Questions

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  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)?

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    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)?

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    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)?

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    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?

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    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

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    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?

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