House of Mirth -- by Research Proposal

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In her book Edith Wharton's Women author Susan Goodman writes that Lily suspects "…not much separates the business of marriage from the business of prostitution" (Goodman, 49-50); still, Lily is aware that a prostitute sells "her time, not her soul" -- which Lily has been asked to do. Goodman claims that Lily has a certain "moral appeal" which springs from her "persistent refusal to define herself as a commodity…" (p. 50). Moreover, Lily, according to Goodman's analysis, knows that "the ladylike barter she must effect" (to get the right wealthy man in marriage) "would necessitate her giving up the little sense of self she possesses"; and that for Lily is "a form of living suicide to which she cannot contract" (Goodman p. 50).

Every step that Lily takes up the "social ladder" brings her increasing awareness that "respectable women maintain their honored position because other women are exploited," Goodman writes (p. 51); and this understanding on Lily's part "brings her into a closer relationship with all women regardless of class," Goodman concludes.

While there can be an argument that Lily Bart was just a pawn in New York society's social game, essayist Maureen Howard claims Lily was "…hardly an innocent" (Howard p. 141). Indeed while deep down inside Lily hopes for salvation from the boring parties and pretensions she must endure, Howard writes that Lily is "conventionally corrupt, jaded, snobbish, aging, yet an exceptionally beautiful and quirky product of her society" (Howard 141). In fact Howard goes on to tear into Lily, who is "…unwise and uncertain in estimating her worth, investing heavily in the ornamental woman she was fated to be, given the accident of her birth, placing little value on the useful woman she might have chosen to be against the odds" (Howard 141).

But is Howard being fair to Lily? It seems unfair to assume Lily could beat the odds in this instance.

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Irving Howe writes that Lily should be seen as a survivor, not a phony New York gold digger. "It is as if the world within which Lily moves consists of a series of descending planes… [and yet Lily] survives one drop after another" (Howe, p. 122). If is much more comfortable to buy into Howe's view of Lily, who is the very "portrait of a young woman trapped in her confusions of value." Howe further asserts (122) that Lily's is "a story of love destroyed through these confusions" and sadly Lily ends her days alone, never achieving after all the nirvana that she had been taught and trained to pursue.

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