The House of Mirth by
Edith Wharton
“She
remembered Gerty’s words: ‘I know him—he
will help you’; and her mind clung to them as a sick person might cling to a
healing relic” (Wharton, 141). At this point in the novel, two reoccurring themes
appear to me: forbidden marriage and the wretchedness of money. The forbidden
marriage is forbidden not in the sense that obstacles and forces preventing the
marriage, but that Lily’s mindset refuses to let her marry Selden. The way that
they talk and the way they think about each other proves that, they love each
other. Although Lily clearly loves Selden, her overwhelming appetite for wealth
keeps her searching for better husbands. Moreover, her irrational thinking that
she can always do better prevents her from marrying anybody.
The wretchedness
of money is the other evident theme. Lily’s monetary affairs have almost
destroyed her life. Her lack of money has left her powerless to fix her
situation. Any money she acquired only hurt her. She would use that money to
gamble with the hope that she would make more but she would just lose it all. Furthermore,
money has corrupted the minds of her friends. Her friends only listen to Bertha
Dorset, the richest of all of the women, with the hope that they may receive a
gift. Money has not been kind to Lily throughout this novel.
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