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No Laughing
Matter: The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton
by
Marilyn Green Faulkner
The title for
Wharton's great novel of manners comes from Ecclesiastes 7:2-4:
"It is better
to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting:
for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to
his heart. Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness
of the countenance the heart is made better. The heart of the
wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in
the house of mirth."
Set in New
York at the turn of the century, The House of Mirth traces
the decline of Lily Bart, a beautiful product of the new leisure
class that rose in America on the economic boom that followed the
Civil War. Wealthy, idle, and envied by the working classes, these
fashionable New Yorkers drifted from one social engagement to another,
producing nothing and consuming everything in sight. Lily Bart,
raised to this luxury but orphaned and impoverished, must "marry
well" to secure her financial and social future.
As the novel
opens Lily is already twenty-nine years old, and has somehow passed
up several excellent opportunities. For even though an advantageous
marriage is all that Lily professes to be seeking, her independence
of spirit is in conflict with the necessity of subjugating herself
to an inferior man with a superior fortune. Lily's attempts to secure
a husband form the plot of the novel. Her eventual destruction by
a society built on false principles forms its heart.
The novel is
beautifully constructed. The first few paragraphs sketch the two
main characters, Lily Bart and her soul mate, Lawrence Seldon, and
foreshadow the course of the action. Even the first words, "Lawrence
Seldon paused..." are a perfect definition of his character. Lawrence
will continue to pause, and pontificate, and deliberate, and miss
the point, right until the final scene. By the same token, Lily's
"air of irresolution," which so intrigues him as he meets her in
a train station, will define her actions and eventually undo her.
She will make many crucial choices by simply refusing to decide
what to do.
Though she never
does anything truly dishonest or immoral, Lily gets herself into
one mess after another, and ends with a tarnished reputation she
does not deserve. Or does she? Lily is a brilliant study in self-deception.
In order to live a lie (that she is marrying for love rather than
selling herself to the highest bidder) Lily must keep her true motives
secret, even from herself. This, after long practice, she has learned
to do by channeling her thoughts away from honest introspection.
"She was always
scrupulous about keeping up appearances to herself. Her personal
fastidiousness had a moral equivalent, and when she made a tour
of inspection in her own mind there were certain closed doors she
did not open." (131)
Edith Wharton,
born Edith Newbold Jones, was herself a product of the society she
attacks in The House of Mirth. Born in 1862, the only daughter
of parents descended from the old New York aristocracy, Wharton
was raised in a home where no one worked. Time was divided between
residences in New York, Newport, and Europe. Rather than attend
public school she had private tutors, and made a social debut at
seventeen, after which she attended the rounds of balls and parties
that made up her world until she married Edward Wharton in 1885.
She seemed destined for a conventional life as a hostess, wife and
mother, but her life took a different course.
The Whartons
had no children, and in her thirties, Edith suffered bouts of severe
depression. She began to write in response to this, first short
stories and articles, and even a landmark book on home decorating,
the first of its kind. Then, around 1900 she conceived of the idea
of writing a novel about her own peer group, with its hidden immoralities
and hypocrisies. She knew that she must find a way to write about
her world that would hold the interest of others, for whom that
world was only a dream. The answer was to create a character that
bridged both worlds, and the result was The House of Mirth,
published in 1905. The novel was an instant success, and was the
best selling book in the nation for much of that year, establishing
Wharton as a serious novelist and launching a career that eventually
earned her the Pulitzer Prize in 1921. Wharton eventually divorced
her husband in 1913 and spent the rest of her life in France. She
died in 1937.
Lily Bart, coming
as she does from the fringes of the great society, is a character
that captures the imagination whether one is rich or poor, beautiful
or ugly. Her exterior poise and grace hides a terrible confusion,
and her morality, somewhat lax, is the product of a world that rewards
conformity and punishes independent thought, especially in women.
She is expected, above all things, to be decorative, and for this
she must have plenty of money, but she must not appear to be seeking
it. Wharton was a shrewd businesswoman and understood firsthand
what it took to create the beautiful creatures that rode in carriages
up and down Fifth Avenue. As Seldon admires Lily's beauty, he actually
visualizes her as a commodity, a product of much labor:
"Everything
about her was at once vigorous and exquisite, at once strong and
fine. He had a confused sense that she must have cost a great deal
to make, that a great many dull and ugly people must, in some mysterious
way, have been sacrificed to produce her." (7)
Through Lily
Bart, Wharton challenged the thinking of her generation about women's
role. If the only option available to a young woman was marriage,
marriage became a business proposition rather than a relationship
of mutual love and respect. The alliances formed through marriage
secured the continuity of the leisure class, but they did little
to make the world a better place. Lily's continual frustration lies
in the fact that all her intelligence and ability must be directed
toward appearing in a certain way rather than becoming anything
of value. The suffrage movement and the entry of women into the
workforce during the two World Wars lie just ahead of this biting,
satirical novel. Wharton saw that something needed changing in her
world, and through her novels was able to help others see it as
well. Lily's grace and beauty symbolize what society ought to be,
and isn't. Her inevitable destruction shows us what happens when
life is built on leisure, appearance and glamour, rather than on
duty, industry and morality.
The House
of Mirth is the March selection for the Best Books Club. To
discuss this and other works of classic literature, log on to our
new website at www.thebestbooksclub.com. Join the
conversation!
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