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.