The House of Mirth: Blog 6

Edith Wharton

     In chapter nine of The House of Mirth, Lily Bart exhibits an ample amount of jealousy and seems to want revenge. These emotions are brought about by letters presented to Lily by an old maid. The maid had kept a collection of letters she found in Selden's room that he had not destroyed. They presumably are love letters, and the maid assumes they are from Lily. When Lily sees them, she knows they are from Bertha Dorset, who, it is assumed, had an affair with Selden. Lily buys the letters, which is why the maid brought them to her attention. Originally, her motivation of buying the letters was to protect Selden. She was not going to read them and simply destroy them herself. However, when Lily learns it was Bertha Dorset that set up Gryce with another woman solely so Lily could not marry him, Lily decides to keep them as blackmail against Bertha. Honestly, I would do the same thing. If someone had done something so rude like Bertha did to me, I would want to have something I could use against that person. 

     However, in chapter ten, Lily seems to have a change of heart. The overall theme of this chapter, in my opinion, is forgiveness. When running into other acquaintances at an opera she attended with Rosedale, the topic of her sudden financial success comes up. Even though she is not particularly happy about it, she brushes it off and does not get mad at anyone for discussing it. Another forgiving moment for Lily is when she sees George Dorset, who informs Lily that Bertha would like to have her over to their house the coming Sunday. Lily suddenly decides not to use the letters against Bertha and accepts the invitation. "If she had destroyed Mrs. Dorset's letters, she might have continued to hate her; but the fact that they remained in her possession has def her resentment to satiety" (Wharton, 97). This shows that simply keeping the letters and not destroying them had been enough revenge for Lily.