1132 Wharton, Edith
whose individuality is so defined by her society that
she cannot find her way out of it. The novel is an
insightful critique of the relationship between soci-
ety and the individual that has so long preoccupied
American society.
Lisa J. Schneider
Innocence and experIence in The House
of Mirth
The House of Mirth opens with Lawrence Selden
observing Miss Lily Bart in Grand Central Sta-
tion in New York City. As he watches her, what
captures his attention is that she is “wearing an air
of irresolution which might . . . be the mask of a
very definite purpose,” and that “her simplest acts
seemed the result of far-reaching intentions.” Thus,
early on we understand Lily to be hovering between
innocence and experience. On the one hand, she is
a calculating woman, a woman experienced in the
ways of the world and with a design for her life that
she is constantly attempting to realize. On the other
hand, the words might and seem set the stage for the
contrasting presentation of Lily as a young woman
who is naive and innocent. This innocence is com-
municated through countless passages in which she
is cast as an innocent child, such as, “She looked at
[Selden] helplessly, like a hurt or frightened child:
this real self of hers, which he had the faculty of
drawing out of the depths, was so little accustomed
to go alone!” In fact the vacillation between the pre-
sentation of Lily as a woman of experience and as
a naive or innocent child is one of the novel’s main
ambiguities. She seems aware of the game she must
play in order to secure a suitable match, and yet it
is always unclear whether her fumbles in regard to
courtship are out of experience or innocence.
At moments when Lily could empower herself—
for example when she is shown the letter written
by Bertha Dorset to Selden—she seems incredibly
innocent and pure in her discomfort:
She felt herself in the presence of something
vile, as yet but dimly conjectured—the kind
of vileness of which people whispered, but
which she had never thought of as touching
her own life. She drew back with a motion of
disgust, but her withdrawal was checked bya sudden discovery: under the glare of Mrs.
Peniston’s chandelier she had recognized the
hand-writing of the letter. . . . At first she did
not grasp the full import of the situation.The contrast in this passage between the vileness
from which Lily recoils and her final decision not
only to purchase the letters that would implicate
Selden in an illicit affair, but to haggle effectively
reveals a more complex relationship between experi-
ence and innocence: “Miss Bart showed herself a
less ready prey than might have been expected from
her imprudent opening.” Although Lily will not
ultimately put these letters to any malevolent use,
the reader is unsure whether to attribute her scru-
pulousness to her experience or her innocence. Her
decision to purchase the letters highlights a tension
between innocence and experience that is part of the
novel’s essential fabric.
Lily’s calculation throughout the novel is con-
trasted by her feeling that she is being led by some
external force, an innocent child who is defenseless
against the forces of society and culture: “Miss Bart
had in fact been treading a devious way, and none
of her critics could have been more alive to the fact
than herself; but she had a fatalistic sense of being
drawn from one wrong turning to another, without
ever perceiving the right road till it was too late to
take it.” Truly, Lily Bart seems the perfect embodi-
ment of innocence and experience, and the way they
conflict with each other in her poses real questions
about the value that is attributable to both.
The battle between innocence and experience is
also present in Lily’s behavior around her business
dealings with Trenor. Undoubtedly, the narrator sug-
gests that Lily uses her sexuality to persuade Trenor
to invest her money for her, but Lily is also drawn as
completely oblivious to the real workings of finance
and the terms of repayment. This again presents us
with an irreconcilable contradiction between Lily’s
ability to be calculating in the use of her sexuality to
obtain what she wants and her innocence in regard
to what is expected from such provocation. When
she is tricked by Trenor into meeting him late in
the evening at his house, “She felt suddenly weak
and defenceless: there was a throb of self-pity in her
throat. But all the while another self was sharpening