Trenor, Dorset, Fisher, Gerty, Gryce, Silverton, Stepney, etc.

Throughout Wharton's The House of Mirth, I have found myself relying on the notes of previous chapters to remember who all these characters are!  For me, they are confused easily.  At first, I thought I was not concentrating hard enough on the content of the novel.  As I pondered on this, the idea came to me that it is possible that Edith Wharton desired the confusion of her readers.  She wanted to display how transparent the elitist world was.  All the men are the same; they serve merely as ATMs for their wives.  The wives are but showcases of the man's wealth.  The wealth gives meaning to the last name of a man.  However, the last names of the wealthy are all synonymous.  Selden remarks this sameness in the appearance of Ms. Bart overseas.  "...a subtle change had passed over the quality of her beauty.  Then it had had a transparency through which the fluctuations of the spirit were sometimes tragically visible; now its impenetrable surface suggested a process of crystallisation which had fused her whole being into one hard brilliant substance" (Wharton, 154)