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.
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