The House of Mirth: Book 1 I-II

In Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth, the reader begins in the middle of a scene with Seldon.  Later Wharton introduces Miss Lily Bart and the reader quickly learns that Lily is very pretty and all of the men in New York think so.  Very quickly what may be the theme of the novel is introduced.  When Lily goes to Seldon's flat for tea, the theme is first introduced.  Lily says to Seldon, " 'How delicious to have a place like this all to one's self!  What a miserable thing it is to be a woman!' " (Wharton, 4).  Lily expresses how upset she is that because she is a woman she is not able to do the things she pleases.  She would like to live by herself, own her own flat, and do the things she wants to do when she wants to do them without being judged.  She continues throughout this scene with Seldon to talk about how awful it is to be a woman.  Later Seldon makes a comment on how women are meant to get married, this is why they are born, essentially.  This afirms the societal structure on how restricted women are on the early 1900s.