♥

    Love was not prevalent in this way of living.  By saying love, I mean all types.  The love within a marriage.  The love among friends.  Love of oneself.  Love and true kindness could not scratch their way through into a world where people were objectified, and life was materialized.  I think the audience sees love but four or five times throughout the course of the novel.  Mrs. Haffen loved her family and was willing to do anything to provide a life for them even if that meant completely shaming herself.  Gerty Farish loved her cousin and loved her friend.  She puts Lily's happiness in front of her own by telling her that Selden would help her if she truly needed it.  Mrs. Struther loves not only her child but her entire life which seems unheard of until now.  Miss Lily Bart's love for Lawrence Selden presents itself when she places his happiness with life in front of her desires for wealth by burning the letters with the unknown but dangerous contents.  These few people are the ones who bring heart to Wharton's The House of Mirth and shine a light on how happiness is not defined in dollar signs.

"But something lived between them also, and leaped up in her like an imperishable flame: it was the love his love had kindled, the pasision of her soul for his" (Wharton, 251).

"...he fancied that he saw her draw something from her dress and drop it into the fire; bue he hardly noticed the gesture at the time" (Wharton, 252).