The relationship between ideal and reality is often represented in black and white. The ideal can be defined as a conception of something in its perfection, while reality is defined as something that exists independently of ideas about it. In The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton blurs the relationship between ideals and reality by introducing characters who represent different ideals emphasizing femininity and beauty, but not allowing them to be absolutely perfect. Wharton embodies ideal women not as those who are "perfect ornaments of jewel-like rarity" (94), but as those who can accept their own imperfections and achieve happiness outside of society's expectations. By analyzing the women Wharton uses in the novel and focusing specifically on their imperfections and how they present and deal with them, one can understand Wharton's notion of the "ideal woman." Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned"?Get the original essay From the beginning of the novel, Mr. Selden, a "detached observer of the [high-class social] scene" (99 ), is caught admiring the protagonist, Lily Bart. A 29-year-old single woman, Lily is fascinatingly beautiful and intelligent. At social gatherings, men cannot take their eyes off her radiant beauty and vigor. Lily manipulates her own splendor, using her beauty as a power to convince her targets: "Her beauty itself was not the mere fleeting possession it might have been in the hands of inexperience: her skill in putting it on in value, the care she took there. the use she made of it seemed to give it a sort of permanence. She felt she could trust him to see her through to the end” (50). Despite Lily's impeccable beauty, Selden observes that "the qualities which distinguished her from the herd of her sex were chiefly external, as if a fine varnish of beauty and thoroughness had been applied to common clay" (30). Isn't it ironic that something so perfect can be called vulgar? Furthermore, Lily is described as an object: “she must have cost a lot of money to make, so many boring and ugly people had to be sacrificed to produce her” (3). It is evident that Wharton intentionally likens Lily to malleable clay, an object that lacks a defined form, but finds its form by shaping and molding others. This analogy fits Lily perfectly, both in her financial situation and in her emotional dilemmas. All her decisions are based on how others will perceive her. She leads a life of calculation: adding and subtracting the ideal and reality to make herself more popular. Although Lily is portrayed as a character blessed with ideal external beauty, she has imperfections that she attempts to hide from the New York society she aspires to join. One of Lily's biggest flaws is her obsessive desire and thirst for money. “Lily couldn't remember a time when there was enough money, and in some vague way her father always seemed to be responsible for that lack” (29). She did not come from a wealthy family, but her mother “was famous for the unlimited effect she produced with limited means” (30). In this way, Lily is naturally proud of her mother's abilities and grows up minimizing misery. After her mother's death, Lily strives to become an upper-class New Yorker. She indulges in gambling and speculates on Wall Street. She buys sophisticated clothes because she believes that “clothes are the foundation, the framework of success” (10). ForFor her, not only will the money free her from her obligations, but it will also give her the opportunity to live her life as she wishes. Her desperate addiction to the pleasures of the world of luxury and grace ultimately renders her unfit for survival. When all her money disappears and her debts consume her, Lily becomes trapped in her dire situation. She is chained to the impulses of those around her, tied to the demands of wealthy circles, and enslaved in her own powerlessness to be happy without money. Like clay that can only be shaped by human hands, Lily is "inwardly as malleable as wax" (54), because her perception of herself is based on her societal status and what society thinks of her. Her obsession with money is also why Lily continually denies her emotions for Selden and is so willing to marry someone she doesn't love. She openly tells Selden at the beginning of the novel: “I [Lily] am horribly poor – and very expensive. I must have a lot of money” (8). Despite the fact that Selden truly cares about her and is the only constant throughout the novel, she refuses to marry him because he cannot support her financially. Listening to society's emphasis on social stature and money, Lily acts contrary to her true emotions for Selden. She rejects the freedom she feels when alone with Selden, this freedom "from everything – from money, from poverty, from ease and anxiety, from all material accidents" (70). . Her lust for money ultimately leads her not only to financial ruin, but also to expulsion from upper-class society. She is "reduced to the fate of that poor woman from Silverton, sneaking into employment agencies and trying to sell painted blotters to women's purses" (282). Her remaining friends have no hope for her unless she completely detaches herself from old associations. Knowing that she has abandoned all hope of happiness, Lily ultimately achieves a kind of ideal status in her death. She repays the nine thousand dollars she owes Trenor and meets Selden to confess her mistake in refusing him. No longer enslaved by her own lust for money and acceptance into upper-class society, she admits to Selden that she is a "coward" and ultimately understands that she "can never be happy with what I 'had contented previously. » (326). Lily ends her life "with this tragic but sweet vision of lost possibilities, which gave her a sense of kinship with all that loves and comes before in the world" (340). Incapable of accepting her imperfections and only finding them in death, she does not represent the ideal woman. Another woman that Wharton uses to clarify the notion of the "ideal woman" is Bertha Dorset, a character who completely contrasts Lily. It is important to note that The House of Mirth was published in 1905, just after America's Gilded Age. This period refers to the opulence of the post-Civil War years in America. Between the 1870s and 1890s, the rich got richer; the poor have become poorer. There is a growing separation between the richest and the struggling poor. Bertha Dorset represents the sumptuously wealthy class that Lily aspires to join. She has a secure place in the elite circle because she is married to a very rich man. Unfortunately, despite all the wealth, ornaments and excesses, she is not happy. Like many women in her social field, she is married to a man she does not love in order to establish and protect her social status. In search of happiness, she gets involved in countless extramarital affairs with other men. Additionally, she is described as a "wicked woman" who ".