Example discussion House of Mirth page 1 of 3
Example discussion of 'The House of Mirth'
This might be the result of your analysis of the novel The House of Mirth by Edith Warton.
Step 1: main idea
"Having read the book carefully I have decided that the theme of Edith Wharton's book is the problem
of clashing values: those of the main character Lily Bart and the money values of the super-rich New
York society she longs to be a part of."
Steps 2 and 3: important passages
"I have chosen three important passages. The first passage consists of the opening paragraphs of the
story."
Selden paused in surprise. In the afternoon rush of the Grand Central Station his eyes had been
refreshed by the sight of Miss Lily Bart.
It was a Monday in early September, and he was returning to his work from a hurried dip into the
country, but what was Miss Bart doing in town at that season? If she had appeared to be catching a
train, he might have inferred that he had come on her in the act of transition between one and another
of the country-houses which disputed her presence after the close of the Newport season: but her
desultory air perplexed him. She stood apart from the crowd, letting it drift by her to the platform or the
street, and wearing an air of irresolution which might, as he surmised, be the mask of a very definite
purpose. It struck him at once that she was waiting for some one, but he hardly knew why the idea
arrested him. There was nothing new about Lily Bart, yet he could never see her without a faint
movement of interest: it was characteristic of her that she always roused speculation, that her simplest
acts seemed the result of far-reaching intentions.
An impulse of curiosity made him turn out of his direct line to the door and stroll past her. He knew that
if she did not wish to be seen she would contrive to elude him; and it amused him to think of putting
her skill to the test.
"Mr Selden – what good luck!"
She came forward smiling, eager, almost, in her resolve to intercept him. One or two persons, in
brushing past them, lingered to look; for Miss Bart was a figure to arrest even the suburban traveller
rushing to his last train.
Selden had never seen her more radiant. Her vivid head, relived against the dull tints of the crowd,
made her more conspicuous than in a ball-room, and under her dark hat and veil she regained the
girlish smoothness, the purity of tint, that she was beginning to lose after eleven years of late hours
and indefatigable dancing. Was it really eleven years, Selden found himself wondering, and had she
indeed reached the nine-and-twentieth birthday with which her rivals credited her?
"What luck!" she repeated. "How nice of you to come to my rescue!"
He responded joyfully that to do so was his mission in life, and asked what form the rescue was to
take.
"In the first sentence the reader is introduced to the main characters, Lily Bart and Selden. Selden and
Lily have known each other for a long time ('there was nothing new about Lily') but every time Selden
meets her he finds her interesting and good-looking. He is surprised to see her so unsure of herself,
because he has always thought of her as someone who knows exactly what she wants. He therefore
thinks she may possibly behave in this indecisive manner on purpose.
I think Edith Wharton has a clever way of showing the tragedy of the main characters: Lily does not
know how to make the 'right' decision. A good example is the way she gives up the prize of a marriage
with the extremely rich but also utterly boring Percy Gryce, preferring to go on an afternoon walk in the
countryside with Selden.
And Selden's tragedy is that he completely misjudges Lily, because he does not want to get involved
and prefers to remain an on-looker.
The setting here is New York's Grand Central Station with people hurrying in and out of the station.
Lily is the only person standing there more or less aimlessly. She is looking beautiful that afternoon
('Selden had never seen her more radiant'). It looks as if she is on her way to join the New York jet set
in one of their great country houses, but Selden knows this cannot be so because the summer season
Example discussion House of Mirth page 2 of 3
in Newport's country houses has ended. He sees her standing there, apart from the crowd, paying no
attention to her surroundings and looking indecisive.
New York itself, here introduced through Grand Central Station, plays an important part in the novel.
The detailed description of the interior decor of the houses on Fifth Avenue, owned by the very rich,
often of Dutch descent, shows us that people with lots of money do not always own beautiful things.
On the contrary; their conspicuous (opvallend, duurdoenerig) show of wealth is often ugly or in bad
taste.
Here the reader can see clearly the problem Lily faces; either marry for money and security and
accept boredom and ugliness as part of the bargain, or choose Selden and be free of the social
pressures of the rich.
These meetings between Selden and Lily recur throughout the book. Selden just sees her as a woman
out to get a rich husband, and when he realises that she needed him to help her choose for his
'republic', it is too late."
She dropped to the seat without answering, but the electric lamp at the bend of the path shed a gleam
on the struggling misery of her face. Selden sat down beside her, waiting for her to speak, fearful lest
any word he chose should touch too roughly on her wound, and kept also from free utterance by the
wretched doubt which had slowly renewed itself within him. What had brought her to this pass? What
weakness had placed her so abominably at her enemy's mercy? And why should Bertha Dorset have
turned into an enemy at the very moment when she so obviously needed the support of her sex? Even
while his nerves rages at the subjection of husbands to their wives and at the cruelty of women to their
kind, reason obstinately harped on the proverbial relation between smoke and fire. The memory of
Mrs. Fisher's hints and the corroboration of his own impressions, while they deepened his pity, also
increased his constrain since, whichever way he sought a free outlet for sympathy, it was blocked by
the fear of committing a blunder.
Suddenly it struck him that his silence must seem almost as accusatory as that of the men he had
despised for turning from her; but before he could find the fitting word, she had cut him short with a
question.
"Do you know of a quiet hotel? I can send for my maid in the morning."
"An hotel – here – that you can go to alone? It's not possible."
She met this with a pale gleam of her old playfulness. "What is then? It's too wet to sleep in the
gardens."
"But there must be some one – "
"Some one to whom I can go? Of course – any number – but at this hour? You see, my change of plan
was rather sudden –"
"Good God – if you'd listened to me!" he cried, venting his helplessness in a burst of anger.
"Throughout the book there are passages that confirm the underlying theme of the book: the individual
against the world at large. Here Lily is the exceptional individual, more sensitive perhaps, more
beautiful, more of an artist than most of the others. She loses again and again, and in the end is
destroyed.
This passage towards the middle of the book is a good example of such a situation. Again the setting
is used to show clearly Lily's inner feelings. She is alone, abandoned by her so-called 'friends', who
have simply used her to solve their own problems.
Selden again refuses to become personally involved, because he does not really believe her. He does
not understand the real cause of Lily's problems and although he would like to help her, he is too
afraid of making a big mistake. So he remains an on-looker, unaware of the great strength he could
give Lily if only he could bring himself to trust her."
Then, gradually, his troubled vision cleared, old hints and rumours came back to him, and out of the
very insinuations he had feared to probe he constructed an explanation of the mystery. It was true,
then, that she had taken money from Trenor; but true also, as the contents of the little desk declared,
that the obligation had been intolerable to her and that at the first opportunity she had freed herself
from it, though the act left her face to face with bare, unmitigated poverty.
That was all he knew, all he could hope to unravel of the story. The mute lips on the pillow refused him
more than this, unless indeed they had told him the rest in the kiss they had left upon his forehead.
Yes, he could now read into that farewell all that his heart craved to find there; he could even draw
from it courage not to accuse himself for having failed to reach the height of his opportunity.
Example discussion House of Mirth page 3 of 3
He saw that all the conditions of life had conspired to keep them apart, since his very detachment form
the external influences which swayed her had increased his spiritual fastidiousness and made it more
difficult for him to live and love uncritically. But at least he had loved her, had been willing to stake his
future on his faith in her, and if the moment had been fated to pass from them before they could seize
it, he saw now that, for both, it had been saved whole out of the ruin of their lives.
It was this moment of love, this fleeting victory over themselves, which had kept them from atrophy
and extinction, which, in her, had reached out to him in every struggle against the influence of her
surroundings, and in him, had kept alive the faith that now drew him penitent and reconciled to her
side.
He knelt by the bed and bent over her, draining their last moment to its lees; and in the silence there
passed between them the word which made all clear.
"In the end Lily overcomes her moral weakness, and uses the last of her money to repay Trenor. but
this means she will have to face terrible poverty and an early death. Selden, who had mistrusted her
relationship with Trenor, finally realises her true worth. But when he at last comes to tell her that he
loves her, he is too late. On this last page we see how all the threads of the story the author has given
us on the first page have come together."
Step 4: conclusion
"Lily's loneliness is stressed again and again. Her problem time and again is that she has no money
and seems to feel that only money will bring her happiness. But in the end she is made of 'finer
material' – she refuses to save herself by giving Rosedale Bertha Dorset's letters and she pays off all
her debts, even though this means absolute poverty. The individual who is in any way different, finer
than 'the others' is punished and dies."
Final advice
This will give you some idea of how reading a novel step by step like this can help you to grasp the
theme of the book. Once you have established what the problem is the writer is discussing, you can
find many details that relate to this main problem, showing that you have formulated the theme
correctly.