The House of Mirth - Edith Wharton
Chapter VI

Lily travels through the phases of falling in love with Seldon in this chapter as she shares an afternoon with him in the gardens. Lily recalls her first time falling in love and describes "the sense of lightness, of emancipation, which she remembered feeling in the whirl of a waltz or the seclusion of a conservatory during the brief course of her youthful romance" (Wharton, 67). This chapter proves again how everything that Lily wants is just out of her grasp. Her first love married one of the Van Osburghs and his initially capturing looks faded into "stout and wheezy" (Wharton, 67). The symbolism of the loss of her first romantic endeavor ties into the theme of the novel in that everything that Lily is working towards and chasing after will disappoint her. Her quest for wealth has a deceiving end and what she wants is not as appealing as she thinks.

Lily's social status is still fragile as an unmarried woman and, knowing this, she will do anything to keep up the chase or wealth through marriage.