Lonliness
Jenny Lily Bart's Loneliness: A Self-Realization Loneliness is a prevalent theme throughout Edith Wharton's novel, The House of Mirth. The following passage relates to the theme of loneliness and dramatizes Lily Bart's dilemma of poverty: All she looked on was the same and yet changed. There was a great gulf fixed between today and yesterday. Everything in the past seemed simple, natural, full of daylight-and she was alone in a place of darkness and pollution.-Alone! It was the loneliness that frightened her. (p.142) The passage shows the abrupt loneliness Lily feels since she loses her friends, and it also dramatizes her poverty by enabling her to reach a startling realization about herself. Lily realizes that the loneliness she feels is not due to not having friends or money, but the fact that she had been living a life so poor in purpose or reason. Lily begins to feel lonely after she quickly loses the company of her friends. In the past, she enjoyed a simple life of playing bridge and attending fancy dinners with the wealthy women of high society. But now, her reputation is shattered and she realizes the women in her society are cruel and would not hesitate to talk about her behind her back, She knew, moreover, that if the lad
The painful fact that she owes Gus Trenor nine thousand dollars is a hard blow on Lily. but she felt no great surprise at the fact, only a gentle penetrating thrill of warmth and pleasure. That's why her aunt Julia's death is not as shocking as expected; she could use her inheritance to pay off the debts and to finally put an end to the feelings of loneliness caused by them. 310) Lily finds comfort in Nettie's baby and cherishes its essence. 306) Being poor made Lily feel lonely, but now she is sickened by the realization that her life quickly passed by without any meaning or substance. But after the reading of the will, Lily stood apart from the general movement, feeling herself for the first time utterly alone. 142) Suddenly she is no longer the strikingly beautiful Lily Bart that everyone attends to, but a poor and lonely woman in a crowded restaurant whose eyes sought the faces about her, craving a responsive glance, some sign of an intuition of her trouble. 217) But without the money and luxuries that her old friends had, Lily finds she has even fewer friends to count on that she thought, making it very difficult to regain her position in high society. 213) She knows that the women would have accepted her if she had inherited the entire estate, They were afraid to snub me while they thought I was going to get the money-afterward they scuffled off as if I had the plague. 125) Lily feels so lonely that she is desperate in rebuilding her reputation, and the first step in the tedious task was to find out, as soon as possible, on how many of her friends she could count. Nettie's child gives hope, and confirms Lily's new beliefs that she could find happiness within a lifestyle less than luxurious.
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