Lilly and Seldon

[Dark Muse]

I found this to be an amzing story, and extrmely heart wrenching. I just fell in love with Lilly and rooted for her from the start and yet in some reguards only she can be blamed for her downfall. She was a woman who was trapped between two worlds, and her heart was spilt into half. She despereately loved Seldon but she did not beleive she could be happy with him becasue she was brought up in the world of the wealthy and raied so vaule things of luxurury and matteralistic vaule, yet despite her intent to marry a rich man so she might be set, she was consntantly sabbatoge her efforts whenever an offer was presented becasue she could not let go of Seldon. She was a woman who was destined not to be happy or to know what she turly did desire, for she could not have everything she wanted and did not know how to make the sacrifice or what sacrifice to make. If she married for money her soul would suffer for she would be severed from the one whom understood her above all others and yet if she choose love over money she feared she would find it dull and be discontent and grow to resent the man she loved so.

It was terribly heartbreaking that they hurt each other so for all thier love for each other, neither one knew how to let go of their pride for the sake of the other, and for the sake of thier love, untill it had grown to the point in which it simply was too later for them, and nothing could close the bearriere between them which they were both responseable for creating.

They turly did belong to each other, and yet they did not really know how to be.

[Fowles27]

I'm writing an critical essay on this book. This is a fascinating book, written by a truly skilled writer.

Lily's fate is indeed heartbreaking, with all her struggle and resistance against the corrupted NY upper class. But I don't like Selden. In fact I don't think Lily and Selden were meant for each other. Selden pretends to be a dissident, but he does not truly revolt against "the house of mirth,” but merely lives at the edge of the upper class society. Selden’s critical standpoint on his class is just moral snobbery that scorns material snobbery.

Selden never sees or understands the "real" Lily. What he loves is an illusory image of a "pure Lily" he has created. He expects Lily to be detached and aloof from the material ethics of the leisure class, while keeping her beauty as well, but he does not understand that Lily can't exist outside of her society if she wants to maintain her beauty.

Not that I think Selden is a failure as a literary device, or character. Wharton was very insightful and realistic in creating character like this.

[Dark Muse]

Though I liked Lilly, I had rather hoped she would seee past the materialsitc and go with her heart, I was rooting for Sleden and Lilly, though I do not share your own feelings about Selden, I had chided them both at times as much as I have rooted them. Though Lilly could not be entierily blamed for the vaules she was raised with, she wanted what she could not have, and was not willing to give up one or the other of her desires and make a final decision. This can be seen as a very child like view of the world, as life is often about having to make hard choices that are not all together what we want, but at the sametime any choice she made would have doomed her in one way or another.

It was an amazing and fascinating book, and engaged me from the start. The characters were all quite marvalous.