Early on while reading chapters three and four of The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton the reader sees something that, to my assumptions, does not surprise me. She states multiple times throughout how dull and uninteresting Mr. Gryce is, but she also says that she is fortunate to be with him because of the wealth that he has. She is willing to sacrifice a life with a man that she loves to be with a man of riches. One wonders how the characteristic of Lily came about and as we read through her adventures and her scare with her thought-to-be robbing, we see that her attitude should be attributed to her mothers doing. Her mother constantly told her," You'll get it back- you'll get it all back with your face"(Wharton, 22). Her mother's focus was on the money and when her father announced that they were ruined, Mrs. Bart seemed destroyed. Lily truly is following in her mothers footsteps it seems and one quote after the death of Mr. Bart truly sticks with me. "It was a relief to Lily when her father died"(Wharton 26). I truly am confused at why this is. Mrs. Bart treated him very poorly after they were ruined and I think that her treatment of him showed to Lily that there is little point in having a husband if he has nothing. As the fourth chapter progresses with her aunts and cousins, we see mores sides of Lily. At one part, regarding her cousin Jack and his ability to sit back and let the girls come, Lily becomes frustrated because she has to weave and twist and contort as to not let a rich man slip by-its restless. At one point while observing Jack and Miss Van Osburgh, she admits that her decided future is content to her, but not ideal. She states that to a simpler mind, the lifted burdens of financial issues and the assurance of the ability to marry Gryce could be perceived as happiness. It seems that there is more going on that what is visible to the reader at this point. It appears that Miss Bart is more complex and more deep than initially suspected.
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