Edith Wharton
Seeing as the novel is coming to an end, Wharton needs to wrap up the themes of the story: the reasons she wrote the novel to begin with. She could have saved both of us a lot of time and effort by simply summing up her lessons in axiomatic sentences, but she decided to show these themes in practice and the process of learning the themes through the story of Lily Bart.
While there are several themes presented throughout the novel, the theme of finding one's true self and pursuing love before money play a specific role in this section.
The first theme (finding oneself) has played a central role in the story since Lily's first encounter with Selden. Before this section, however, Lily seemed to do nothing to act on her desires to prove her intrinsic worth. Throughout her life, Lily was used as a an ornament; her mother only paid attention to her inherited beauty, the owner of the hat store only wanted to use her as a model, and Rosedale only wants to marry her to cement his position in the upper ring of society. She finally decides to put her skills rather than her beauty to the test. But it turns out she's terrible at sewing. Even though her attempt at finding something she could do failed, realizing that failure was better than living in debt changed her attitude that might allow her to escape her desires to live in extravagance. Whereas before her escapades in the hat-sewing business living extravagantly was taken for granted, now she realized how fleeting her wealth really was: "I am not sure that I can; but I have gone over my expenses very carefully, and I rather think I shall be able to manage it" (Wharton, 242). Even learning what we are incapable of can set us free from our prejudices.
Freedom.
As Lily begins to find her abilities, her priorities come into perspective. Even though Lily knows very well the rich life and its constituents are not suited for her, the temptation of ease of life drives her to reveal Bertha's secrets and break down the only wall keeping her from her old life. However, when confronted with the option of pursuing a life with Selden instead of a wealthy life, she chooses Selden. By searching for what was truly important in herself, Lily came to accept what was truly important in life: true love, not money.
Good Lord, that was cheesy.
No comments:
Post a Comment