Mirth; Book 1, Sections III and IV

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

“Her beauty itself was not the mere ephemeral possession it might have been in the hands of inexperience. . .” (Wharton, 39). The structure of this quote complements the novel on its focus of high-society. The diction throughout these sections, with words such as ephemeral, emanation, and pliancy, show a sense of higher learning and understanding. Only the wealthy could afford the higher learning suggested by the diction and sentence structure. To show off their higher learning, the wealthy spoke with elevated diction to convey their elite status to others. In addition, Wharton’s sentence presents evidence of higher-class society. The average sentence length is longer than twenty words and almost every sentence contains multiple clauses.

                Wharton’s imagery is very descriptive and well crafted. For example, “The hall was arcaded, with a gallery supported on columns of pale yellow marble. Tall clumps of flowering plants were grouped against a background of dark foliage in the angles of the walls. On the crimson carpet a deer-hound and two or three spaniels dozed luxuriously before the fire, and the light from the great central lantern overhead shed a brightness on the women’s hair and struck sparks from their jewels as they moved” (Wharton, 19). This quote shows her well-crafted imagery and serves as an example of her imagery throughout the novel. Moreover, her imagery contributes to the sense of an upper class society. Her descriptions contain elegant diction and the images themselves seem to be very luxurious.