Edith Wharton’s ‘The House of Mirth’ Details Economic Inequality Between Sexes
In the early 1900’s, the beginning of the consumer era brought with it additional spending opportunities and a different set of values for most Americans. In Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth, Lawrence Selden and Lily Bart both aspire to achieve the new American Dream of financial independence, but the limitations placed on Lily as a young female in the early twentieth century prevent her from fulfilling this ambition.
The House of Mirth provides an excellent depiction of New York upper-class life in the early 1900’s. Around this time, many people discovered that as the number of opportunities to spend money increased the importance of money became more of a focus in society. In The House of Mirth the basis of much societal interaction is money, which serves as a prerequisite of sorts for admission to the upper-class social circle. Acceptable leisure activities for the upper-class included gambling and throwing elaborate parties, activities that provide members of this society an opportunity to rate the financial status of others.
As America completed its transformation from an agrarian to consumer-driven society and people became more dependent on commercially produced goods, the men who could afford to buy the most goods enjoyed the greatest advantages. Women, who were almost always financially dependent on others, were therefore left at great disadvantage. In the early 1900’s, women had few options for achieving the financial success now prized as an integral part of the American Dream. Although lower-class women often worked in factories in order to help support themselves and their families, working was usually not considered an option for a woman who was a member of “society.” Once an upper-class woman reached a marriageable age, she was generally expected to do her best to attach a financially stable husband who would support her. Unmarried women, such as The House of Mirth‘s Gerty Farish, typically depended on the kindness of friends and relatives or their own small inheritances to support themselves. However, it is important to note that while marriage may have bought more economic freedom for women of this time period, it did not bring an escape from all troubles. Once married, women merely replaced financial concerns with domestic burdens.
Lily Bart, the unmarried 29-year-old protagonist of The House of Mirth, believes wholeheartedly in the new American Dream of financial success but is unable to achieve this dream through the same methods as her male counterparts. As a woman, Lily feels the best way for her to be successful is to end up in a financially sound and socially prestigious marriage-even if this means giving up her secret hopes of marrying a man whom she truly loves. Lily’s struggle to reconcile her conflicting feelings towards marriage is one of the central themes of The House of Mirth. Of Lily’s initial encounter with Percy Gryce Wharton writes, “She had been bored all the afternoon by Percy Gryce-the mere thought seemed to awaken an echo of his droning voice-but she could not ignore him on the morrow, she must follow up on her success, must submit to more boredom, must be ready with fresh compliances and adaptabilities, and all on the bare chance that he might ultimately decide to do her the honor of boring her for life. It was a hateful fate-but how escape from it? What choice had she?” Lily’s lack of money is the source of the depression that leads to her demise at the end of the novel-she views poverty as a form of slavery and financial independence as freedom.
In Lily’s world, beauty and charm are the methods used to attempt to reach her goals. Throughout most of The House of Mirth, Lily treats marriage as a “hunt” and her physical attractiveness and pleasant personality as her primary “weapons.” For example, when Lily is attempting to pursue bachelor Percy Gryce at a weekend party, Wharton describes her efforts to interest him in aggressive, almost competitive terms. Wharton writes that Lily is “tranquilly studying her prey though downcast lashes while she organized a method of attack.” For Lily, marriage is not the end result of love and courtship; it is a means of obtaining financial security and greater purchasing power in an increasingly consumer-driven society.
Throughout her life, Lily’s friends and family reinforce the importance of the traditional feminine role in her mind. From an early age, Lily’s mother taught her that her beauty was an important asset. Mrs. Bart’s ambition was to have her daughter marry a wealthy man and help the family regain its place in society. Of Mrs. Bart, Wharton writes, “She studied Lily’s beauty with a kind of passion, as though it were some weapon she had slowly fashioned for her vengeances. It was the last asset in their fortunes, the nucleus around which their life was to be built.” Later, Lawrence Selden-one of the few people Lily genuinely cares for-asks her, “Isn’t marriage your vocation?” while discussing the role of women in society.
Lawrence Selden differs from Lily in that his gender allows him a certain measure of freedom that Lily never manages to achieve. Like Lily, he aspires to achieve financial independence and find a suitable marriage partner. However, his choice of whom to marry is not affected by money because his own income is enough to adequately support himself and his wife. As a man, Selden is also under less pressure to maintain the perilous social connections that dominate much of Lily’s free time. He is able to take an intellectual interest in the events of upper-class society without actually involving himself in them and is more or less accepted into the upper-class society even though is not particularly wealthy. For example, when Selden attends the tableaux vivant at the Brys’ home he observes the scene in a manner that is both amused and detached. “If he did not often act on the social axiom that a man may go where he pleases, it was because he had long since learned that his pleasures were mainly to be found in a small group of the like-minded. But he enjoyed spectacular effects, and was not insensible to the part that money plays in their production: all he asked was that the very rich should live up to their calling as stage managers, and not spend their money in a dull way.”
Selden reaches his goal of financial independence by obtaining the education necessary to become a lawyer. This choice of an occupation provides him with an income that is modest compared to the other members of Lily’s social circle, but sufficient for his needs. Due to both his gender and upbringing, Selden’s attitude towards money differs from Lily’s. Like Lily, Selden grew up in a family of somewhat modest means. However, Selden’s parents placed less importance on material possessions-an attitude which Selden himself later adopted. “A man has the advantage of being delivered early from the home point of view, and before he left college he had earned that there are as many different ways of going without money as of spending it.” In addition, as a young boy Selden was not socialized to view marriage as his “vocation.”
Although Selden is one of the few members of the upper-class social circle who is steadily employed, he is generally accepted as a part of the group. Selden takes a trip to Monte Carlo with Carry Fisher and is invited to many of the same social events as Lily-even though he makes little effort to meet the expectations of others. Selden is portrayed by Wharton as a man in charge of his own destiny-unlike Lily, he does not seek the continual approval of others. For example, he is exceptionally kind to his cousin Gerty Farish-even she is looked down upon by many members of the upper-class.
In conclusion, Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth shows readers that gender does in fact influence a person’s chances for achieving the American Dream-especially when this dream is defined in purely economic terms. Lawrence Selden and Lily Bart both aspire to achieve financial independence, but the limitations placed on Lily as a young female in the early twentieth century prevent her from fulfilling this ambition.
