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AnjaliBhatThirdPaper 5 - 30 Jun 2009 - Main.AnjaliBhat
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-- AnjaliBhat - 15 May 2009 | | |
- The novel is a tragedy for many reasons, Lily's femaleness being a huge one. Of course I think Lily is a victim of the way men run society and
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< | would be able to do a great deal with the freedom my license and today's laws give me. | >
> | would be able to do a great deal with the freedom my license and today's laws give me, and deserves that freedom. | | | But that seemed to me a very obvious point, and one that I did not have something original to say on.
Rather, I was focusing on the personal characteristics that are also a
huge part of Lily's tragedy: her scruples and her aesthetics. | | | far enough (like marrying Rosedale). Wharton intended us to compare Lily to Selden, and wonder what she could
have done with his law license and his opportunities. But I think she also intended us to be simultaneously
frustrated, admiring and fascinated with Lily's value system and the scruples that she clings to. | |
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- Also, it's true that Lily's love of luxury is no more of a weakness than the mercenary motives of her male acquaintances--but most of those male acquaintances have "sold out" for the sake of riches. Or if they haven't, it's because they had nothing to sell in the first place. Moral integrity doesn't seem to be their strong point. The only exception is Selden, who shares Lily's morals and aesthetics. While Lily admires and envies Selden's comfortable but non-luxurious way of life, it's unclear how she would enjoy actually living it. She initially doesn't consider Selden a marriage prospect precisely because of this lack of luxury, after all. But she also sees extravagance as vital to a woman's social influence but not a man's. So maybe in a feminist world she would accept less luxury because non-rich women could be socially valued in the same way a non-rich man like Selden is. Or maybe not--it's ambiguous. That ambiguity is why I don't see Wharton saying anything as clear as "catch her selling out then." While selling out is only necessary if you don't have equity, it can also be tempting even if you do. Wharton's story is feminist, but it also shows the effects of a mercernary society on even the socially powerful (like men). Even if Lily had the same opportunities as any man it's not clear that she wouldn't "sell out," because selling out is required to some degree for the level of luxury that Lily wants. What is clear is that she wouldn't have to sell out as much, as painfully or as humiliatingly.
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