It is not her material desires that have killed he
2016-10-17
In Chapter 13, when Lily met Nettie Struther, the woman she'd helped by her charity work, she was told that Nettie's baby girl was named "Marry Anto'nette" (Marie Antoinette) because she sees the resemblance between Miss Bart and the French queen's beauty. Ironically, they were granted not only the same beauty, but also the same tragedy. It reminds me of Stefan Zweig's words in 'Marie Antoinette: The Portrait of an Average Woman': "She was still too young to know that life never gives anything for nothing, and that a price is always exacted for what fate bestows. She did not think she would have to pay a price."
It is easy to simplify the story as 'the harm of vanity', but actually it's far more than that. Lily, as the protagonist, although seems to have been a fantasized character for being extraordinarily charming, is living vividly with her virtues and defects. Yes, she is obsessed with extravagances, and she ought to pay for that. But she's never schemed against others or given up her conscience for her material benefits. Compared to her fellow figures, she should not be the one to suffer from such misery.
This book almost made me cry. It was written in 1905, but it is still happening to women around the world. In China, an unmarried woman over thirty would be called 'the leftover'. It is the name of failure. Women today are still be valued by their appearance, marriage and material life, and many are taught that any occupation of a woman except wife and mother would be ill reputed, especially in the upper class. It is hard to imagine women in such condition could have any choice of higher pursuits, and for me, it is understandable when I see Lily's innate snobbishness in a society like this. I'm glad of her later self-consciousness, and I feel grieved to see her suffer from her stubbornly dignity. If she is a total snob, she could have saved herself from the misfortune. Yet the difficult thing is, life forbids her from being both realistic and idealistic. It is not her material desires that have killed her, it is her moral and pride.