House of Mirth is in Want of Love

Lily Bart, a beautiful and unmarried woman, 29-year-old, living in the leisure-class of New York, is eager to marry. Unfortunately, she misses several chances of attaining her goal, some of which have been broken by her own faults, others by other people’s malice. She lives in a society where, euphemistically speaking, love is rare. And this rarity of deep bonds between human beings in the community is what I want to emphasise here.

Lily Bart grew up in a not unwealthy family. Her mother was excellent at house-keeping and managed things skilfully as if the family was leading a more luxurious life than was it in reality. Lily’s mother lived on money. Her mother mentioned her father only when he neglected to forward remittances. After her father’s death, with little money left, her mother gave all up. It was as if “her faculty for ‘managing’ deserted her(P.30)”. In the book, her mother never showed the least love to or kindly and motherly feelings towards Lily. At the end of her wandering life, she only paid attention to Lily’s beauty, yet thought it was “her own property” and “some weapon she had slowly fashioned to vengeance(P.30)”. It’s safe to say that Lily’s mother, Mrs Bart, never really loved her daughter.

In Lily’s impression, her mother always looked a lot younger than her father, who is actually only two years older. This discrepancy may be caused less by her mother’s beauty than by her father’s worries or harried state of mind. Her father scarcely appeared in Lily’s memory of family life. But when he appeared, he was always reticent and languish. As the bread and winner of a family always “in need of more money(P.26)”, Mr Bart was too busy in the “down town(P.26)”, in other words, trying to make ends meet, to care for Lily. Never once was his fatherly attention to Lily mentioned in the book. Nor did he ever show any positive personal feelings to Lily, Mrs Bart or this family. When Lily made a request of buying roses daily, he laughed and sort of ridiculed Lily’s ignorance of the current financial state of this family. On receiving the reproach from his wife, his response was always “cabling to Paris for an extra dress or two, and telephoning to the jeweller(P.27)” When he joined the family vacation in the summer, he was unheeded and mute. Even though the book mentions that he read poetries, he never exhibited any poetic sensibilities, at least not in Lily’s memory of him. To Lily, his father is distant like a moon that travels around the family planet regularly but without any contact.

After Mrs Bart’s death, Lily was left alone and adopted by Mrs Peniston, her father’s widowed sister. Mrs Peniston didn’t accept Lily out of maternal care or sympathy but of “a moral mauvaise bonte that makes the public display of selfishness impossible(P.32)”. Apparently, Mrs Peniston picked up Lily not out of love. Many actions of Mrs Peniston can testify to this statement. She didn’t give allowances to Lily regularly but accidentally so as to keep reminding Lily of a feeling of dependence. She didn’t help Lily find mates or create situations that serve the similar purpose, which partly contributes to Lily’s unmarried state at age of 29. She didn’t help Lily out when Lily entreated aid. What’s worse, she showed a kind of nonchalance concerning Lily’s short of money. And the worst is that she disinherited Lily, making Lily a total wanderer.

Gus Trenor seems like a person who cares for Lily. But that care is considered by him a business transaction. He gives Lily money to show his care but demands Lily’s attention and confidence in return. George Dorset is willing to divorce and marry Lily as long as Lily consents. But his weakness and helplessness confirms his lack of deep attachment to Lily. He is only a miserable married man trying to use Lily as an expediency to disengage himself from Bertha. Rosedale’s case is a little more complicated. His first intention to marry Lily was instigated merely by his urgent need to find someone who can help him step up into the social circle that keeps him out persistently. However, after Lily was disinherited and isolated, he was, nevertheless, concerned with Lily and willing to back her up. But he would only marry Lily under the condition that she utilise Bertha’s letters to regain social status. Upon Lily’s demur, Rosedale left. These well-to-do New York gentlemen never really acted lovely and purely.

Bertha Dorset is a selfish and malicious woman. She was romantically involved with Selden Lawrence. When Lily inadvertently drew Selden away, Bertha avenged Lily through poisoning Percy Gryce and so broke Lily’s chance of marrying him. Bertha invited Lily on board Sabrina for the purpose of diverting her husband, George Dorset. When Bertha found out that her adultery with Ned Silverton was noticed, she immediately turn this back on Lily and falsely accused Lily of seducing George. When Lily was marginalised by her original friends and just got familiar with the Gormers, Bertha paid the Gormers a visit and poisoned the Gromers just as what she did to Percy Gryce. It’s no wonder that some readers come to a conclusion that Lily’s biggest enemy is women, and, in this case, Bertha Dorset.

Judy Trenor tried to arrange for Lily a meeting to get Percy Gryce and showed her discontent after Lily’s failure. It’s no doubt that she is concerned with Lily’s future. But this concern only comes from her aptness of being a good hostess. Even though Lily considered Judy as “the woman who was least likely to ‘go back’ on her(P.36)”, Judy went back on her anyway, after knowing Lily’s deal with Gus. When they met in the restaurant(P.199), Judy’s “loudly affirmed pleasure at seeing Miss Bart took the form of a nebulous generalisation, which included neither enquiries as to her future nor the expression of a definite wish to see her again.(P.200)” Then she left without a trace.

The House of Mirth is clearly lack of love. But it is not completely without love. Gerty Farish offers her help to Lily just like what she’s accustomed to do, altruistically. Though Gerty was a bit jealous of Lily, she accepted Lily’s request of staying with her the night when Lily’s extremely dejected after her encounter with Gus Trenor. At the moment of being asked by Lily whether Selden would save her, Gerty chose to trust Selden to the height of her own passion, to hold on to her love to Selden. When Lily came back from Europe and was disinherited, Gerty was firmly standing on Lily’s side, regardless of rumours about Lily spread by Bertha. Carry Fisher also gave counsels and set opportunities for Lily when Lily’s been going south. Though hardly could these amount to acts of love, they are benign options.

The person we are bound to pay attention to is Lawrence Selden. He had many encounters with Lily Bart, some of which are pretty romantic. He invited Lily to his apartment in Benedict, and had an intimate talk with her. He appeared in Bellomont unexpectedly for Lily, just like what he said to Lily: ”My only engagement at Bellomont was with you.” After the performance of tableau, they had their first kiss. Unfortunately, their following encounters were all rigid and sad. Not until the time when Lily last went to Selden’s apartment did she express herself directly, explosively and emotionally. Lily’s love for Selden is like a small piece of gold that is hidden inside a muddy substance, the material world. When opportunity comes, her golden side appears and is always attracted to Selden. But most of the time, it’s merged and concealed unconsciously. Lily didn’t fully notice it until she decided to destroy the letters between Selden and Bertha. The golden part of herself is a uplifting force that gives her superiority to the mob. But it is also a destructive force when it comes to her worldly aspiration. She could’ve married Percy Gryce, had she not felt the stir of her inner feeling to walk with Selden. She could’ve married Rosedale, had she cared only about money and worldly status. She could’ve used the letters to regain her position. She could’ve just married George to revenge Bertha. There were so many possibilities through which she could achieve a material success and be independent but which she consciously or unconsciously spurned.

Born and raised in the leisure-class, Lily is not without any concern about money. Actually she craves for money. But she also wants to be above and beyond. “She would not indeed have cared to marry a man who was merely rich: she was secretly ashamed of her mother’s crude passion for money.(P.31)” Being without any strong financial support, as Bertha and Judy have their husband’s bank account, Lily could only rely on herself. She is constantly in the struggle between money and love. This might strike some as strange, since there are always people with both money and love. But the reality of Lily’s living environment is that this species is rare and, in the book, nonexistent. Selden has love for Lily but he is not rich enough. Percy has money but he is too ignorant and boring. Gus Trenor and George Dorset has money but they are both not suitable for marriage and have too much trouble of their own to love Lily. Rosedale has both money and love for Lily, but he considers money and social status more important and love to him is more businesslike. In other words, his love for Lily is, first a love for buying a luxury and then a love for buying a subtly.

When finally Lily chose love, she destroyed the letters in Selden’s apartment and put all the money left by Mrs. Peniston to pay her debts. But she’s only too pessimistic to assume that Selden’s love for her disappeared. Just as she consciously and unconsciously spoiled many opportunities to get married, so did she consciously and unconsciously commit suicide and end the love. She had a word to say to Selden but didn’t say it. When Selden came to her to say the same word, she couldn’t hear.

“In what aspect could a society of irresponsible pleasure-seekers be said to have, on the ‘old woe of the world’, any deeper bearing than the people composing such a society could guess. The answer was that a frivolous society can acquire dramatic significance only through what its frivolity destroys. Its tragic implication lies in its power of debasing people and ideals. The answer in short was my heroine, Lily Bart. ” Wharton, the author of the book, thus wrote in her autobiography A Backward Glance. Lily Bart is sacrificed to manifest the dramatic significance. She has ideals that desire more than money. She wants to go into “Republic of the Spirit(P.60)”. She engenders love for Selden. In other words, She has something and wants something that the frivolous society doesn’t have and doesn’t want her to have. She could survive either by getting herself out of this part of society or by death. Since she tried the first and failed, she could only choose the second. Indeed, part of her is a piece of gold. But we shouldn’t forget the mud that surrounds the gold also moulds and merges into her. She is to be pure gold only through self-destruction. The house of mirth is filled to brim with mud, is in want of gold and thus in want of love.