Stormy (Pages 121-146)

Edith Wharton has me completely entailed in The House of Mirth mostly because of the development of the characters, but another part of me truly wonders how this book is going to end. Throughout this section I was amazed at how some of the people in this book are seemingly polar opposites. Miss Bart and Gerty come off to me as opposites because of their attitudes. Miss Bart is hard in her ways and refuses to be kind unless something is in it for her. When she donated that money, she looked good. Gerty at one point in the same day was in a rage about to kill Miss Bart then completely turned around and showed kindness in taking her into her home. This characteristic of being so malleable in motivation and attitude shown through Gerty really reassures my thinking of Wharton purposefully putting motivation as a factor into this book. Wharton must have seen a large variety of motivations around her in order to so strongly influence her book. I am coming to like this development of the relationship between Selden and Miss Bart a large amount. I like it because Selden seems to be this all around nice guy who is looking for the right girl to be his wife for reasons that his past family reflects a little bit. I chose a sentence for this section also as my quote because of it's relation with the past chosen sentence. The previous one spoke of a raging sea and waves and this now speaks of the opposite in a sand storm. "Sobs shook her, and she bowed to them like a tree in a dry storm"(Page 134). Whartons use of similes really give me vivid visuals.