In Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth, the cold and unforgiving world of New York high society never favors the perspective of the outsider or the viewer . But the author seems to give a lot of credit to characters who adapt to this position, thereby accepting its flaws as well as its attributes. Lawrence Selden is one such figure, and unique in that society accepts him as a spectator, perhaps because he accepts himself in that position. He sees everything from a separate point of view, always stepping back to view the scenes in which he himself participates. His love for Lily is both born and destroyed by this aspect of his personality. His love for Selden, on the other hand, is simply complicated by this prospect. Lily's relationship with her own distant and separate tendencies changes over the course of the novel, greatly affecting her worldview and, more importantly, her relationship with Selden. However, for most of the novel, Lily is an outsider who refuses to admit this. And just as with Selden and every other character in this category, Lily will find this trait to be both her blessing and her downfall. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Selden's place as an outsider is maintained primarily by his tendency to always stand aside from the activity, to look down. This position allows him not only to distance himself from any main activity, but also to understand the events taking place around him with more reason than those who are more actively involved in them. His choice to stay aloof is clear in moments like at a ball, where "Selden...finds himself, from a corner of the ballroom, observing the scene with frank pleasure." (138) He voluntarily places himself in a corner, becoming a kind of audience. The allusion to theater comes from his idea that "the very rich should live up to their calling as managers and not spend their money in boring ways" (139), the very concept that brings him to the performance involving Lily in a living painting.Selden's place as a spectator facilitates his love for Lily. Because Lily possesses supernatural beauty and constantly uses this trait to become an object of observation, she is the perfect creature to observe from afar. Selden seems to understand her most in his moment on stage at the ball, when he can just sit and watch, sharing with an entire audience "the touch of poetry that [he] always felt in her presence." (142) It is at this moment, when Lily becomes the object that Selden has always naturally created of her, in his own mind, that he understands her most. As he simply observes her, "he seems to see the real Lily Bart before him"... and even "[has] time to feel all the tragedy of his life". (142) Even when Lily is next to him, he looks at her attentively, as if she were a scene before him. At the beginning, after telling the reader that "as a spectator he had always liked Lily Bart" (6), Selden walks alongside her and speculates on her beauty. He notes “the modeling of her little ear” and even wonders “has her hair been slightly brightened by art?” (7) Although his position generally proves to please or entertain Selden, it also gives way to a cold reality and constant loneliness. Selden is not the only one to represent the role of the stranger in this novel. He is joined by several key characters, most of whom seem equally unlucky in love and essentially alone in the world, but also have a heightened perception and understanding of reality rather than the siled view offered by the more active participants. mrsPeniston is one of those characters who, "as a spectator... enjoys such opportunities for comparison and generalization as those who participate in them must proverbially forgo." (127) She illustrates loneliness in this perspective, even more separated by her age. Other characters of this type include Carry Fisher and Gerty Farish. Like Selden, these women delight in their differences and also offer advice and help to Lily when she needs it. Mrs. Fisher simply wants to "see [Lily's situation] from the outside and draw her conclusions accordingly." (247) And when she doesn't stand out and just follows the pack, as most people in this business seem to tend to do, she apologizes to Lily for it. (240) Gerty, on the other hand, is not so much consciously different as she finds herself naturally different. Her triumph in her status as an outsider comes from the great joy she feels in simply watching beautiful things, such as Van Osburgh's wedding, where "her warbling enthusiasms... [seem] only to throw her own exceptional character into sharp relief." and give a meteoric rise. immensity to his life project. (94) Gerty is able to see beauty where most critics do, but she is also doomed in love, as shown by her failure to treat Selden to a romantic dinner. Lily, although foreign by nature, is unlike any of these characters. She simultaneously accepts and rejects this perspective. What sets her apart most is her stunning beauty and grace, an attribute she clings to as her primary tool for survival. This physical beauty is the aspect of her differences that she embraces and accepts. She physically stands out from her group when she knows that her beauty will make a strong impression, as in her choice of stage at the Wellington-Bry ball, where she chooses something very different from the others. She also does this during the reading of Mrs. Peniston's will, where she prepares for a scene of triumph by "[sitting] down on a chair which seemed to have been deliberately placed apart from the others." (231) Like her natural separation, this lonely chair will ironically become a horrible place to be separated, when the scene becomes a tragedy for her when she least expects it. The tragedy of Lily's poverty is the force behind her eventual realization of her inherent otherness. What she had only adopted as a tool to obtain things also begins to reveal its negative force in her life, as "a harsh veneer of indifference [is] quickly forming over her delicacies and susceptibilities." (243) Her perpetual position as a guest among friends at Bellomont, and later always as a "third wheel" to married couples in Europe or Alaska, was a symptom of this alienation. She was also too removed from reality to see any situation other than her own. She sees the height of his self-centered and distant attitude when remembering his visits to Gerty's girls' service clubs; “She had felt an enlightened interest in the working classes, but it was because she looked at them from above, from the happy altitude of her grace and her beneficence. Now that she was on their level, the point of view was less interesting." (297) Lily was forced to live out her worst nightmare in order to see the nature of her own being, to see that "she had never been able to understand the laws of a universe that was so ready to leave her out of its calculations." (31) She is finally separated, alone and able to see who she really is. What destroys Lily most about this ignorance is the capacity her separation gives her for true love with Selden. Perhaps he sees himself in his natural distance. He is completely won over, “.