“And in the silence there passed between them the word which made all clear.”
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton depicts the complicated relationship between class, wealth, and romance. Set in New York City during the Gilded Age, the novel follows Lily Bart, a 29-year-old woman of high class and poor finances, with no money to her name. Lily’s primary goal is to find and marry a man of means to cement her position in society and live comfortably. However, whenever she is put in a position to marry men that she claims are her ideal, she either flat-out refuses them or does something to inadvertently spoil her chances.
One candidate is Rosedale, an extremely wealthy, up-and-coming man. Being new money, he is not welcome in high society, yet he yearns to be a part of this exclusive class. In an attempt to break in, he proposes to Lily. Lily, believing she can do better, rejects him. The man who seems to truly pique her interest is Lawrence Selden. However, Selden does not fit Lily’s ideal vision of her future spouse. He is not very wealthy and wishes to remain detached from high society. Despite this, Lily and Selden are continually put in situations through which feelings for one another materialize and blossom.
Wharton comments on the fragility of both wealth and status, depicting the way in which both these factors are irrelevant and even contentious with the pursuit of happiness. Selden and Lily’s puzzling relationship keeps readers on their toes, prompting feelings of confusion and uncertainty. By drawing these emotions out of her readers, Wharton expresses her feelings on the triviality of high society, displaying that true happiness is not attained through wealth or status.
Placed into this setting, I found myself exploring the instability of high society. Seeing how each character’s decisions are so heavily restricted, despite their wealth and power, made me think about the imbalance of power and actual agency. Despite being the most “elite” class, they are still bound by responsibility and motives ulterior to pure joy when considering their personal relationships.
I was engrossed by the tension between Selden and Lily, with their love hindered only by material wealth. The moments when they realized their mutual feelings were fervently impassioned, with them both having an urgency to share with the other. Wharton inexplicitly defined these moments, describing them only as a word that suddenly struck each of them. Lily had “something she must tell Selden, some word she had found that should make life clear between them” and Selden “had found the word he meant to say to her, and it could not wait another moment to be said. It was strange that it had not come to his lips sooner — that he had let her pass from him the evening before without being able to speak it.”
As I read the novel, the thought of how much more attainable their love would be if they were of lower class lingered in my mind. They are suffering due to the circumstances of their birth, yet these circumstances are the status that others, like Rosedale, dream of. Here, Wharton expresses the contradiction of Lily and Selden’s respective societal power and how it restricts their agency.
By highlighting the love of Lily and Selden, impossible only due to their social responsibilities, Wharton makes iy clear that happiness is not guaranteed by wealth or status.