Is it Fate?

The House of Mirth centers on the theme of fate and how many of Lily's early actions and characteristics hint toward later events and issues within the novel. For example, in the beginning we saw Lily as a very impulsive character obsessed with her material life. Oftentimes she blames her misfortune with money on fate or destiny. Like it's not her fault that she loses all her money. Then later we find that her character traits lead her into these situations, she is more or less doing this to herself. She is manipulative and slightly obsessive by nature so then throughout the novel she keeps manipulating people and obsessing over her societal status, this doesn't surprise us. She also has trouble committing as we see with her multiple relationships and proposals. She is creating her "fate" for herself with her actions. It's almost as if she's hopelessly impulsive, obsessive etc. She can't get out of it so she blames it on fate.

This reminded me of a book a read last year by Thomas Hardy titled Tess of the D'Urbervilles. The protagonist in this novel, Tess, also deals with fate and how fate affects the plot with Tess. Tess's character is also "hopeless" in some areas areas. For one, she is easily influenced and has trouble making her own decisions. This trait hinders her actions throughout the rest of the book and keeps her from overcoming her issues. This is like Lily. Lily cannot overcomer her character traits either. And in the end it get the better of her. Tess died at the end of her story and so did Lily...was this their fate?

It is interesting too that both of these stories are so similar in format and theme. They both are in the same sort of time period, the turn of the century, I guess it must of been the style for novels or something.

I Take it Back...

In an earlier post I compared Lily to Lizzy Bennett from Pride and Prejudice, and now I would like to retract that statement after further reading into the development of Lily as a character. Lily is not like Lizzy at all I can see. Perhaps it was just the Victorian theme that made me think of them together, but I think Lily has evolved. She cares so much about money and has become so desperate that she is starting to break down. She is finally realizing how much she has alienated people for the want of money and social respect. The ironic thing is that she has sacrificed so much climbing the social ladder that people have taken notice and therefore have lost respect for her in her sort of wild desperation. Lizzy Bennett saw this part of society as ridiculous and tried to distance herself from it, she was never one to worry about financial security and in fact thought the opposite, especially when considering marriage. I think that Lily would like to do things for herself and marry for love not money and such, but she has become too dependent on her extravagant lifestyle that she can't imagine anything else.