The House of Mirth Book II IX-XI

Common hat for women in the early 1900s.

At this point in Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth Lily has officially become a member of the lower class. She is forced to get a job and support herself. Lily's transition into the working class did not go smoothly. Although she does manage to find work sewing hats. This is a moment of irony, as before Selden expressed pride that Lily, an upper-class woman, trimmed her own hats beautifully. Now Lily is doing this, not for fashion, but to survive.

Lily's low-class life has one similarity to her old, social rejection. The working girls do not accept her, for she is a upper-class woman who fell from grace. Instead of being awed by her presence as she believes they should, they are merely annoyed at her lack of experience and training. She's not treated with pity or respect, but rather as "an object of criticism an amusement to the other work-woman" (Wharton, 231). Lily's life has come full circle, as two years before she would never considered the option of living in the working-class, and being rejected by them.