BOOK SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS

BOOK 2

CHAPTER 6

Summary

Lily Bart is out at the site of the GormersÂ’ new country house with Mrs. Gormer. She is taking a stroll during a break in her day when she runs across George Dorset. He seems desperate to talk to her. He apologizes for participating in the snub in Europe and tells her he has wanted to speak to her for weeks. Lily tells him she cannot speak to him since the scandal has put them together and she tries to put off his advances towards her. He tells her that just one word from her would free him from his miserable situation. Lily tells him she knows nothing against Mrs. Dorset and will say nothing. Despite his repeated entreaties, she says good-bye and leaves him.

When she gets back to Mrs. Gormer, she finds that Mrs. Dorset has just visited. Lily knows that Mrs. Dorset doesnÂ’t make neighborly calls and that she never deigns to recognizes social inferiors like the Gormers, so she suspects the Mrs. Dorset is trying to hurt her once again. Lily returns to New York and sets up in a small hotel she has found with the help of Gerty Farish. She canÂ’t actually afford the hotel, but she cannot imagine going any lower in the level of her accommodations. She is very close to being completely without money. One day she gets home to find George Dorset waiting in her sitting room. It is clear that for a moment, he recognizes her poverty and feels concerned for her, but it is also clear that in the next moment, he thinks of how he can benefit from it. He wants her to tell him something definite about his wifeÂ’s sexual infidelities. Lily refuses to do so, saying over and over that she knows nothing. She makes him leave and tells him she cannot see him again.

She has not seen much of Rosedale, but has continued to think of the possibility of marrying him. She has been invited to spend the night with Carrie Fisher, who is enjoying momentary prosperity since her success with the Brys. She gets to Mrs. FisherÂ’s house and finds Simon Rosedale in the parlor talking to Carry FisherÂ’s young daughter. It is clear that he isnÂ’t doing this for advantage, but that he is sincerely kind to her. Lily thinks he is "kind in his gross, unscrupulous, rapacious way, the way of the predatory creature with his mate." That night in her room, she and Carrie Fisher talk. She sees that Carrie Fisher loves to have the chance to enjoy spending time with her daughter and wonders what if she would spend all her time with her daughter given the economic stability. Carrie tells Lily of Bertha DorsetÂ’s recent machinations with Mrs. Gormer and warns her that her only chance to escape from Bertha DorsetÂ’s cruelty is to marry.

Notes

Chapter six finds Lily back in danger at the hands of Bertha Dorset, who suspects her husbandÂ’s admiration for Lily and her own danger of losing him to her. The reader must remember that Lily has in her possession the love letters which Bertha Dorset wrote to Lawrence Selden. These letters, though, are not mentioned in the narration of LilyÂ’s private thoughts. On the surface of the story, the only method of revenge Lily is shown to have against Bertha Dorset is in her ability to marry BerthaÂ’s husband.

The alternative between George Dorset and Simon Rosedale is a pretty sad one. Lily thinks about marrying Simon Rosedale but carefully avoids thinking about what marriage to him would mean for her. In highlighting this avoidance, Wharton makes the reader think about it. During the time the novel was written, few writers were willing to address the reality of sexuality, but they had many ways of hinting about it by glaring silences like this one. It is clear that Lily is on the verge of a kind of prostitution. She not only doesnÂ’t like Simon Rosedale, she finds him repulsive. Yet she still considers marrying him. WhatÂ’s more, she is almost forced to it by her social predicament as an unmarried young woman who has been used as a pawn in a nasty power play between another husband and wife.

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