Summary
Lily, having decided to marry Rosedale, goes on a long
walk with him. She tells him of her intentions, but he shocks her
by saying that he no longer wishes to marry her because of the things
he heard about her and George Dorset. Essentially, Lily and Rosedale
have changed places socially. The previous year, when he proposed,
she refused because she thought she could do better. Now, when she asks
for marriage, he refuses because he thinks he can do better. He bluntly
tells her that she would drag him down—but he still likes her as
a friend. Although Rosedale doesn't believe the stories about Lily and
George, he somehow knows that Lily has Bertha's old letters, and
he encourages Lily to blackmail Bertha with them. Lily is shocked
that he knows about the letters (which he found out about as owner
of the Benedick, Selden's apartment building). However, Lily still
will not resort to blackmail because she knows the letters will
harm Selden as well as Bertha.
Lily realizes that she cannot work her way back into society because
of Bertha's enormous bank account. Bertha is intent on keeping Lily
down, and she has all sorts of financial and social resources to
do so. Lily has become even more of a slave to her destitution.
She is worried about poverty, and she does not feel capable of giving
up her nice clothes and gambling. She knows that she will soon not
even be able to afford her house. Luckily, Lily does have some support:
Carry Fisher, Gerty Farish and Selden are all intent on helping
Lily as much as possible. However, when Selden goes looking for
her at the end of Chapter Eight, he finds that she has left her
hotel to stay with a divorcee, Mrs. Norma Hatch, at the Emporium
Hotel, where Lily has begun work as Mrs. Hatch's secretary.
Lily does not have much to do as Mrs. Hatch's secretary
because Mrs. Hatch does not write many letters. Lily's new boss
lives a strange life that involves very little concern about time.
She also has her own social circle, which contains some members
of the Trenor circle, including Fred Van Osburgh, the young heir
to the enormous Van Osburgh estate who flirts with Mrs. Hatch as
though he intends to marry her. It soon becomes apparent that some
members of the society want Lily to play a hand in making a match
between the two, but Lily does not want to get involved, which in
part convinces her to leave later on.
At the Emporium, Selden pays Lily a visit. She sees that
he has become humorless and reckless; he does not know how to deal
with his feelings for Lily. He tells her that he will help her by
being her friend when she needs someone to support her. Selden encourages her
to leave the Emporium and return to Gerty's apartment, but Lily refuses,
saying that she likes Mrs. Hatch and needs the money she makes as
Mrs. Hatch's secretary. But then Lily does decide to leave (although
she doesn't tell Selden at first).
Commentary
Chapter Eight presents a picture of how Lily tries to
survive in the face of suffering. She acts stubbornly, insisting
that she eventually pay off all her debts even though they have
been requited. Nevertheless, we see that Lily's sacrifices are beginning
to take a heavy toll on her. She feels her financial losses deeply,
but more importantly, she is starting to feel friendless. Gerty
recognizes that what Lily really needs is someone to help her by
comforting her in times of need, and Gerty silently pledges herself
to taking care of Lily in any way possible. Gerty, we begin to see,
has by nature a helper personality; she is the one who leads Lily
to do charity work earlier in the novel. We also learn, however,
that Lily's role as an actor in society is essentially over. She
is no longer a classy woman in control of herself, but rather a
lonely soul incessantly worried by money. Appearances are now only
secondary to surviving.
This section raises a question about fatalism, or predetermination,
and the novel. Lily, in Chapter Eight, sighs, "Oh Gerty, I wasn't meant
to be good!" This statement makes us question whether or not Lily's
fall from society is really fated; is Wharton trying to show that
Lily is destined to fail? (Keep in mind that Wharton is writing
at the same time when fatalism was a popular literary philosophy,
as seen best in the novels of Thomas Hardy.) It seems that because
of Lily's perpetual inability to make a decision about whom to marry, she
may be fated to never marry. Her cowardice and general assumption
that she can always "do better" leads her to pass up many great
opportunities. Lily's personality is so tied to the individual choice
behind marriage that she her failure to consent to marriage may
lead to her downfall. On the other hand, though, one could also
argue that Lily is merely the victim of some bad luck related to
Bertha Dorset's dislike of her. In reality, Lily cannot help her
rejection from society because it is based on a lie. Had it not
been for this piece of bad luck, Lily would perhaps have gotten
on with her life, eventually paid off Gus Trenor, and found a way
back into society. We as readers can choose to sympathize with Lily
and agree that she "wasn't meant to be good," or we can blame her
fall simply on bad luck that could have gone either way.
