It's like a horror movie....only worse

[coffee_moon]

Like when you know someone's in the other room and you're screaming "No you idiot don't go in, he's right behind the door!" but she goes in anyway? Yeah, that's what I do when I see Lily Bart furiously working her way out of quicksand obvlious to the fact that squirming will only make you sink faster. The only reason I'm able to predict that of course is because I've read enough of Wharton* to know that there are no such things as happy endings in life. At least for the protagonist and his/her related love interest, and The House of Mirth doesn't seem to be veering of the course any time soon.** I keep hoping that Lily gets her priorities straight  - for the love of future happiness just suck it up and marry Sheldon! - or be single, I don't care, just as long as she doesn't put herself at the mercy of Trenor and Rosedale.*** Her quest for society's luxury is slowing going to devour her and in the end she'll be left with even less that what she started out with. No prospects and a shattered reputation. I have a feeling she'll end up like Gerty Farish, the very woman she condems for "living like a pig" in a dingy flat and meager allowance. Oh, Lily. I'm rather weary of actually finishing it because I really don't want to see her end up unhappy. But of course, I must, possessing an innate urge to Find Out What Happens in books.

* Does two really qualify as enough? Surely all her works aren't like Ethan Frome and The Age of Innocence?
** It still feels like something gone wrong in my life when I think about the fate of Newland Archer and Ellen Olenska. And inexpliciable, almost deep sadness I suppose would be the right word.
*** ...which she seems to have already done? Oh, Lily, why?