LILY BART 1 
LILY BART
Who is Lily Bart?
Lily Bart is 29 when House of Mirth begins. She's beautiful – in a show-stopping kind of way – and she, and everyone around her, knows it. On top of her looks, Lily has the social skills to parlay her beauty into a rich marriage and a life of luxury and ease. Raised by a mother who taught her the price of everything and the value of nothing and a father who lost and unsuccessfully endeavored to rebuild a family fortune, Lily is told by her mother that it is incumbent upon her to use her beauty in order to marry into wealth. Throughout the novel, she has countless opportunities to marry eligible bachelors, including a smart and sexy lawyer, a rich and handsome Italian prince, a wealthy book collector, a would-be Wall Street divorcé, and a social-climbing man who is extremely rich.
And she throws them all away. One of Lily's biggest issues is pride, which we can blame for these failed marriage opportunities. She's too proud to talk to Rosedale, to let Bertha think that Selden came to Bellomont to visit her, to explain her side of the story regarding the Monte Carlo affair, or to marry a man like Selden who isn't dripping hundred dollar bills out of his pores. She can't even allow herself to be true friends with a caring woman like Gerty because she's too "dingy." Time and time again, Lily recoils from any sign of poverty (or anything that isn't elaborate or doesn't represent extreme wealth) as though it were physically contaminating.
Lily is "naturally fitted to dominate any situation in which she [finds] herself" (2.8.37). This adaptability is a key part of her character; Wharton writes that Lily is "supple," "a pliable substance [that] is less easy to break than a stiff one," and "inwardly as malleable as wax" (1.3.67, 1.5.6). Wharton is right to point out that Lily's adaptability can also be read as fickleness, which explains why she "works like a slave preparing the ground and sowing her seed; but the day she ought
Who is Lily Bart?
Lily Bart is 29 when House of Mirth begins. She's beautiful – in a show-stopping kind of way – and she, and everyone around her, knows it. On top of her looks, Lily has the social skills to parlay her beauty into a rich marriage and a life of luxury and ease. Raised by a mother who taught her the price of everything and the value of nothing and a father who lost and unsuccessfully endeavored to rebuild a family fortune, Lily is told by her mother that it is incumbent upon her to use her beauty in order to marry into wealth. Throughout the novel, she has countless opportunities to marry eligible bachelors, including a smart and sexy lawyer, a rich and handsome Italian prince, a wealthy book collector, a would-be Wall Street divorcé, and a social-climbing man who is extremely rich.
And she throws them all away. One of Lily's biggest issues is pride, which we can blame for these failed marriage opportunities. She's too proud to talk to Rosedale, to let Bertha think that Selden came to Bellomont to visit her, to explain her side of the story regarding the Monte Carlo affair, or to marry a man like Selden who isn't dripping hundred dollar bills out of his pores. She can't even allow herself to be true friends with a caring woman like Gerty because she's too "dingy." Time and time again, Lily recoils from any sign of poverty (or anything that isn't elaborate or doesn't represent extreme wealth) as though it were physically contaminating.
Lily is "naturally fitted to dominate any situation in which she [finds] herself" (2.8.37). This adaptability is a key part of her character; Wharton writes that Lily is "supple," "a pliable substance [that] is less easy to break than a stiff one," and "inwardly as malleable as wax" (1.3.67, 1.5.6). Wharton is right to point out that Lily's adaptability can also be read as fickleness, which explains why she "works like a slave preparing the ground and sowing her seed; but the day she ought