The House of Mirth (Blog 9)

By: Edith Wharton

As much of a fan that I am of Lawrence Selden, I decided that I do not want him to marry Lily after I read chapter 15.  For awhile in this novel, I thought Lily had truly changed; I thought that she wanted to marry for love.  However, she proved me wrong in this chapter.  Selden has recently shown a strong love for Lily, and he wants to marry her.  I think that it is possible for him to really be in love with Lily because the two have been good friends for 8 years.  Unfortunately, Lily does not want to marry him, but I was optimistic that she would follow her heart and eventually change her mind.  After her relationship with Mrs. Peniston is virtually ruined over Lily's debt, Lily starts to reconsider marrying Selden.  "She had meant to put him off with a word-but now her heart leaped at the thought of seeing him.  Was there not a promise of rescue in his love?" (Wharton, 141).  To be honest, these thoughts disgusted me.  Lily conveniently wants to marry Selden now that she is on her own with her gambling debts.  She is basically on her own now, and the thought of being lonely scares her.  I do not like her idea of just using him as company.  Selden truly cares for Lily and wants the best for her, and he deserves someone that will treat him the same.  As if Lily didn't make herself sound bad with these thoughts, she proceeds to think that she will temporarily use him.  "And she had felt, even in the full storm of her misery, that Selden's love could not be her ultimate refuge; only it would be so sweet to take a moment's shelter there while she gathered fresh strength to go on" (Wharton, 141).  This just makes Lily sound like an opportunist.  She is considering using Selden to get her life back together, but she would leave him as soon as this current stress is resolved.  It is bad enough that she wants to use him just for company, but now she thinks that she will leave him as soon as she finds something better.  Lily is setting Selden up for a heartbreak, and I do not think she could ever be happy with herself if she actually did this.  At this point in the story, I am not a fan of Lily at all.  I hope that she will think about Selden's feelings and not use him like this.  I also hope that Selden realizes that Lily's love is not sincere.