The Great Gatsby, Chapter 1, Pages 11-21

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

So Carraway's visit to the Buchanans becomes a very awkward affair when he begins to gain a glimpse of what lies behind the facade of a very wealthy and handsome couple. Through the text of their conversations, the difference between Tom and Daisy is in a way hilariously painted. Daisy owns a very bubbly and amused personality in which she gets very easily excited and distracted over little things, whilst Tom, fitting with his body, is a very gruff and uneasy man who tries to convey a very dominating presence; he is the classic bully. So the disparity of their personalities appears to
mitigate the relationship of the two causing them to be very troubled and owning some dark secrets. Tom's secret like his personality is pretty much out in the open, everyone knows, even his wife, that he has a woman in New York whom he is seeing on the side. Daisy's on the other hand is much less easier to identify. It is not anything of substantial fact, but she does appear to be hiding much despair and longing under her shining, beautiful face. I feel that her sudden obsession with Nick is an indirect effect of this. At one point, Daisy is so ecstatic at the presence of Nick, that she so suddenly throws out a breath of emotion and says, "You remind me of a- of a rose, an absolute rose" (Fitzgerald 14). Seeing that Nick and Daisy have not in the past had a very strong relationship, I find it odd that she so suddenly is so glad to see him. I do, however, feel I understand her outburst; its like a situation where you are stuck at some social event where you do not know anyone and feel very uncomfortable and lost, and the moment you gain a glimpse of just anyone you know the slightest, they, for a time, become your new best friend. Nick is Daisy's new best friend. She is so discontent with her life and upon seeing Nick, she jumps for joy to be in his presence.

A big development is underway, with Nick's first sighting of the Greaty Gatsby. Carraway spots him outside of the mansion, and thinks to call for him but hesitates on a sudden impulse, "for he gave a sudden intimation that he was content to be alone" (Fitzgerald 20). I think it right for Nick not to have called out to Gatsby and make a fool of himself. Already, it is evident that Mr. Gatsby conveys a presence of confidant and cool authority. Gatsby's mysterious power in a way reminds me of the "Most interesting man in the world" from the Dos Equis add campaign, for he is a man of almost regal endowment and it is a blessing to be in his presence...

I don't always read books- but when I do- I read The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby, Chapter 1, Pages 1-10

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

So here we are a new book, a new day, and a new character whom I cannot help but find very similar  to a protagonist I recently read about. The main character in Gatsby is Nick Carraway and within only 10 pages on reading this book, I find Nick's persona and situation mimicking that of Lawrence Selden from House of Mirth. For one, Nick and Lawrence are both very intelligent and realistic. Nick has assumed a goal of becoming a renaissance man, showing that he has a yearning for knowledge, "I was going to bring back all such things into my life and become again the most limited of all specialists, the "well-rounded man" (Fitzgerald 4). However, what I find most interesting in Nick and Lawrence's likeness, is how they both are middle class bachelors, somehow shoved into a society of the elite upper-class. This is not to say that Nick is not wealthy, he works as a bond-man at a firm, however compared to some of his friends and neighbors, he might as well be a hermit living out of a wood and limestone hut, "My house was at the very tip of the egg, only fifty yard from the Sound, and squeezed between two huge places that rented for twelve or fifteen thousand a season" (Fitzgerald 5)

To kickstart his summer, Nick rides out to "the Western Egg" where he meets with his second cousin twice removed, Daisy, and her big, hulking, brute of a husband, Tom. From Nick's first-person description upon meeting Daisy, it I think it quite possible that Nick has a mild crush on his cousin. The description is quite lengthy and seems to delve into some of the much more minute details, such as her quivering lips and her "voice that the ear follows up and down"(Fitzgerald 9). Such a description hints slightly at a secret longing.

The House of Mirth, Book 2, Parts 13 and 14

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

Before I write this final post, I would like to thank Mr. Costello for providing such a jubilant novel to brighten my summer. However, there is the one silver lining that so perfectly decided to manifest itself before Lily took her last breathes of life. Her last day on Earth, in all honestly, was the one she lived out the best. As she says, "she dreaded to fall from the height of her last moment with Lawrence Selden" (Wharton 261). During her last day she went to Selden and renounced her selfish nature and admitted to how kept pulling her away from him; "I was a coward!" (Wharton 250). Not only does she finally admit to all this but she ends her lose ends with the burning of the scandalous letters and the billing of the  money, repaying Gus Trenor. Lily also has that moment where she meets Nettie Struther and finally realizes the true essence of life as she sat in her warm kitchen with her and her lovely baby. "It was the first time she had ever come across the results of her spasmodic benevolence, and the surprised sense of human fellowship took the mortal chill for her heart" (Wharton 257). Knowing that she was finally on the track to living a humble, human life, conjoined with the fact that Selden suddenly was invigorated with the opportunity to say what he wanted to say the day before, makes Lily Bart's death even more tragic. It is the kind of ending that will always leave you asking "what if..." At least, in the end, Selden did have his one chance to, for a evanescent time, be at peace with Lily Bart.

The House of Mirth, Book 2, Parts 11 and 12

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

At the beginning of part 11, we learn that due to the usual labor cuts that happen in the spring and Lily's poor quality at her job, she is laid off. Now with no more steady income, Lily also has the drudgery of deciding how she will fill her empty days. Miss Bart decides to go for a walk and while out she strolls into a restaurant where her eyes are met by the sight of a group of young ladies  having a jolly time. They are so caught up in their current activity that none of them comes to realize Lily Bart's presence. A girl who was once the centre of all praise and attention, now, "her eyes sought the faces about her, craving a responsive glance, some sign of an intuition of her trouble" (Wharton 245).

Later Lily is soon filled with resolved, when she decides to finally play the upper-hand that she before relinquished to utilize on her late adversary. On her way over to Mrs. Dorsets, however, Lily happens to wander by Selden's apartment. I believe this instance is a part of the book that clearly symbolizes the fork in Lily's road when she now must chose between two contrasting ideals. However,  her possible choices have much obscured from simply luxury or love; now it takes the form of many other areas, such as revenge and vice vs. reunion and virtue. Remembering her longing to protect Selden, she resolves to go up and see him. Sadly for Lily, although Selden is glad to see her and wishes to remain her friend. The fire he had once had for her was now vanquished; "The love she had killed in him and could no longer call to life" (Wharton 251). Before she goes she sets fire to the letters that she previously planned to bend the will of Mrs. Dorset.

To the lost love between Selden and Lily:

The House of Mirth, Book 2, Parts 9 and 10

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

With Lily now greatly abased to she finds the strength to swallow her pride, and serve Mrs. Norma Hatch as her secretary. Lily is some how able to put the idea past her that she is now in servitude to a woman she would have a year before thought of as dingy and below her. The relationship that tethers her and Selden still is becoming more complex. When Selden meets with her to demand she stop work for Mrs. Hatch at once, Lily is put into an indignant mood and becomes very angry with Selden. Despite her current emotion towards him, she still holds some kind of intimate interest in him, "She was very near hating him now; yet the sound of his voice, and the way the light fell on his thin dark hair, the way he sat and moved and wore his clothes- she was conscious that even these trivial things were inwoven with the her deepest life" (Wharton 226). I find it ironic that at the beginning of the book, it was Selden who was admiring the details he thought fascinating of Lily, now it is the other way around.

The House of Mirth, Book 2, Parts 7 and 8

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

With Lily taken to desperate measures, she is finally apt to do what a year ago repulsed her so much, marriage to Mr. Rosedale. If the offered stood to Mr. Rosedale a year ago, the man would have moved heaven and earth to make her his bride, however it is a year later, and that stock has changed a great deal. As Rosedale puts it, "I'm all broken up on you; there's nothing new in that. I'm more in love with you than I was this time last year; but I've got to face the fact that the situation is changed" (Wharton 207). To me, what makes Rosedale such an interesting character is that he so perfectly symbolizes how these people treat the society as their job, not as a diversion. In Rosedale's case, he is so watchful and observant, taking mental notes of whom to spend time with and whom to dine with; He treats his social life as he does his job on Wall Street, looking for the indications of where better opportunities may spring up. As for Lily, Rosedale believes that she is a bad piece of stock that would bring great loses if he were to invest in her.

Rosedale treats his social life like his job on Wall Street.

The House of Mirth, Book 2, Parts 5 and 6

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

In her struggle, Lily finds the solace in a hidden ally, Carry Fisher. It does not come to a surprise to me that of all of her past acquaintances that had shunned her, Carry would be the one to lend Lilly a helping hand. I believe that Carry feels she has much to relate to with Lily: they both are single, both are talked about with much controversy about their love lives, both have used men for money. Well, in her good will, Fisher introduces Lily to a different social group whom Carry believes that Lily will fit in just fine until her old friends realize what they miss. To her initial refreshment, Lily learns that these new people do have the same kinds of wealth and luxurious standards of her old friends, but, however, are much less stuck-up and stingy. Although these seems like the time in the book where Lily finally realizes all her past vices and resolves to live out the rest of her life in easy and peaceful living with the Gormers. She finds that, "the more she saw to criticize in her companions the less justification she found for making use of them" (Wharton 192). This greatly frustrates me that when a group such as the Gormers are descent enough to except Lily, along with her risque past, she is still ungrateful to them.

Of other importance is that Mr. Dorset seems to becoming truly infatuated with Lily. Such a passion mostly most be born out of the ridicule and negligence he receives from his wife; "Here was a man who turned to her in the extremity of his loneliness and his humiliation" (Wharton 198). Although a marriage to Mr. Dorset would solve all her financial problems and even social problems, along with some sweet vendetta towards Mrs. Dorset, Lily, for whatever reason, declines the offer to be with Mr. Dorset. I believe this to be somewhat admirable of Lily that she still has a moral inclination about marriage. However, seeing that her life is so incomplete without money, it may be time for her to swallow her pride and accept a rich marriage.

The House of Mirth, Book 2, Parts 3 and 4

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

Once again in over her head, Lily calls upon Selden as her way out, asking him if he can smooth matters with Mr. Dorset. Although Selden had resolved to keep Lily out of his life, he does care greatly for her in her time of need; he resolves to help her because, "she would be better out of the way of a possible crash" (Wharton 172). However, after being embarrassed in front of her entire party by Mrs. Dorset's banishing her from the yacht, Lily trys to find solace in implying to Selden that he let her stay for the night. However, Selden remains strong and very firmly suggests for Lily to stay at her cousins. This pointed act by Selden reminds me of in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, when Jason Segal's ex-girlfriend who had so heartlessly ripped his heart out before, begs to Jason to reconcile their relationship. Jason being the reinvigorated and strong man that he has become renounces his past flame looking to avoid the mistake that was their old relationship.

Power to ya brotha

In section 4, a huge bombshell explodes with the death of Lily's Aunt who has taken care of her for so long. To Lily's great dismay, greater than the actual death of her Aunt, she only receives ten thousand dollars while cousin Grace Stepney receives the rest of her $400,00 dollar estate. Having lost her social position due to the Dorset scandal and now lacking a home and a substantial income, Lily has hit the lowest of lows. Her old party of friends, including Judy Trenor, now avoid her at all costs and she is left begging Grace Stepney for a loan. Her awkwardness to this new role reversal is clearly shown in this quote, "The strangeness of entering as a suppliant the house where she had so long commanded, increased Lily's desire to shorten the ordeal" (Wharton 186).

The House of Mirth, Book 2, Parts 1 and 2

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

The beginning of book two follows Selden and the rest of the characters to the Monte Carlo in Europe. We learn of Selden's own internal conflicts, his conflicts between infatuation and reason. Because Selden is a very pragmatic and intelligent man, he prides himself for abstaining from such an indecent infatuation, "an infatuation his reason had conquered" (Wharton 153). For this is the reason why Selden finds himself fleeing the scene the moment he hears of Miss Bart's arrival.

As for Miss Bart, she once again uses her surroundings as a chance to escape from her other problems. To her "they lost their reality when they changed their background" (Wharton 158). However new problems arise when Lily is introduced to the true motives behind Mrs. Dorsets friendship. Mrs. Dorsets sudden interest in Lily was based on using her to deviate her husbands attention as she once again fooled around with another man. However this time, Lily's purpose in Dorset's plan not only marks her as a decoy but as an anchor to her emotionally unstable husband. With these new developments, it is now evident that the conflict between Mrs. Dorset and Miss Bart is going to take center stage for the rest of the book.

Its going to be a Face Off!

The House of Mirth, Book 1, Part 15

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

This last part of book 1, truly ends with a hopeless feeling. In her great time of need, all of Lily's escape routes are cut off. She now finds herself in a considerable amount of debt and even her aunt, lacks the compassion to help her, "Really, Lily, you are old enough to manage you own affairs" (Wharton 139). The man who could not find her the financial means but certainly could have offered his support has disappeared to the West Indies in an attempt to flee the woman who he now believes he can never salvage. This chapter of the book differs from all the others, because in all of Lily Bart's other scenarios, she had some plan to fall back on. Now the only viable option left in front of her disgusts her to her very core, marriage to Mr. Rosedale.

When Lily is impatiently waiting for Selden to arrive, she is painfully disappointed to find Mr. Rosedale the one at the door. The manner of his visit is quite honest and frank, he offers Lily luxury and ease only the exchange of her hand in marriage. "...and what I want is the woman- and I mean to have her too" (Wharton 143). Although Lily is in quite a desperate fix, she still contains the scruples that inveigh her not to commit to a man as repugnant as Mr. Rosedale.

The House of Mirth, Book 1, Parts 13 and 14

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

When Lily awakes the next day, her focus towards Selden is still quite infatuated but now she is back to thinking as her rich friends do and blocking out her true feelings. She proposes to finally let him go once and for all the next day. However her current situation is given a rude awakening when she goes to visit Judy Trenor and instead meets Gus, in his house alone. In this situation, alone with a very irate Mr. Trenor, all subtitles are thrown out the window and Lily's usual adroit sense of diffusing the tension falls short. "But Trenor, with a promptness which did not escape her, had moved between herself and the door" (Wharton 116). Finally having her alone to himself, Mr. Trenor is very frank with Lily, basically informing her that he wants what he invested in, her. You would think that a smart, reasonable man such as Gus Trenor would have foreseen the folly in his actions producing the desired effect but,  by this point, he feels so dejected by Lily that it seems his main reason for the solitary meeting was to vex of his annoyance of her, putting it lightly. Still, the brief show of primitive anger from the massive man, leaves Lily feeling very alone as well as ashamed of herself. Wharton writes, "It was the loneliness that frightened her."

The next part in the book plays out Selden's day which is geared towards his perspective. It is interesting to enter back into Selden's point of view, mainly because the last you truly were involved in his thought processes was the very beginning of the book. The biggest development to note is that Selden now finds his entire mind inundated with thoughts of Lily. What I find the most interesting of this part in the book is when the narrator finds a new focus to fix attention to, Gerty Farish. At first the descriptions of Gerty's mood is kind of expected, an overall content and acceptance. However, we learn that Gerty is not as entirely simple and content as she seems. At one point, Wharton writes, "Such flashes of joy as Lily moved would have blinded Miss Farish, who was accustomed, in the way of happiness to such scant light as shone through the cracks of other people's lives" (Wharton 21). Her meaning is that Gerty is the kind of character who's own amusement and appeasement can come easily from the real luxuries of others. Well this originally static character becomes a much more dynamic person as we learn of her secret lust for Lawrence Selden. Not only this, but we witness to what great depths jealously can bring us when Gerty learns of Lily and Selden's secret relationship. Before this insight, Gerty would have sworn over that Lily was a misunderstood saint, now Wharton writes, "she lay face to face with the fact that she hated Lily Bart" (Wharton 132). However, when Gerty answers her door late at night to the sight of a sobbing, lost Lily Bart, her heart softens and she does what she can to console her old friend. Either this is the working of Gerty's charitable background coming to surface, or her bout of misery has ended swiftly.

The House of Mirth, Book 1, Parts 11 and 12

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

So apparently Lily has been greatly overlooking the perils that some of the characters around her possess, no matter how dingy. Not so long after the poor women tried blackmailing Lily Bart now her cousin, Grace Stepney, who's dislike for Lily already existed due to Lily's crass nature with her, now has boiled over after being exiled from one of Mrs. Peniston's latest dinner parties after Lily, "had persuaded her aunt that a dinner of "smart" people would be much more to the taste of the young couple" (Wharton 100). With Miss Stepney's animosity toward Miss Bart doubled she retaliates by trying to poison Mrs. Peniston against her by informing her of some Lily's past dealing with Mr. Trenor and Mr. Dorset. Lily's aunt listens to Grace's unscrupulous news with a shocked disbelief and never succumbs to believing it. The scene strangely reminds me of a somewhat similar scene in the movie The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, when Gollum is trying to tempt his other personality Smeagol.

Well perhaps it is a stretch, but besides the creepy skinny guy having a conversation with him self, the overall progression of the conversation is similar. Miss Stepney mischievously launches these bits of news that so greatly rattle Mrs. Peniston that she finally has had enough and rejects Grace altogether. However, as Wharton later writes, "but minds impenetrable to reason have generally some crack through which suspicion filters, and her visitor's insinuations did not glide off as easily as she had expected" (Wharton 103). This foreshadows that, soon, Mrs. Peniston will know the whole truth about Lily.

The last and probably biggest development of this section would be Lily and Selden's kiss outside the Bry's party. After seeing the picture of her in which all the attendents saw even more how beautiful she was in the simplest of forms (a symbol to how excesses of life decay the overall quality) Selden takes Lily outside with him. After he pronounces her love for her, she says, "Ah, love me, love me- but don't tell me so!" (Wharton 112). I brought this to attention because I honestly do not know what this is about.

The House of Mirth, Book 1, Parts 9 and 10

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

Part 9 first begins with Lily returning to her actual home in New York with Mrs. Peniston. The way in which the first parts of the book begin at other people's homes and just now takes us to Lily's home helps paint the picture of how much Lily believes she does not belong in that house. However, the biggest development comes when the very woman who had eyed Miss Bart on the stairs at the Benedick arrived with letters in which she intends to blackmail Lily with. Lily recognizes the letter as letters that Mrs. Dorset and Mr. Selden would not prefer to see the light of day. With this integrity toward Selden, she purchases the letter's from the poor woman, whom I would like to think looks like the maid from Two and a Half Men.

I never saw it in her...

What I find strange of all things is Lily's apathy for the whole situation and its having to do with Lawrence. She does show a sympathy in the saving his reputation, but she does not seem flustered in the least that a woman as detestable as Mrs. Dorset is having inappropriate relations with the man that has so constantly diverted her attention and even aspirations so easily! However, Miss Lily Bart does decide on a whim to keep some of the letters, out of a hatred for Mrs. Dorset that is ascribed from her sly dealings with hitching of the youngest Osbourgh and Mr. Gryce; "Her cheeks burned at the recollection, and she rose and caught up the letters. She no longer meant to destroy them" (Wharton 89). However, maybe the true nature of her anger comes from her jealousy towards Mrs. Dorset and Selden. Another wierd thing is Mr. Rosedale and Mr. Trenor both are looking for a piece of the action with poor Lily. Mr. Trenor, as expected, has mistook Lily's flattering as genuine interest (or at least pretends to mistake it) and now is looking for a piece of what he paid for in Lily Bart. I now am starting to believe that these men characters are not as dimwitted to the happenings around them as previously suspected. When Wharton convinces Lily to attend the opeara,  Wharton describes it as, Mr. Rosedale... was not above taking advantage of her nervousness" (Wharton 93).

The House of Mirth, Book 1, Parts 7 and 8

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

Part 7 begins with Judy Trenor giving Lily a long and melodramatic tirade about how she has scared off Percy with her spontaneous detour with Lawrence. Lily's friend is so naive that within her exhortation she would never even begin to believe that Lily and Lawrence's visit had anything to do with intimacy. However, now back at the estate Lily falls into her normal routine "...in which moments of seeming brilliancy and freedom alternated with long hours of subjection" (Wharton 62). After her long lecture, Mrs. Trenor summons Lily to pick up Gus Trenor on his way home from work. Lily does it with reluctance but, however, finds a silver lining to spending time with a such a "coarse dull man" (Wharton 67). While riding in the carriage with Gus, Lily very slyly presents her current financial problems to Gus, and with a simple sob story and bat of the eyes, Gus quickly decides to help Lily with her matters. With her money troubles soon to be resolved, Lily's overall mood immediately lifts. This shows, that although Lily is a very clever girl with a gift of manipulating people, she does let her own strife and problems easily upset her current mood. Some would say that her case is one of mountain peaks and valleys.

Lily's mood shifts from mountains to valleys

Part 8 takes place weeks later at the wedding between Jack Stepney and Miss Van Osburgh. I believe that Wharton uses this setting for the events about to take place in order to foreshadow that a dire and irreversible development may occur. At the wedding, whilst Lily is thinking about, "a soaring vastness to her scheme of life" (Wharton 72), her eyes meet with those of Lawrence Selden's and her prior aspirations of living a life of luxury with Gryce are shortly forgotten; Wharton writes, "his presence always had the effect of cheapening her aspirations" (Wharton 71). It is in Selden's presence that Lily becomes self conscious of her flirty nature among the other attendents. In a situation where she would have propitiated Mr. Rosedale, she now yields under the spell of Lawrence's observation, and takes a more polite and detached manner. During this part in the book, it is evident what Lily is attracted to and dislikes about Selden is his ambiguous nature to make her second guess the life she wants to live.

The House of Mirth, Book 1, Sections 5 and 6

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

In Section 5 and 6, Lily finally begins to confront what she had hid in the back of her mind for so long, that her friends are not only superficial and greedy but, as Wharton puts it, "...they were dull in a loud way" (Wharton 44). Now that Lily Bart's perceptions begin to change, she can be classified as a dynamic character. The next morning, Lily made a pivotal decision or rather hesitated to make a pivotal decision and in turn missed mass with Percy. This action marks Lily making a spontaneous move that set herself away from her worries and her means to end those worries, Percy. Having blown off her original engagement with percy, Lily Bart is free to spend her whole afternoon with Selden.

They take a walk to a very peaceful and pretty area out in nature, the area is obviously symbolic of Lily's newfound freedom with Selden which is clearly marked when Wharton writes, "She had a passion for the appropriate and could be keenly sensitive to a scene which was the fitting background of her own sensations" (Wharton 51). During there time outdoors Selden and Lily talk very candidly about their views on their superficial friends. Lily is quite amazed at how Selden is able to look upon the entire scene with such an objective outlook but is quickly angered when she realizes that Selden is partially talking about her own self consciousness. When they get onto the topic of marriage both slightly hint to the fact that they would marry each other and Lily then states, "I shall look hideous in dowdy clothes; but I can trim my own hats" (Wharton 59). This shows that Lily is finally brave enough to imagine a life without her current luxuries but, at the same time, enter the "free Republic" that Selden lives life in.

The House of Mirth, Book 1, sections 3 and 4

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

For most of part 3, Wharton introduces us to most of Lily Bart's, until now, untouched past. The reader is introduced to two polar times in her life; her early days of extravagance and bliss, and her latter years after her father's death, marked by desperation and dependency. From her anecdotal tales of her childhood, you discover that Lily Bart lacked a substantial emotional relationship with her father while her mother only saw Lily's father as a means to an end. This predicament must be how Lily Bart developed her hopes for a maternal relationship with real intimacy. After Lily Bart's mother died, she went on to live with her Aunt Peniston, who's resources highly towered over her own ingenuity. On looking back, Lily wondered if it was Aunt Peniston's own passiveness that has brought Lily to now be twenty nine and unmarried.

Lily Bart is surprised by Selden's arrival

With Lily still unsure of her own status among these social elites, she does find solace in her ally by default, Mrs. Trenor. Lily thinks as Mr.s Trenor as one of her most trusted friends mostly due to the fact that Trenor does not see any social threat in Lily. To Trenor, what matters the most to her is her ability to play the role as the ideal hostess, amazing people with her extravagant and lively dinner parties. By far the most interesting development in the book, however, is the unexpected arrival of Lawrence Selden at the end of Part 4. This unexpected arrival worries Lily Bart greatly. I believe that part of the reason she so wants to avoid Selden is that he represents the side of her that so greatly wants to have a real, substantial, loving relationship with a man. However, this would mean that she would not be able to continue her life among the elites. The two men, Gryce and Selden, are juxtaposed throughout this part of the book, Selden being the man who invokes passion yet little means and Gryce having great wealth but being extraordinarily dull. The part ends with Bertha Dorset sweeping in and intercepting Mr. Selden, fixing her as one of the possible main antagonists. At one point, when discussing Mrs. Dorset, Mrs Trenor says, "But she is dangerous- and if I ever saw her up to mischief it's now" (Wharton 35)

The House of Mirth, Book 1, Sections 1 and 2

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

The House of Mirth begins with the meeting between the tale's protagonist, Lily Bart, and an acquaintance, Mr. Selden, meeting within the confines of a congested train station. Lily Bart looks to deviate from her dull and monotonous wait by escaping with Mr. Selden to his Bachelor Pad. From the moment the book starts, Wharton uses many fine details to express the standout beauty of Miss Lily Bart. As Mr. Selden gazes upon Lily Bart's person, Wharton writes, "he noted, with a purely impersonal enjoyment, how evenly the black lashes were set in her smooth white lids, and how the purplish shade beneath them melted into the pure pallour of the cheek" (Wharton 7). Not only are Lily Bart's features highlighted but her understanding of social graces and conversation and noted as well. During her and Mr. Selden's conversation in his house, it is quite evident that both person's possess a very lucid mind both with their educated insights of the ridiculousness of collecting Americana or their sharp, witty remarks. Although their conversation holds a sense of intimacy, it is clearly stated that Lily Bart has no intention of marrying Mr. Selden, mainly for his lesser social disposition, which she tactfully brings up time and time again. Her brief meeting with Mr. Selden brings up Lily Bart's conflicting feelings of genuine feelings or superficiality.

On the way out of the Benedick, Lily bumps into one of the possibly chief antagonists, Mr. Rosedale, a  very wealthy Jewish man. He inquires why she happens to be outside one of the buildings he possesses. Initially embarrassed to be seen at such a place, she foolishly fibs, telling Rosedale she was meeting with her dress-maker. Rosedale immediately sees through her lie and Lily narrowly escapes the awkward exchange in a taxi which in turn takes her to her train. To take her mind of her irresponsible remark, she happens to come across Mr. Percy Gryce, a wealthy yet painfully shy man. As she converses with the man, Wharton's incredible attention to real life social exchanges is shown through Lily's skillful exchanges with the man. When she finally is able to allow Gryce to open up, Wharton writes, "she felt the pride of a skillful operator" (Wharton 15). This is yet another testament to the heroines fine social graces.