The House of Mirth is the story of Lily Bart, a woman caught between two dominating passions. The first is to live in wealth as part of the 1890s-era New York aristocracy, while the second is to find a man with whom to have a respectful and loving relationship. Lily is unable to reconcile her desires and slowly destroys her standing in society, becoming addicted to sleeping draughts and eventually dying alone of an overdose.
Looking at the characters in Edith Whartons novel The House of Mirth two of them played vital roles in the book Lawrence Selden and Simon Rosedale Both are after the same girl Lily Bart but both have different motives on why they want to marry her A lawyer by profession Selden is an outsider of the social class Lily hopes to be in one day Although he holds his own in the real world Selden is not of the class of high society Lily and him are very good friends they care for each other dearly and
The conversations between Lily and Selden provide the tone and relationship between them When you first read their conversations among one another you think they have a strong bond and are fairly close They appear to have some of the same views of certain things but not everything The two of them can talk about anything with one another and you can sense how comfortable they both seem to be However at the beginning of the novel when Lily is leaving Seldens place Simon Rosedale catches her but s