Questions

1. What does Edith Wharton suggest with her observation that Lily’s “vulgar cares were at an end. She would be able to arrange her life as she pleased, to soar into that empyrean of security where creditors cannot penetrate” (par. 1)?

   Question

   Questions: - What does Edith Wharton suggest with her observation that Lily’s “vulgar cares were at an end. She would be able to arrange her life as she pleased, to soar into that empyrean of security where creditors cannot penetrate” (par. 1)?
2. What do you think Lily means by her reference to “the relatively poor” (par. 1)?

   Question

   Questions: - What do you think Lily means by her reference to “the relatively poor” (par. 1)?
3. How does Lily define herself as the wife of Gryce? What was she “determined to be to him” (par. 1)?

   Question

   Questions: - How does Lily define herself as the wife of Gryce? What was she “determined to be to him” (par. 1)?
4. What source(s) of power does Lily understand will be hers to wield as well as nurture when she is Gryce’s wife?

   Question

   Questions: - What source(s) of power does Lily understand will be hers to wield as well as nurture when she is Gryce’s wife?
5. What shift in attitude does the narrator portray in this passage in which Lily imagines herself as a member of the social aristocracy, a sphere which she initially thought of as a “crowded selfish world of pleasure” (par. 2)?

   Question

   Questions: - What shift in attitude does the narrator portray in this passage in which Lily imagines herself as a member of the social aristocracy, a sphere which she initially thought of as a “crowded selfish world of pleasure” (par. 2)?
6. Based on this excerpt, how would you describe Wharton’s view of marriage in the society of her time?

   Question

   Questions: - Based on this excerpt, how would you describe Wharton’s view of marriage in the society of her time?