Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth: A Study in the Morality of New York

Abstract

The present study seeks to expose the hollowness of the American dream that ruins the life of Lily Bart and so many other men and women who chased  it at the turn of the century. It aims to highlight the moral bankruptcy of New York where, at the time, people compromised with their morality and ethical values and allowed themselves to be trapped in the glare of fashionable society. The paper also discusses how shrewdness devours naivety and hypocrisy strangles innocence. In the study, we also notice that for every success, women (and men as well) have to, or rather made to, stoop to meanness. It underscores that marriage and true love exist beyond the pale of the shams of the upper reaches of the society. In New York and other such cities, 'reputation' matters more than morality if one has to secure a decent job. It is a world where 'beauty is only skin deep' and nobody seeks spiritual beauty. The study concludes with the fact that true happiness lies in burying the unpleasant past and moving ahead in life with the lessons learnt from the mistakes of the past. It points out that human beings need emotional fulfilment more than success and wealth and for this mutual bond between two true people is all that is required. This realisation comes too late in life to Lily Bart and this is the tragedy of her life and the tragedy of Lily Bart is representative of the tragedy of New York as well.