The House of Mirth: Book 1 IX-X

Edith Wharton

In these next two sections of Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth, Lily buys love letters from Seldon's maid written between Seldon and Berth.  She initially does this to protect Seldon, but then realizes that after the disaster with Gryce, because of Bertha, she could blackmail Bertha with these scandalous letters.  I think this will just get her in more trouble later in the novel and that she is putting herself at risk to lose Seldon.  The narrator throughout the novel is Edith Wharton, and she is writing with a third person omniscient point of view.  This can be seen here,

"All her life Lily had seen money go out as quickly as it came in, and whatever theories she cultivated as to the prudence of setting aside a part of her gains, she had unhappily no saving vision of the risks of the opposite course," (Wharton, 90).

 The benefit of Wharton having a third person omniscient point of view allows the reader to know how everyone one feels even though the main character Lily does not.  Because of this the reader becomes more engaged in the novel and has more emotional attachments in wanting Lily to chose what actually will make and makes her happy.  I realized that I was partially wrong about the theme of the novel.  The actual them of the novel is finding the key to true happiness and defining personal success.  I was right in the way that society and restrictions of women in the early 1900s is a factor effecting the theme.