House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

“Why, the beginning was in my cradle, I suppose- in the way I was brought up, and the things I was taught to care for (Wharton, 183).”

            The effect of setting ties into the truth of this quote from Miss Lily Bart. Her mother and her society taught her from a young age the path to material happiness. She needed to marry young while she still had her beauty and marry rich. New York has superfluous showings of their riches, and tied with the good terms of the stock market, the rich gained more money than ever. They loved to flout their wealth through gambling and travelling abroad for months at a time. A respectable woman fell into suit with the others in this respect. They played bridge and married for money. As in today’s society, Americans have a social future that we fall into line. We find going to college, marrying, and having a family as the way to sublime happiness, but is it the way for everyone? No, it is not. Miss Bart suffers from the inflexibility of her time period as most people do of this era.