Lily Bart appears to have two personalities as the House of Mirth by Edith Wharton develops. She seems to be stuck between two worlds: rich or easy-going. Her entire life has been built around marrying into money to keeps one's name respectable; however, she seems to be questioning this. It seems now that she is stuck between the lives of Percy Gryce or Lawrence Selden. Even Mr. Gryce saw her true colors when it says, "...and he was glad to find that Miss Bart, for all her ease and self-possession, was not at home in so ambiguous an atmosphere" (Wharton, pg41). I believe Gryce really did see right through Lily. She really does not fit into this society. It seems to me that she doesn't want to get strapped down and give into all the pressures a married woman in society must remember. "How alluring the world outside the cage appeared to Lily, as she heard its door clang on her!" (Wharton, pg43).
As Miss Bart is having internal conflicts over what she really feels she wants out of life, she starts to see the lives of those around her under a better microscope. "How different they had all seemed to her a few hours ago! Then they had symbolised what she gaining, now they stood for what she was giving up" (Wharton, pg44).
As chapter 6 progressed, I feel that the way Lily acts around Selden shows that she is truly in love with him. I feel that if she could chose right now who to marry, without worrying about money or societal drama, she would pick Selden just because of how free she comes off around him. "She admired him most of all, perhaps, for being able to convey as distinct a sense of superiority as the richest man she had ever met" (Wharton, pg52). This example shows clearly how Lily hold Selden above the rest of the men she has encountered.
http://youtu.be/kU4tm5Livzc
The movie is almost dead on with the book! I was reading as they talked and it is almost word for word!
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