The House of Mirth, Book One, Sections I and II

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

Book One of Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth opens with the novel's protagonist, Miss Lily Bart, capturing the gaze of a Mr. Selden.  Wharton quickly develops Lily into a fine, beautiful woman with sentences like, "Miss Bart was a figure to arrest even the suburban traveller rushing to his last train," (Wharton 1).  Such direct characterization collaborates with the indirect sort as, throughout sections I and II, Wharton spins Lily into a gorgeous, eligible, aristocratic woman with an adroit tact in manipulating conversations and people to her own benefit.  Lily's dialogue with Selden in The Benedick both elucidates some of her character traits, most notably her conversation skills and social status, and reveals what I believe will be a pervading conflict for the remainder of the novel: Lily's struggle between marrying for wealth or for love.  Dillworth, a stock character playing a cameo in the first two sections, illustrates this conflict perfectly.  Through Lily and Selden's interactions, the reader learns that Dillworth had been a rich suitor that Lily could have married, but did not.  After mentioning Lily's forgotten suitor, Selden speaks with Lily on marriage, explaining that he would never marry merely for wealth, and the topic consumes the remainder of their conversation.

Following the dialogue and romantic tension between Lily and Selden, Lily departs for a party at the Trenors' and passes by an unpleasant looking old cleaning woman who serves to juxtapose Lily's high society persona with that of more common folk in order to explain what marrying for wealth will help Lily avoid.  Slightly put off by the old woman, Lily encounters a new character, Mr. Rosedale, who creates the novels second major conflict.  Rosedale inquires as to what Lily had been doing in The Benedick and, in order to save face and avoid looking scandalous, Lily lies and tells him she was visiting her dress-maker.  Being the owner of The Benedick, Rosedale sees through Lily's facade and immediately Lily knows that she has gotten herself in trouble.  However, Lily escapes Rosedale's presence by taking a taxi and ends up speaking with a Mr. Percy Gryce on a train to the Trenors' party.  The conversation with Gryce further develops Lily's conversation skills and paints her as slightly manipulative as she knows exactly how to get Mr. Gryce speaking and play to his personality.  As the first two sections close, Mrs. Bertha Dorset enters the novel and intimates to a possibly devious nature about her by asking Lily for a cigarette and embarrassing her within minutes of entering the train car.  Furthermore, the final sentence of section two describes Mrs. Dorset as having, " . . . a smile which made Lily wish there had been no vacant seat beside her own," which clearly hints to Dorset possibly being an antagonist in the novel (Wharton 18).