Bailey Allen
Ms. Cavaney
AP English
19 August 2014
House of Mirth Quotations
1. House of Mirth, written by Edith Wharton, is a novel critiquing the wealthy social hierarchy, which the main character Lily lives in. Wharton seems to make fun of Lily’s desperation to marry herself off. Throughout the novel, Lily encounters men that she believes may be marriage material. Each man is from the rich aristocracy who has enough money to support her high standard lifestyle. Lily uses her attractiveness and flirty personality to draw men in to investigate their financial situation and become acquainted. In the beginning of the novel, Lily encountered Lawrence Selden at the train station. She ventures back to his apartment to make small talk over tea.
…show more content…
In Book II, it takes place in the Mediterranean on the Dorset’s yacht. They invited Lily to come along on the journey and she uses this opportunity to flirt and look her best for all the men on the boat. Selden feels nervous to see Lily after all of the rumors floating around about Lily and Gus Trenor. Mrs. Fisher was telling Selden how Lily had many prior relationships that could have even led to marriage but she decided to flirt with another family member causing the marriage proposals to fizzle out. “That’s Lily all over, you know: she works like a slave preparing the ground and sowing her seed; but the day she ought to be reaping the harvest she over-sleeps herself or goes off on a picnic” (p.183). This quote said by Mrs. Fisher is a metaphor for Lily’s love life. It means that Lily will put all the effort into finding a husband but right when its time for marriage she breaks it off. This shows Lily has commitment issues because she always believes there will be a better guy who makes more money. This is one of the main reasons why I do not sympathize with Lily because she would rather marry someone with a larger financial status and she will hop from guy to guy trying to find one with the largest income. This again presents the theme throughout the book of marrying for money over …show more content…
Lily has no job, no friends, and cannot live the luxury life that she had always dreamed about. She joins the working force, which in her mind was the lowest thing in society. Lily was embarrassed and seems to become depressed with her life. Lily ventures to the doctor to get on sleeping medicine to try and relive her sleeping problems. The day Lily got fired from work; her world fell apart leading to the cycle effect of her death. That night she received money from her aunt’s inheritance. She used that to pay off all of her debts but it left her with no money to support herself. When she got into bed, she took her sleeping medicine but Lily overdosed. “She lay very still, waiting with a sensuous pleasure for the first effects of the soporific” (p.299). She died that night in her sleep and was found the next morning by Gerty and Selden. Seeing her perished body, Selden realized that his proposal for his true love was too late and he should have acted earlier. I think that by Lilly overdosing on the medication that it was her way of escaping the life she was in. This was the one way she could get out and finally enjoy the life that she had always
“For the first time in his life he sees her in a new light: he sees her as no longer the listless creature who had lived at his side in a state of self-absorption, but a mysterious alien presence an evil energy secreted from the long years of silent brooding…” (Wharton 117) Edith Wharton is best known for her books Ethan Frome and The House of Mirth. Wharton was often compared to another writer in her time, Henry James. Even though this occurred, she considered her books one of a kind. She was pleased with her work, but the critics were not. Often, she received poor reviews, but this did not stop her; in fact, she then went on to be the first woman to win The Legion of Honor Medal. Wharton also won the Pulitzer Prize and a gold
In the beginning of the novel, as the reader is first introduced to Lily’s character, she comes across as an extremely negative young girl. While thinking about
“Winter lies too long in country towns; hangs on until it is stale and shabby, old and sullen” (“Brainy Quotes” 1). In Edith Wharton’s framed novel, Ethan Frome, the main protagonist encounters “lost opportunity, failed romance, and disappointed dreams” with a regretful ending (Lilburn 1). Ethan Frome lives in the isolated fictional town of Starkfield, Massachusetts with his irritable spouse, Zenobia Frome. Ever since marriage, Zenobia, also referred to as Zeena, revolves around her illness. Furthermore, she is prone to silence, rage, and querulously shouting. Ethan has dreams of leaving Starkfield and selling his plantation, however he views caring for his wife as a duty and main priority. One day, Zeena’s cousin, Mattie Silver, comes to assist the Frome’s with their daily tasks. Immediately, Mattie’s attractive and youthful energy resuscitates Ethan’s outlook on life. She brings a light to Starkfield and instantaneously steals Ethan’s heart; although, Ethan’s quiet demeanor and lack of expression causing his affection to be surreptitious. As Zeena’s health worsens, she becomes fearful and wishes to seek advice from a doctor in a town called Bettsbridge giving Ethan and Mattie privacy for one night. Unfortunately, the night turns out to be a disastrous and uncomfortable evening. Neither Ethan nor Mattie speaks a word regarding their love for one another. Additionally, during their dinner, the pet cat leaps on the table and sends a pickle dish straight to the floor crashing into pieces. To make matters worse, the pickle dish is a favored wedding gift that is cherished by Zeena. Later, Zeena discovers it is broken and it sends her anger over the edge. Furious, Zeena demands for a more efficient “hired girl” to complete the tasks ar...
Firstly, Brave Orchid is a woman warrior because she receives an education later in life. Kingston writes, “Not many women get to live out the daydream of women – to have a room, even a section of a room, that only gets messed up when she messes it up herself” (Kingston 61). In this passage, Kingston reveals that a woman going off to live at school was not a commonality. Amongst the other women she lives with, she is by far the oldest. Despite the fact that older women are supposed to be wiser, Kingston does not provide any characters at school that share Brave Orchid’s age; she is about twenty years everyone’s senior. Therefore, being a fully grown adult woman attending medical school must have been a rarity. She did not subject herself to
Throughout “Ethan Frome,” Edith Wharton renders the idea that freedom is just out of reach from the protagonist, Ethan Frome. The presence of a doomed love affair and an unforgiving love triangle forces Ethan to choose between his duty and his personal desire. Wharton’s use of archetypes in the novella emphasizes how Ethan will make choices that will ultimately lead to his downfall. In Edith Wharton’s, “Ethan Frome.” Ethan is wedged between his duty as a husband and his desire for happiness; however, rather than choosing one or the other, Ethan’s indecisiveness makes not only himself, but Mattie and Zeena miserable.
Ethan Frome is the main character of Edith Wharton’s tragic novel. Ethan lives the bitterness of his youth’s lost opportunities, and dissatisfaction with his joyless life and empty marriage. Throughout the story Ethan is trapped by social limits and obligations to his wife. He lives an unhappy life with many responsibilities and little freedom. Ethan Frome studied science in college for a year and probably would have succeeded as an engineer or physicist had he not been summoned home to run the family farm and mill. Ethan quickly ended his schooling and went to run the family farm and mill because he feels it is his responsibility. He marries Zeena after the death of his mother, in an unsuccessful attempt to escape silence, isolation, and loneliness. Ethan also feels the responsibility to marry Zeena as a way to compensate her for giving up part of her life to nurse his mother. After marring Zeena he forgets his hope of every continuing his education and he is now forced to remain married to someone he does not truly love.
In the small, desolate town of Starkfield, Massachusetts, Ethan Frome lives a life of poverty. Not only does he live hopelessly, but “he was a prisoner for life” to the economy (Ammons 2). A young engineer from outside of town narrates the beginning of the story. He develops a curiosity towards Ethan Frome and the smash-up that he hears about in bits and pieces. Later, due to a terrible winter storm that caused the snow itself to seem like “a part of the thickening darkness, to be the winter night itself descending on us layer by layer” (Wharton 20), the narrator is forced to stay the night at Frome’s. As he enters the unfamiliar house, the story flashes back twenty-four years to Ethan Frome’s young life. Living out his life with Zenobia Frome, his hypochondriac of a wife whom he does not love, Ethan has nowhere to turn for a glance at happiness. But when Zenobia’s, or Zeena’s, young cousin, Mattie Silver, comes to care for her, Ethan falls in love with the young aid. Mattie is Ethan’s sole light in life and “she is in contrast to everything in Starkfield; her feelings bubble near the surface” (Bernard 2). All through the novella, the two young lovers hide their feelings towards each other. When they finally let out their true emotions to each other in the end, the consequence is an unforeseen one. Throughout Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton portrays a twisted fairy tale similar to the story of Snow White with the traditional characters, but without a happy ending to show that in a bleak and stark reality, the beautiful and enchanting maiden could become the witch.
Many people oppose society due to the surroundings that they face and the obstacles that they encounter. Set in the bleak winter landscape of New England, Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton is the story of a poor, lonely man, his wife Zeena, and her cousin Mattie Silver. Ethan the protagonist in this novel, faces many challenges and fights to be with the one he really loves. Frome was trapped from the beginning ever since Mattie Silver came to live with him and his wife. He soon came to fall in love with her, and out of love with his own wife. He was basically trapped in the instances of his life, society’s affect on the relationship, love, poverty, illness, disability, and life.
Lily’s actions are completely driven by her desire to fit into the upper class part of society and her need to have money to successfully do this. The actions she partakes in to achieve these goals are sometimes harshly judged by other characters, but The House of Mirth seems to almost draw sympathy for Lily from the fact that she is stuck in this role she cannot remove herself from. Even through showing other life paths like Gerty Farish’s, Lily’s options for an independent life where she can live the way she desires are limited. What she was taught as a child, the choices she makes because of her childhood, how being poor is viewed by society, and the unjust view of Lily’s actions are what ultimately both destroys Lily and results in her being shown sympathy.
While disaster overwhelms others, guilt consumes Lily. “I was speculating how one day, years from now, I would send the store a dollar in an envelope to cover it, spelling out how much guilt had dominated every moment of my life, when I found myself looking at a picture of the black Mary,” (Kidd 63). Lily at no instant in the novel indicates mailing the envelope or the assumed regret she would posses when she regards the Black Mary. This affair does not suggest years from now she would not send the dollar. This exposes that while she may execute seldom vile things, she would try to rectify them.
Edith Wharton, a famous author of many outstanding books, wrote a chaotic love story entitled Ethan Frome. The story took place in the wintery town of Starkfield, Massachusetts. Wharton was a sophisticated young woman who found love in sitting down and holding people’s attention by way of a pen. Wharton wrote yet another thriller that told the tale of two love stricken people that barely found it possible to be together; which later forced them to fall into the temptation of love that cannot be controlled. Wharton had many different writing styles but for different books meant different needs. In Edith Wharton’s novel, Ethan Frome, frustration and loneliness play roles in disappointment while imagery, symbolism, and individual responsibility provide the novel with a tortuous plot.
In the novel Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the novel displays Papa’s wealth and how competitive he is. These statements are true based on his actions, for an example coming to Kambili’s school to see the girl who got first in class. First, Papa demonstrates that he is anxious about his reputation and he gives some of his wealth away to boost his reputation. Papa is a concerned character when it comes down to his reputation and he shows that when he goes to his village by, “ Greet your parents, make sure you show them this money” (Adichie, 55). Papa is wealthy and is uptight about his reputation in his village. The people around him are being affected too (Kambili, Jaja and Mama) because people view them as uptight about
The reason for this is that Lily did not even leave the hospital in fear of her brother dying or getting worse. She stayed as close to him as she could and even had a heart attack in the hospital worrying for her brother’s life.
Character of Seldon “He declared himself entirely at her disposal: the adventure struck him as diverting. As a spectator, he had always enjoyed Lily Bart; and his course lay so far out of her orbit that it amused him to be drawn for a moment into the sudden intimacy which her proposal implied.” Source: The House of Mirth, By Edith Wharton It should be noted that the role of Selden is highly important because it is a stock role in the novel of manners, and therefore helps in clearing and highlighting the unspoken conversation between people. In the novel the construction of his character is such that he is the observer, the person who cannot marry. It is in this position of the observer, that an unbiased view is shown, and it is through his eyes that we are asked to interpret the society. This role of an observer is very much highlighted by the author, as Seldon’s home forms a private enclave that will not be interrupted and into which very few people are allowed. The novel shows, that Selden is a good friend of Lily, and therefore from time to time, stands to influence her. His char...
Tom and Daisy Buchanan, the rich couple, seem to have everything they could possibly want. Though their lives are full of anything you could imagine, they are unhappy and seek to change, Tom drifts on "forever seeking a little wistfully for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game"(pg. 10) and reads "deep books with long words in them"(pg. 17) just so he has something to talk about. Even though Tom is married to Daisy he has an affair with Myrtle Wilson and has apartment with her in New York.. Daisy is an empty character, someone with hardly any convictions or desires. Even before her relationships with Tom or, Gatsby are seen, Daisy does nothing but sit around all day and wonder what to do with herself and her friend Jordan. She knows that Tom is having an affair, yet she doesn't leave him even when she hears about Gatsby loving her. Daisy lets Gatsby know that she too is in love with him but cant bring herself to tell Tom goodbye except when Gatsby forces her too. Even then, once Tom begs her to stay, even then Daisy forever leaves Gatsby for her old life of comfort. Daisy and Tom are perfect examples of wealth and prosperity, and the American Dream. Yet their lives are empty, and without purpose.