The House of Mirth's opening chapters
provide a great example of how the novel pays attention to behavioral
details. In a train station, Selden carefully analyzes Lily with
the intent of determining why she is there. He then plays a mind
game on her, walking past her to see if she greets him or tries
to hide from him. This analysis of actions is typical in the novel,
as seen later on when Lily and George Dorset are assumed to be having
an affair after they are seen alone together at night in a train
station. And, of course, Selden becomes enraged at Lily when he
sees her leaving the house of Gus Trenor late one night by herself.
The novel is built on a series of visits or social events.
Indeed, most of the action in the novel happens not by coincidence
but by planning. Everyone plans trips to the Bellomont knowing that
they will spend their time gambling, and Lily plans all of her trips
with the intent of getting something out of someone. The various
visits, then, are the grounds on which all the social analyses and
gossip take place. The visits are a type of societal battle-ground
on which alliances are formed, people make connections, and some
are judged.
The basis of much of the societal interaction is money,
which serves as a prerequisite for admission to the upper-class
world of the Trenors and Dorsets. The meaning of money to Lily seldom changes;
if anything, her lust for money grows in intensity as she becomes
poorer. What makes money interesting in this novel is the way it
is tied in to ideas about freedom and slavery. Whenever Lily comes
across money, she feels free. Whenever she falls into debt, she feels
enslaved. But one of the great ironies of this situation is that Lily
is always enslaved to money because no matter what, it is the basis
for her emotions. Her attitude rests entirely on how much she can
afford to spend on dresses and how much she is in debt. A great tragedy
in the novel is that Lily is never really free, even when she thinks
she is.
Given that money is the controlling factor in Lily's life,
to what can it lead? There are essentially two possibilities in The
House of Mirth (and any novel of manners): acceptance/marriage
or exile/death. Perhaps the most enjoyable way to read the novel
is to begin reading with the belief that the book could go either
way: Lily could get married and succeed, or fail and die. In this
case, it is the latter option that happens. How does Wharton work
toward that end? With each chapter, particularly in Book Two, the
factors of bad luck and social instability combine to slowly remove
Lily from society: bad luck because Lily was with the wrong man
at the wrong time in France, and social instability because Lily
was not entrenched enough in society for her word to be respected
over that of Bertha.
As with all novels, a logical question to ask is, "What
is this author trying to say?" In the case of The House
of Mirth, one answer is that Wharton wants to depict the
malice and bitter realities of life in upper-class society in all
its grim reality. One theme is that money can cause more problems
than it solves, and one should be careful when pursuing money. Moreover,
the fact remains that if Lily had followed her heart and married
Selden, she would have been fine. This leads to the conclusion that
one ought to be true to one's feelings, rather than play a societal
game of money and power.
