Point of View

The House of Mirth
Edith Wharton

One of the ways that Wharton tells this story is through an omniscient narrator. 

In the section that I just read, the narrator told of a series of interconnected events happening within a short time span from multiple points of view. First, the narrator takes on Lily's perspective and tells the events starting with her dinner at Mrs. Fisher's and ending with her call to the cab driver to take her to Gerty's apartment. Because the narrator told Lily's visit with Trenor from her perspective, I was able to know the types of emotions Lily was feeling while Trenor had her trapped in his house. "She felt suddenly weak and defenceless: there was a throb of self-pity in her throat" (Wharton, 118). I could only have speculated what emotions she felt if this passage had been told from Trenor's point of view.

In the meantime, the narrator told of Selden's events that happened that evening while Lily ate dinner and was trapped in Trenor's house. Although the narrator did not reveal as much insight into Selden's thoughts as with Lily, the passage played an important role in telling Selden's view of a relationship with Lily. To Selden, a relationship with Lily would be a quest to rescue her from old habits and associations. He also wondered how he could rescue her if he continued to feel swayed by the social judgements of others. The brief paragraph in which this insight was revealed shows that even just a small look into a character's thoughts can reveal important information. 

Finally, the narrator told the thoughts that Gerty felt after Selden left her apartment. Gerty began by respecting and admiring Lily, but within a short time, her thoughts drastically changed to hate. "And in her conscious impotence she lay shivering, and hated her friend - " (Wharton, 132). Gerty and Lily both wanted happiness, but would Gerty work to attain this happiness at the price of her friendship with Lily? I think that this insight into Gerty's thoughts helped to reveal potential problems that could arise in the future. Also, I think that this insight into Gerty's thoughts helped to build suspense of Lily's coming arrival at Gerty's apartment.