falling from upper class, to the not so upper class, to middle class, to working class. With each fall, Lily is certain that it is a temporary situation which will see her hobnobbing with high society again.
The most interesting thing about Lily and this novel is that Lily is definitely not a feminist heroine. She doesn't accept that she has to help herself. She doesn't accept that her current situation may be a permanent situation. she never does adjust. She never picks herself up by the bootstraps. She allows her up bring to define her and doesn't much fight it. In the end, there is no happy ending for Lily because she won't give herself one. She willfully submits to her circumstances and it never really even occurs to her that she has the power to change her life. I know that when it came out it exposed the horrors of NY society, but the most interesting thing to me was Lily's unwillingness to take ownership in her own life.
The most interesting thing about Lily and this novel is that Lily is definitely not a feminist heroine. She doesn't accept that she has to help herself. She doesn't accept that her current situation may be a permanent situation. she never does adjust. She never picks herself up by the bootstraps. She allows her up bring to define her and doesn't much fight it. In the end, there is no happy ending for Lily because she won't give herself one. She willfully submits to her circumstances and it never really even occurs to her that she has the power to change her life. I know that when it came out it exposed the horrors of NY society, but the most interesting thing to me was Lily's unwillingness to take ownership in her own life.