Dying To Survive : An Analysis Of Edith Wharton's The House Of Mirth
Dying to Survive
Edith Wharton, a novelist from the early 1900's, wrote several stories and novels about old New York. She was raised in old New York and observed this society in transition as new money was being infused into the old society. She was interested in the morals of this group of people. She touches on this in her novel The House of Mirth. She shows the extremes the rich can go to maintain their social position. Lily Bart, the main character, is sacrificed to this society. In Wharton's autobiography A Backward Glance, she comments on her novel The House of Mirth, "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"(940). Lily does not have a chance. She violates the mores of New York's elite. In reality, she is no more than an object to be admired and bartered for. BECAUSE......
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Approximate Word Count: 4229
Approximate Pages: 17 (250 words per double-spaced page)
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