Early on in chapter five of Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth, it seems like Miss Bart is doing literally anything that could steal Mr. Gryce. It seems like everything that she wants to do or is doing is to impress or attract Gryce. And she has full intention to do so but the presence of Seldon is hampering her because, like I stated earlier, Lily is seen as very malleable and pliable, not too headstrong. Before I read more, I can almost assume Lily is brewing up another internal conflict in her life that will inevitably change and alter many of her opinions. And as I predicted there is a conflict that Lily actually addresses. Seldon had been right in front of her for years, nearly 8, but she is very confused as to why just now he is beginning to get her attention. Gryce is still opportune it seems but by what she is saying and how she's saying it, it almost seems like Lily is going against what she has been doing, but this is just an early assumption. To her, it is a game, she is always worrying what people think and is trying to adjust it as seen when her worry of that Gryce and Seldon think of her.
Chapter six was a very revealing and interesting chapter that, to me, is beginning to show how Lily has more depth to her than meets the eye. Lily admits her view of freedom is getting everything she can out of life, while Seldons is a little more simple, personal freedom. “ From everything- from money, from poverty, from ease and anxiety, from all the material accident”(Wharton, 54). One last thing truly surprises me in the end, while Lily and Seldon were alone, Lily admits that her search for a wealthy man may not truly lead to happiness in the end.
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