Lily Bart is a stunning woman who desperately tries to fit into an elaborate social scene throughout the course of House of Mirth. She also fails to choose a man to marry and ends up alone and dead at the end of the novel. After reading House of Mirth, along with the other novels we have read this semester, I couldn't help but wonder: Is it possible to ever be happy within a higher social class? Wharton's novel tells us that it is not. Lily cannot find happiness within the upper elitists. We also see that the other characters of the novel, within the higher social class, struggle through marriage issues, a seeming desperation to show off their wealth, and they fail to recognize anything of true value. Their are characters within House of Mirth who do exhibit strong humility and exemplary morals, however, they are poor and alone. In expressing her opinions about Gerty, Lily says that she is "happy," but lives in a shabby apartment and has given up so much.
Furthermore, in The Rise of Silas Lapham, we see the Lapham family try to fit in with the Coreys and their "old money, elite social class" but fail to do so by the end of the novel. Howell sets up the Laphams in direct contrast to the Coreys and eventually, the Laphams are forced to go back to where they came from. In Maggie, A Girl of the Streets, Maggie briefly enters into a relationship with Pete. He shows her into a higher social class that she has never experienced only to abandon her and leave her to prostitution and death.
In relation to House of Mirth, most of the other novels we have read this semester (not just the two listed above) all characterize rich and poor in the American culture and set down similar standards as to what was socially acceptable at that time. After reading house of mirth and relating it to our class as a whole, I think that all of our authors are telling us that people of extreme higher class lack the ability to function within any sort of relationship and are far from happy.
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