Lily Bart lived at the top of New York society. He loves beautiful things and extravagance. However, throughout the House of Mirth Lily plays a game. She wants to be virtuous, stay in the social circle, and have the money to keep up with the demands of her so-called friends. He becomes so involved in social life that he loses any possibility of acquiring his riches virtuously or through true love. She inevitably misses her chances: from Percy to her dear aunt to her indecision about men and marriage. Ultimately she fails to achieve what she feels is satisfying to her, so she drifts off into an endless sleep. Edith Wharton wrote The House of Mirth during the realist movement. The realism in Wharton's writings is influenced by Darwinism. When rumors spread about Lily and George's conquests, Lily's reputation is destroyed. Even though she survived being broke, gossip interrupts her existence. The past will always haunt her. When Lily decides to keep her morals intact and not destroy George's wife Bertha by exposing Bertha's escapades with the man Lily likes, readers know she is doomed to unhappiness. More than Darwinism, Wharton's writing is related to Lamarkism, which is pretty interesting in itself. . Wharton justifies Lily's death, because in her final moments of life Lily acknowledges that she has never had "no real relation to life" (248). In Lily's epiphany, Wharton exposes Lily's separation from the higher city life she once desired and the hand she is dealt. Through Lily, Wharton criticizes the traditional paths of this society and the disillusionment of happiness and the inevitable fall and destruction of Lily's society. Wharton blames New York society for Lily's fate. Lily is not destroyed by culture... middle of paper... which is not about wealth and class. He is the only one who knew all sides of her. Selden is the last vision the reader witnesses in this novel. His point of view helps the reader conclude that his death is the right thing to happen at the same time. No matter what happens, nothing could happen the way Lily wanted. Nothing could happen the way Selden wanted. “[The] living conditions had conspired to keep them apart” (267). His death is the end of Lily and Selden's disjointed love. The ending of the novel does what it's supposed to do. Ties up loose ends. Everything is “made all clear” (268). Works Cited Wharton, Edith. The House of Joy. New York: The Sons of Charles Scribner, 1905. Kindle.Kim, Sharon. "Lamarckism and the construction of transcendence in "The House of Mirth"." Studies In The Novel 38.2 (2006): 187. Biography Reference Bank (H.W. Wilson). Network. March 18. 2014.