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underthesea 's review for:
The House of Mirth
by Edith Wharton
I read the House of Mirth and The Age of Innocence almost at the same time, and while The Age of Innocence is the better book -the title is less euphonic, mind- House of Mirth has meant something to me. I've declared in another review my undying love for fools, whatever their size or shape. Lily is one of gigantic proportions. That, given the title, is hardly a surprise, 'cause:
"The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,
but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth"
7:4 Ecclesiastius
The guy who wrote that part of the Bible put his foot (or at the very least his goose quill) in his mouth because that sentence is a bit of euphonic nonsense, but I guess he liked to put hearts in places:
"The heart of fools is in their mouth:
but the mouth of the wise is in their heart."
21:26 Ecclesiastius
If Lily's heart is in her mouth, it's not because of too much talking, but man does she chew through her fall from the highs of money and beauty to the slums of respiratory depression. But for me she isn't a bleak figure.
Tragedy is Gerty. Tragedy = unavoidable misery, it’s the greek sense of inescapable fate, whatever you do, you’re fucked - their gods were such bitches. Gerty can never get a choice; nothing much will happen to her at all, ever. Bad luck and bad choices are interesting. At least Lily gets a chance.
There’s a case to be made in favour of Lily’s destiny being set in stone. It would make the novel a mildly feminist, otherwise harsh critique of the upper New York society. And it is; Wharton is angry at a class that only offer parasitic lifestyles to women. But it's more thant that, and more than an ode to Bad Luck. It's a very clever portrayal not only of a social class, but also of the psychology of a woman who has to stand alone and fight, mainly against her own nature. And that's absolutely beyond NY society.
Yes, Lily is a purely decorative object, yes, she is wholly dependent on others to survive, but it’s ultimately not what makes her doom. She dies the way she does because she is a short-distance athlete. She can only force herself to do things on short bursts. The same way she says to Selden “perhaps I might have resisted a great temptation, but the little ones would have pulled me down”, she can’t play chess: it takes too long. That’s why she fails with the Americana-guy; that’s why she can’t climb back, that’s why it means so much that she doesn’t use the letters- that would have been right up her alley. She dies but saves the last of her self-respect. Of course, it’s bad luck that Selden comes to his realisation the moment she’s dead, but, you know, shit happens. The thing is, she’s never been as worthy of love as in the moment when she dies and gives back the money.
The question begs the answer: if Selden had come the night before, would they have had a happier ending? Or would she have ruined him, sickened him? Wharton goes out of her way to say that they would have been happy. In the last scene of the book, when she visits Nettie, it is said: “it is so easy for a woman to become what the man she loves believes her to be!” Lily could have done with him things impossible alone. It wasn't hopeless from the start.
Lily’s selfishness and entitlement, and the snobbism of the privileged, seem to make a deep impression on readers. She's forced to go for things that she doesn't want; it's no wonder if she seems lazy. It's no wonder she's slefish: she has nobody to stand up for; there’s noone in the world she loves, or owes anything to, and certainly not her friends. Of course, her taste for luxury doesn’t call for sympathy; but this is a woman alone. She needs to love something, and what she loves is beauty. It’s her only asset and the base of her self-esteem. The only quality she knows she has is taste.
The bad: Wharton repeats the same concepts with different formulae over and over again. She does, in fact, write the words “poured out the wretchedness of his soul”. She dwells in melodrama. She tortures me with Gerty (could she have at least a fault, so I don’t feel so bad about her?).
In the end, this is what I love in House of Mirth: Lily goes through her day, she’s planning ahead, she’s trying hard, she’s laughing at unfunny quips and smoothing rough situations and she’s bored. But sometimes, an impulse breaks through all that and wrecks her routine; she suddenly knows who she is and who she could be apart from her and other's expectations, she gets a glimpse of a life that is not stopped, and suddenly her intentions mean something else or nothing. And then she goes on a picnic. It’s the effect Selden has. He makes her do what she wants to do instead of what she plans; normally she isn't all that sure of what that is, but we readers can see that it is certainly not what society would wish her to do- rich men. And then she becomes a woman without a place in the world, and without it, she dies.
I think this idea of rays of light that break through routine is beautiful. I think that’s why all her impulses bring her lower: it’s to prove Selden wrong when he’s unable to separate her intentions from her impulses. Even when she’s telling him she loves him, he thinks she’s planning. She’s not.
There’s a great beauty in impulses, in wanting itself, because it's so difficult to want and to know what one wants. Specially when they’re doomed and therefore are pure. That last plunge, when she goes up to see him just because she’s in his street. What she doesn’t do through courage, she’ll do through the power of a rush.
"The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,
but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth"
7:4 Ecclesiastius
The guy who wrote that part of the Bible put his foot (or at the very least his goose quill) in his mouth because that sentence is a bit of euphonic nonsense, but I guess he liked to put hearts in places:
"The heart of fools is in their mouth:
but the mouth of the wise is in their heart."
21:26 Ecclesiastius
If Lily's heart is in her mouth, it's not because of too much talking, but man does she chew through her fall from the highs of money and beauty to the slums of respiratory depression. But for me she isn't a bleak figure.
Tragedy is Gerty. Tragedy = unavoidable misery, it’s the greek sense of inescapable fate, whatever you do, you’re fucked - their gods were such bitches. Gerty can never get a choice; nothing much will happen to her at all, ever. Bad luck and bad choices are interesting. At least Lily gets a chance.
There’s a case to be made in favour of Lily’s destiny being set in stone. It would make the novel a mildly feminist, otherwise harsh critique of the upper New York society. And it is; Wharton is angry at a class that only offer parasitic lifestyles to women. But it's more thant that, and more than an ode to Bad Luck. It's a very clever portrayal not only of a social class, but also of the psychology of a woman who has to stand alone and fight, mainly against her own nature. And that's absolutely beyond NY society.
Yes, Lily is a purely decorative object, yes, she is wholly dependent on others to survive, but it’s ultimately not what makes her doom. She dies the way she does because she is a short-distance athlete. She can only force herself to do things on short bursts. The same way she says to Selden “perhaps I might have resisted a great temptation, but the little ones would have pulled me down”, she can’t play chess: it takes too long. That’s why she fails with the Americana-guy; that’s why she can’t climb back, that’s why it means so much that she doesn’t use the letters- that would have been right up her alley. She dies but saves the last of her self-respect. Of course, it’s bad luck that Selden comes to his realisation the moment she’s dead, but, you know, shit happens. The thing is, she’s never been as worthy of love as in the moment when she dies and gives back the money.
The question begs the answer: if Selden had come the night before, would they have had a happier ending? Or would she have ruined him, sickened him? Wharton goes out of her way to say that they would have been happy. In the last scene of the book, when she visits Nettie, it is said: “it is so easy for a woman to become what the man she loves believes her to be!” Lily could have done with him things impossible alone. It wasn't hopeless from the start.
Lily’s selfishness and entitlement, and the snobbism of the privileged, seem to make a deep impression on readers. She's forced to go for things that she doesn't want; it's no wonder if she seems lazy. It's no wonder she's slefish: she has nobody to stand up for; there’s noone in the world she loves, or owes anything to, and certainly not her friends. Of course, her taste for luxury doesn’t call for sympathy; but this is a woman alone. She needs to love something, and what she loves is beauty. It’s her only asset and the base of her self-esteem. The only quality she knows she has is taste.
The bad: Wharton repeats the same concepts with different formulae over and over again. She does, in fact, write the words “poured out the wretchedness of his soul”. She dwells in melodrama. She tortures me with Gerty (could she have at least a fault, so I don’t feel so bad about her?).
In the end, this is what I love in House of Mirth: Lily goes through her day, she’s planning ahead, she’s trying hard, she’s laughing at unfunny quips and smoothing rough situations and she’s bored. But sometimes, an impulse breaks through all that and wrecks her routine; she suddenly knows who she is and who she could be apart from her and other's expectations, she gets a glimpse of a life that is not stopped, and suddenly her intentions mean something else or nothing. And then she goes on a picnic. It’s the effect Selden has. He makes her do what she wants to do instead of what she plans; normally she isn't all that sure of what that is, but we readers can see that it is certainly not what society would wish her to do- rich men. And then she becomes a woman without a place in the world, and without it, she dies.
I think this idea of rays of light that break through routine is beautiful. I think that’s why all her impulses bring her lower: it’s to prove Selden wrong when he’s unable to separate her intentions from her impulses. Even when she’s telling him she loves him, he thinks she’s planning. She’s not.
There’s a great beauty in impulses, in wanting itself, because it's so difficult to want and to know what one wants. Specially when they’re doomed and therefore are pure. That last plunge, when she goes up to see him just because she’s in his street. What she doesn’t do through courage, she’ll do through the power of a rush.