The House of Mirth- Book Two

Chapter Three

The House of Mirth

By Edith Wharton

Mildred Lisette Norman once said, "Love is the greatest power on earth. It conquers all things.” Edith Wharton, seeing and knowing the power of love, challenges the emotion as one of the central themes within her novel. Whether the love a friend or the love of a spouse, Wharton emphasizes its importance and the necessity to respect it within society.   

Through the challenges that arise in Chapter Three, Wharton portrays the influence and power of love. Despite all of the grievances, betrayal, and embarrassment that Mrs. Dorset thrusts at Lily by twisting her story, Lily continues to lookout for and stay with her friend even when her own image could be at risk. Similarly, Selden, despite the heart-ake  and pain Lily has caused him by not acknowledging her love for him, continues to look out for her best interest and protect her. Even in seeing her greatest weaknesses, he loved her and tried to move on so that she could chose the life she desired and he not block her way. In that, "His real detachment from her had taken place, not at the lurid moment of disenchantment, but now, in the sober after-light of discrimination, where he saw her definitely divided form him by the crudeness of choice which seemed to deny the very differences he felt in her (Wharton, Page 174)." Despite his detachment, it is Selden that stands by Lily and helps her when everyone else leaves her. In reading this chapter and admiring Selden's continued friendship and dedication to Lily, I am reminded of John Tyree from Dear John who looks out for Savannah Curtis out of true friendship and love by helping finance her husbands medical treatments despite knowing that he will never be able to marry Savannah. 

Through such characters and acts of friendship, Wharton portrays the true meaning of love. In her work, she shows that love is one of the most beautiful gifts of friendship often given even when not deserved.  Most importantly though, she shows its power to change the world even if only for one individual. 

Chapter Two

The House of Mirth

By Edith Wharton

Throughout the novel, Edith Wharton uses various literary techniques to intensify her style and expand upon the quality of the work. Such literary techniques allow the piece to flow more smoothly by adding transitions and references to previous statements in addition to breaking the piece up with humor and outside references. One such powerful technique used constantly throughout the novel is irony. 

In reflecting upon her adventure into Europe with the Dorsets, Lily views the trip as a "...miraculous release from crushing difficulties (Wharton, Page 157)." This statement, however, is ironic in that through the trip, Lily has not truly escaped her difficulties, but simply prolonged them as she still must find a mean to pay back her debts. Concurrently, Lily finds herself in an ironic situation as she looks to help and protect Mrs. Dorset from a divorce, but finds herself threatened by Mrs. Dorset's twisting tail of events. Within the first two sections of the second book of the novel, Wharton additionally uses irony in how Mr. Selden and Lily crossed paths once more. Selden, looking to avoid Lily, ironically finds himself in a train with her.  

Such placement of irony effectively twists the story in unexpected directions and makes issues within the novel more apparent. Most enjoyably though, irony adds humor. For, as Henry James once said in the Washington Square, "Don't underestimate the value of irony-it is extremely valuable."