The House of Mirth

I believe that after finally finishing the book "The House of Mirth" it ended up being a great book. There was one thing that really struck me throughout the book and that was the fact that Lily Bart would not tell her so called "Friends" the truth of what happened with Mr. Dorset. I do not know why but this really upset me, may be for the fact that she might have still inherited her aunts money and may be even married Seldon (not sure if that would have been possible at all but there is a may be). Lily and Gerty have a very important conversation "you should tell your friends the whole truth." "the whole truth?" Miss Bart laughed. "what is truth? Where a woman is concerned, it's the story that's easiest to believe. In this case it's a great deal easier to believe Bertha Dorset's story than mine, because she has a big house and an opera box, and it's convenient to be on good terms with her." (Wharton 176). Once I read this passage I started to understand why Lily was not telling her so called friends the truth it was because she was not rich and she did not have things to basically make her friends want to stay her friends. They would rather have a good social engagement then have real friends that actually cared about them. The other line that Lily Bart states really makes me understand the kind of way she thinks, "the truth about any girl is that once she's talked about she's done for; and the more she explains her case the worst it looks." (Wharton 177). When Lily says this I really understand they way she is thinking. Which I think I finally understand her because I think the same way. Once something bad happens and someone tries to make everyone believe they did nothing wrong it makes them look more guilty. In a way I give serious props to Miss Bart for not sticking up for herself, but also for not trying to get revenge either.

I was really fascinated at how the book ended. As soon as Lily went to the drug store to get the prescription filled I had a very big hunch that she was going to end up over dosing on the medicine I did not know however if she would end up passing away or going into the hospital and having more mean things spread about her. One thing that really struck me as odd was that she went to Sheldon's and kept saying I am leaving the old Lily here and once I found out she died at the end I kind of thought that that was her plan. Then when you actually get to the part of her death right before it she believes she is going to be waking up in the morning. I guess I am just confused on whether or not she did it on purpose or if she really did not think taking a little more would do any harm. I was very upset to find out that Sheldon was finally going to go there to marry her, and when he got there he was legit upset to find out that she had passed. I do not think that he really understood how much he loved her until he went through her things and really got to thinking about her. Another thing that really really bothered me was when he was going through her things and he found the envelope to Mr, Dorset with the check in it for the money she "owed" him and Sheldon was in a sort of way talking crap about Lily saying the rumors were true and such, Then once he found the check book with the inheritance he kind of put everything together.

Over all I was really pleased with this book, I did not like I would like it as much as I did. I wish Lily would have ended up getting married and becoming of a higher social class than Mrs. Dorset but the book still was very pleasant.