Discussion and Informal Writing Questions for House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

Don’t forget to review your Angels in America questions regarding what defines love, responsibility, betrayal, justice, and clout.  They also examined the conflict between appearance and reality and the responsibility of the individual to his or her community and vice versa.


1. Both Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglas wrote about the limits needed for basic human dignity.  How are dignity and self respect defined for people like Lily Bart, Lawrence Selden or other characters in House of Mirth?

2. When we were analyzing Harriet Jacobs’s text, we discussed various moral or legal codes that were, in some cases, in direct conflict with each other.  What kinds of moral and social codes of behavior do you see in Lily Bart’s world?  How do these codes support and/or conflict with one another?  

3. Kushner’s Roy Cohn describes himself as not “nice.” Lily Bart confesses to Gerty Farish that she is a “bad girl” (165).  Lawrence Selden tells Gerty Farish “that he had never wanted to marry a ‘nice’ girl”(154).  We are told there is a “germ of truth in his declaration” (153).  How much do you believe him?  How is “nice” or “bad” defined by various characters?

4. How is living the good life (or a good life) defined for various characters?  How accessible is it?

5. We have mentioned “domestic fiction” in describing the model with which Jacobs contrasts the text of her own life.  Wharton has a similar topic to the narratives of Jane Austen or the Brontes: the manners of society and young women in search of husbands.  How is this basic marriage plot transformed via late 19th/ early 20th c American realism?

6. How does gender affect Lily Bart’s opportunities as well as her economic and moral position in her society?  You might contrast her with Selden or another single man as a point of comparison.  How does Gerty Farish fit into this?

7. How might marriage impact Lily’s opportunities and position?  Compare Lily with a married woman character.  What are the benefits and burdens of being a married woman of Lily Bart’s class?  You could also use this question to explore Wharton’s depiction of marriage.  You also might compare "marriagable" Lily with "unmarriagable" Gerty.

8. “[T]he little Jew who bought the Greiner house”: How is Rosedale’s “race” or heritage referred to in the text?  Does the text support or undercut the prevailing anti-Semitism in old money New York in 1905?

9. This book has been referred to as Wharton’s most “vertical” novel as it actually mentions and depicts people from classes other than the very top.  How are these other classes depicted?  You might start with the char woman of the Benedict and move on to the girls Gerty Farish helps, etc.

10. How do economics play out in the novel?  To what extent is Lily a commodity?  What would her “use” or “sign” value be to others?