WAKE UP, LILY! Throughout sections III and IV, I felt nothing but frustration with Lily's actions and mindset. Even though Bertha has clearly betrayed Lily, she wishes to help Bertha make the best of the scandal she has gotten herself into. Why? Has Lily lost her unyielding moral conscience? No, she simply cannot stand the thought of losing the social standing that an amicable relationship with the Dorsets brings. Regardless, I might have been able to forgive Lily's superficiality and distorted priorities had she not hurt Lawrence Selden so badly. Selden cared for Lily so genuinely and lovingly, even in light of her disgusting materialism; he thought her "matchless", but Lily, unable to overlook Selden's mediocre wealth, refused to foster a relationship with her most worthy suitor (Wharton 174). Accordingly, when Lily, having suffered much embarrassment on the Sabrina, hinted to Selden that she would like to spend a night alone with him, I felt extreme pride in Selden's response: ". . . you must go straight to your cousins, the Stepneys" (Wharton 178). He doesn't deserve to be used as a last resort for comfort.
With section IV, my frustration grew. Lily inherited ten thousand dollars from Mrs. Peniston's will, enough money to repay her debt to Trenor and solve all her problems! But Lily, showing her true colors, laments at Grace Stepney receiving much more than she did and fails to show any semblance of caring for her aunt's sudden death. Lily redeemed herself a tad when she recognized her blunder in the Dorset scandal, but then maximized my frustration when she decided that "She must set out to regain, little by little, the [social] position she had lost" (Wharton 184). Lily had just witnessed the misfortune that her obsession with appearances, luxury, and wealth could bring, and yet she clings to that obsession religiously! WHY?! At the beginning of the novel, I had high hopes for Lily abandoning her meaningless life of affluence in favor of a gratifying existence with Selden but now, I don't know if Lily will ever truly change. Hopefully, she'll surprise me, and rise like a phoenix from the ashes of her vanity.
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| Can Lily be reborn? |
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