Lily Bart and the Beautiful Death

Abstract

TN House of Mirth Revisited Diana Trilling observes parallel between Bart's decline and the inevitable defeat of in a crass materialistic society.' Trilling does not develop all of implications of this statement, though she goes on to remark that Lily herself possesses quality of a fine work of art and that own ambitions are those of art.2 Certainly new New York's reduction of all values-emotional, ethical, artistic-to questions of portable property was a consistent object of Wharton's scorn and satire; yet at least insofar as problem of is concerned, Lily's role in The House of Mirth is a more complex one than Trilling's observation can describe. Within world of novel, both and her friends perceive her confusedly: she is an uncertain blend of and nature with a streak of sylvan freedom in her nature that lent such savour to her artificiality.3 Often neither she nor her closest observers can distinguish between merely spontaneous and studiedly affecting (the careless lack of definition in her suicide is of a piece with rest of her behavior). Indeed, it is not too much to say that this consistent confusion between ideal and real as it is manifested by all characters in novel-and resultant depersonalization of chrysalid character that is Lily's only inheritance-leads directly to heart of tragedy. Before we begin a detailed examination of effect on Bart of confusion that attends her attempts at self-definition, we must digress to examine notions of visual and artistic expression that pervade The House of Mirth. (It is important throughout course of this discussion to be clear that we are not examining Wharton's own notions of art, but artistic environment that surrounds Bart.) During this period newly wealthy