The House of Mirth
Edith Wharton
At the beginning of Chapter 13, I actually started to feel scared for Lily. She is undoubtably tricked into Mr. Trenor's home, and is blocked from the door outside to safety, all while being punched by his cruel words and intentions. I thought a great deal during this chapter if whether I thought Lily deserved this treatment. Mr. Trenor was demanding payment for all of his work with Lily's money, and he was immediately disappointed when Lily did not want to feed his repugnant desire to have her as his payment. Does Lily's taking advantage of him and small allowances of hand touches and flirting make it fair that Mr. Trenor could assume that she was intending to give him more? I would say of course not, but I could see that he would hope for things to head that direction. It was especially insulting to Lily, and to the reader sympathizing with Lily, when Mr. Trenor said, "Gad, you go to men's houses fast enough in broad daylight- strikes me you're not always so dueced careful of appearances" (Wharton, 118). Lily then realizes with a harsh blow to her self esteem that the men of Rosedale thought of her in this way.
Mr. Trenor stooped to this level of exposing Lily as the temptress that she was, and even though she is in fact as manipulative and kniving as he expressed, I find it utterly repulsive that he thought that it was his duty to lower her to feel the self disgust that she did, and to demand that sort of payment to settle up the supposed debts she owed him.
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