The House of Mirth
Edith Wharton
"If only life could end now- end on this tragic yet sweet vision of lost
possibilities, which gave her a sense of kinship with all the loving and
forgoing in the world!" (Wharton, 261).
If only, if only. I wonder what Wharton's logic was in taking Lily's life so close to a happy ending. After talking with Mrs. Nettie Struther and receiving a check for her inheritance, she realizes what her life could have been, and she just barely seems to have a taste of the "sweet vision" that could have been reality. I really enjoyed that Lily took well what Mrs. Struther had to say, and that her kind of life seemed in reach to Lily, and this is the real breakthrough that I've seen with her. Maybe it's because she may be dying- there always has to be a great epiphany before the dramatic close! At the same time, maybe she wasn't ready for this new plan, this new future. Her overdose could symbolize her inadequacy to envision herself apart from what she had always seen for herself. As I recall, Wharton did point out that "the utmost reach of her imagination did not go beyond picturing her usual life in a new setting" (Wharton, 81). I don't understand how she could be ready for an ending, or especially one this far off from being happy.
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