House of Mirth

Lily Bart's Loneliness: A Self-Realization Loneliness is a prevalent theme throughout Edith Wharton's novel, The House of Mirth. The following passage relates to the theme of loneliness and dramatizes Lily Bart's dilemma of poverty: "All she looked on was the same and yet changed. There was a great gulf fixed between today and yesterday. Everything in the past seemed simple, natural, full of daylight-and she was alone in a place of darkness and pollution.-Alone! …

…and lonely lead her to realize that her life had passed quickly with nearly no purpose or reason. But Nettie Struther's child, a symbol of perseverance offers a glimmer of hope and eternal peace. The novel ends dramatically when Lily dies still feeling Nettie's child beside her, with all her debts paid, and all the loneliness vanished; yet Lily Bart is still "something rootless and ephemeral, mere spindrift of the whirling surface of existence." (p. 306)