Irony

The House of Mirth
Edith Wharton
Book II

As book two continues, the reader discovers that Mrs. Peniston passed away. Naturally, her family gathered to listen to the reading of her last will and testament. Everyone gathered, except for the lawyers perhaps, strongly believed that Lily would receive the majority of Mrs. Peniston's estate. "It had been, in the consecrated phrase, 'always understood' that Mrs. Peniston was to provide handsomely for her niece..." (Wharton, 179). As the lawyers proceeded, it became known that Lily was to receive ten thousand dollars with the majority of the estate given to Grace Stepney. This shocked many people. I believe this to be an example of irony. The characters in the story and perhaps even the reader thought that Lily would receive the largest portion of the estate, but she did not. This ironic situation caused confusion in many of the people present for the reading of the will. I believe that this confusion reflects the chaotic life that Lily has lived within the past year or so. Her sporadic actions, which she believed to have been planned out, have culminated in one final decision of Mrs. Peniston that fails to help Lily easily fix her financial bind. Mrs. Peniston refused to pay Lily's debt while she was living, and even now in death she refuses to pay. Lily's own actions brought about her problems, and now she must act on her own to fix them.