English Essays House of Mirth

English Essays House of MirthAnalysis Extracted from the text edition of Ch t checking(p)er 6, House of Mirth.Lily mused. Dont you think, she rejoined after a moment, that the plurality who find fault with inn are too apt to regard it as an give up and not a means, just as the people who despise gold speak as if its only use were to be kept in bags and gloated over? Isnt it fairer to smell at them both as opportunities, which may be used either stupidly or intelligently, according to the dexterity of the user?That is certainly the sane view but the queer thing about society is that the people who regard it as an end are those who are in it, and not the critics on the fence. Its just the other way with most shows the audience may be under the illusion, but the actors know that real sustenance is on the other side of the footlights. (Wharton 69-70)Edith Whartons House of Mirth is unique among its British counterparts. Whartons American novel of manners presents a distorted p rotagonist when compared to contemporaries such(prenominal) as Jane Austens sensation and Sensibility unlike British novels of the age, House of Mirth unfolds in an American setting, where issues such as club have a substantially weaker hold over society than in Europe. Whartons protagonist falls victim to a grim, realist destiny so common to American literature. Unlike Sense and Sensibility where the capitalistic sustenancestyle is overcome, House of Mirth concludes with Lily Bart taking her own life, her dream of marrying into wealth unfulfilled. Lily is a tragic character, ane whose condescendence and adoration of the bourgeois lifestyle overpower her sense of happiness as she turns away from her confessedly love, a man named Lawrence Selden whose meager holdings cannot satisfy Lilys need to marry into impudent Yorks elect circles.Lily and Selden discuss status and the impetus of wealth during time spent on their own, away from Bertha Dorset. Wharton presents the convers ation in the aforementioned context so that it the align intentions, feelings, and opinions of Lily and Selden can emerge. Through her conversation with Selden, Lily indirectly defends her drive to go on through the ranks of tender Yorks brotherly coteries. She is not completely forthright, and neer states in clear voice communication that she uses society as a means and not an end. Rather, she criticizes those who find fault with society, and in doing refrains from condemning the New York caste system in which she par hears. That Lily is understated in her social contentions serves to illustrate her high gear regard for Selden, patronage his relatively low standing and meager lifestyle.Just as Lily figuratively tiptoes around Bertha due to her high social rank, she also gingerly approaches issues with Selden, a man for whom she has great affection. Lilys reverence for Selden, however, cannot be for his dexterity to climb social ranks he is an enlightened figure, representi ng a new social age, an irrevocably American stead on egalitarianism. The conversation betwixt Lily and Selden marks the only point in the novel that empowers Lily to communicate her accepted feelings for Selden and her wishes to be completely aloof of her item. Richard cut through, author of The American Novel and Its Tradition, writes that American novelists are not interested in social manners but in personalities of transcendent value, as communicated through Whartons enactment of the enlightened Selden (Chase 159). The prevailing depicted object in Lilys stance is the reflection of Lilys situation. She is perennially one of the critics on the fence, never able to achieve the life of social class that she so desires (Wharton 70). Ironically, she never has a chance to live the detached life Selden leads, and she is forced to wist amply long for an alternative to the situation in which she finds herself.Selden remains opposite Lily as a representative of the common American people he is detached from the hustle of high society. The actors he describes in his metaphor for people who understand life is poignant in reflecting the general malaise of certain members of the upper class. The actors represent the bourgeois, the audience the proletariat. Seldens metaphor aptly describes the class struggle in which Lily finds herself firmly entrenched. Seldens metaphor effectively portrays the elite as theatrical production a farcical system, one that serves only to distract the rest of the world that is trying desperately to take part in the reality presumption to them by a small group of people. The actors, or the elite, look wistfully beyond, knowing full well that a transcendent value lies outside the stage. Therefore, the actors put devil faces forward one they show to keep up the masquerade for the public (the audience), and another that reflects their true happiness. Chase describes this eclipsing characteristic as a natural tendency of virtue, impli cit in the personalities of those who are transcendent of the creature comforts and discipline of social intercourse (Chase 159). This duplicity of character is most embodied by Bertha and her love part with Ned. Bertha, the archetypal social elitist, maintains the facade of a healthy relationship with her upper crust husband. Bertha realizes there is a deeper happiness, that her social relationship and marriage (presumably arranged according to her ascension up the social ladder) is secondary to her true happiness, an affair with Ned. If discovered, her affair would ruin her marriage, something Bertha must surely know. That she is willing to be discovered is a volition to her drive for happiness in this instant, Bertha is among the enlightened, partially detached from her life in the social chain.Selden also presents the theme that social constraints are a product of the people there is no obligation to follow it as he proves to Lily through his existence. His affection for Li ly despite the knowledge that she will marry solely for means he cannot provide is a testament to his insistence that the world is bigger than the New York strata. Seldens metaphor postulates the existence of the bourgeois in the hands of the proletariat though the bourgeois are perceived to be in control, they would not exist were it not for the pandering of the lower classes. It is the lower classes (such as Lily) that promulgate the existence of the social hierarchy. The bourgeois (such as Bertha) do not restrain lower classes any more than they are given license to. Unlike Europe where ancestry dictated social class, American manners were nearly equivalent among all Americans, exemplified by Berthas trite condescension, which in many ways mirrors that of Lilys toward the high lifes critics (Chase 158).House of Mirth transcends the novel of manners label. Chase states that the novel, like its peers cannot sustain the tone and that there is something else more arresting than the observation of manners (Chase 158). The uniformity of humanity amongst the American publication and the realism dirty dog lifes situations is best exemplified in Lilys failure as a character. She is almost a tragic character as she takes her life following her inability to secure the life for which she had set out. The antagonist, Bertha, invariably set out to sabotage Lilys emergence as one of the social elite. Lily never fully realizes her illogical approach to society her flippant attitude toward those who find fault with society as an end is the greatest irony of the conversation. In treating society and class as an end, Lily enslaves herself under the whims of those in the elite. It is the elite, such as Bertha, that ultimately decide her fate. Therefore, the more Lily strove to become a part of the New York social elite, the more abnormal Berthas subterfuge became. Her attempts to become assimilated backfired, further cementing her lower class status. Had Lily refuted the i mportance of class and rejected materialisms wares, she may have recognized that society existed to serve as a means to her end and not vice versa. Lily becomes a victim at the mercy of her environment, her fate decided not by how she conducted herself but rather by the choices she made (Chase 160). Lilys failure to enter the most elite New York social circle was not because she was ungainly, unfit. House of Mirths most poignant themes surround the similarities between the American bourgeois and the proletariat. Lily failed to achieve all that she set out because of Bertha. Bertha is a factor of the realist environment Wharton weaves throughout the plot Lily is a victim of the consequences of her actions, not a flaw in her nature.American realism sets Wharton by from writers like Austen. Contrary to conventional manner novels, Wharton focuses on literary foils such as Selden to accentuate the similarities between the classes and the futility of social strata. To an extent, Wharton shows that it is impossible to change ones social status. It is more viable to deny the system altogether, as society and its organization ultimately exist to serve the populous. The conversation shared by Lily and Selden exemplifies such a stance Lily, who spends her adult life trying to break her way into circles of the elite, dies a woman who never realizes her lifes aim. Selden insists that the only people who regard society as all encompassing and of import are those who remain at the top of social chains, and that even they realize that life is not what society makes of it. The logical entity between the two, Selden proves through his language and use of metaphors the undeniable fact that if the bourgeois seek a transcendent life, then so should the common man.BIBLIOGRAPHYChase, Richard. (1957) The American Novel and Its Tradition. London, G. Bell and Sons, Ltd.Wharton, Edith. (1994) The House of Mirth. New York, Oxford U P.