... is a wealthy family man who loans Lily money but expects sexual favors in return. She rejects his advances and makes Mr. Trenor mad; but he never harms her. The material wealth in The House of Mirth is shown through this main storyline. Mr. Trenor uses his money to try to have sexual relations with Lily. Lily's actions after being rejected from both men, Mr. Trenor ... kept them apart. The House of Mirth can be compared to The Rise of Silas Lapham in terms of material wealth and class level in society. Both storylines have high class people in a society who are interest only in money. I...

• Word Count: 471
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

In Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth, elements of naturalism are used to show how the protagonist Lily Bart's life is controlled by her struggle between love and money. According to Encarta's electronic encyclopedia, "naturalistic writers regard human behavior ... Lily Bart is obviously controlled by economic conditions and emotion. She wants nothing more than to be accepted by the high society of New York. Although Lily was raised in an upper society family, she knows the only way for her to remain in that society is to marry a rich man. Even though she could ... is to marry a rich man. Ther...

• Word Count: 622
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... the novel, The House of Mirth, Lily Bart's character changes mentally, emotionally and socially. She starts out as a witty, charming, and beautiful young lady, whom is liked by all, but she ends up lonesome and afraid. She is not able to live up to her mother's teachings in becoming a wealthy, married women, and will give way to the fate of an outcast. The character of ... matter. Lily tried to use her beauty to help her, which it did for a while, but at the end of the book her beauty and charm only hurt her. All of her friends wanted nothing to do with her because they thought that she ...

• Word Count: 1119
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

"Everything about her was at once 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. He was aware that the qualities distinguishing her from the herd of her sex were chiefly external, as though a fine glaze of beauty and fastidiousness had been applied to vulgar clay." -(p 3.) Readers are offered these early impressions of Lily Bart from the mind of Lawrence Selden as they walk toward his flat on Madison Avenue...

• Word Count: 315
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... a world that is mostly run by men. Literature that provides a window into the lives of women of different time periods should hold some truth in it, especially the literature of the "Realistic" era, but you have a hard time finding really "strong" women. In The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton and The Awakening by Kate Chopin, I was hoping to find those strong women role models ... same women leave you questioning their intelligence. It is not the women who need to be changed, it is our society's perception of strength that needs to be changed. In The House of Mirth, we are introduced to...

• Word Count: 1146
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Loneliness is something that many people suffer from. In Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth, loneliness is caused by poverty and depression. At the beginning of the novel, Lily Bart is lonely, but has the novel progresses, her situation only worsens. Loneliness is a dominant theme in The House of Mirth. Lily Bart has been lonely all of her life. Her father was always at work and her mother was too worried about maintaining her ... social position. She constantly told Lily that her beauty was the only thing that she ... him causing her to be in a dreadful position. Lily is also aging quickly,...

• Word Count: 836
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School