Nature, whether in the form of the Arctic tundra of the North Pole or the bustling urban life of Manhattan, was seen by nature writers as a phenomenon that necessarily called into question individual survival. ; a phenomenon, moreover, which operated according to Darwin's maxim of “survival of the fittest”. This stood in stark contrast to the Romantic view, which revered nature for its beauty, beneficence, and self-liberating powers. In Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth, Lily Bart attempts to "survive" in the urban "living room" society in which she inhabits. Although Selden uses romantic images of nature to describe Lily, throughout the novel these romantic images and the meanings that accompany them are continually subverted. By simply invoking different understandings and viewpoints of "Nature", Wharton demonstrates that not only is Lily's ability to "adapt" to various environments not necessarily beneficial, but also that floral imagery, used in ironically, perfectly captures Lily's need for "luxury climes". However, it is Wharton's image of a "hothouse" that ultimately captures the ambiguous nature of what, for Wharton, is truly Nature. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Lily, although a city dweller, is described by Selden as someone intimately connected to a kind and life-giving nature. He exclaims: “Her attitude revealed the long slope of her slender sides, which gave to her figure a sort of wild wooden grace, as if she were a captured dryad subjected to the conventions of the drawing room” (13). Selden's notion of Lily's "sylvan freedom" and her interconnectedness with all that is "natural" is echoed later in the novel, when Lily is either described as, or compared to, a "rose", (167 ) an “orchid” (150). , an “aquatic plant” (53) and a “fine flower” (216). Even its name, "Lily", like the kind of flower, relates to nature and natural things. Thus, a cursory reading of such documents would suggest that Lily, despite her urban status, manages to maintain a spiritual connection with Mother Nature, a connection which, unfortunately, is restricted and "subjugated" by the "conventions of the salon." It could therefore be argued that Wharton sees the industrial city as preventing Lily from understanding and experiencing her “true self,” namely that “self” present in a state of nature. We will quickly see, however, that Wharton does not always share Selden's romantic vision of nature. Throughout The House of Mirth, we witness Lily's ability to "adapt" (53) to the environment she enters. Wharton writes, "Selden noted the subtle nuances of how she harmonized with her surroundings" (192) and describes, "Her ability to renew herself in new scenes and to shake off conduct problems as easily as "environment in which they had occurred" (196). Such capacity is most clearly seen when Lily is forced, against her will, into the “Gormer milieu” (234). If this "environment" does not please him, it is through "his immense social ease, his long habit of adapting to others without his own contours becoming blurred, the skillful handling of all the polished instruments of his trade" that she gains “an important place in the Gormer group” (237). This "adaptability", which ostensibly resembles Darwin's notion that biological species, to survive, must adapt to changing environments, does not, in fact, contribute to Lily's survival. This also does not allow him to maintain aany sort of “spiritual connection” with Nature. Its effect is rather the opposite. Wharton writes: “(Lily’s) ability to adapt? served her from time to time in small contingencies,” but ultimately “hindered her in the decisive moments of life. She was like an aquatic plant in the flow of the tides” (53). Wharton's simile here, "She was like a water plant in the tidal flow," changes the way the reader must understand and view nature. While Selden, in describing Lily, used nature to represent a kind of benevolent, self-liberating phenomenon, Wharton uses nature in this case to represent a heartless and thoughtless Darwinian process where only the strong survive. Although Lily is still described in terms of "natural" imagery (an "aquatic plant"), her connection to Nature is no longer liberating or life-renewing, but rather serves, as Wharton tells us, "to hinder the decisive process. moments of life” (53). So in this case the character of nature is changed, which in turn changes how we can interpret the "naturalistic" imagery used to describe Lily. Its adaptability as a “water plant,” rather than being spiritually enriching, ultimately proves unhealthy. Although Lily has, as we have seen, adaptive powers, Wharton makes it clear that such powers, besides, are not always healthy or beneficial. , are in fact quite limited in scope. Although Lily can survive for a time outside of her high-society “salons,” she is inexorably drawn to them, like a swimmer searching for water. Wharton tells us: “All (of Lily) being expanded in an atmosphere of luxury, it was the background she needed, the only climate she could breathe” (26). We see once again how the meaning of “Nature” has been completely transformed. Unlike Selden's view of "Nature", in which the actual physical environment held the key to Lily's well-being and self-liberation, in this case "Nature" has nothing to do with it. with pastoral and idyllic settings, but rather refers to “drawing”. -rooms." But like Selden's view of nature, we see that nature (in this case, living in the parlors) is absolutely necessary to Lily's continued existence. It is that which gives him life and allows him to breathe. As Selden tells Lily: "Your lungs think of air, if not And the same goes for your rich people: they don't." "may not think about money, but they breathe it all the time" 69). However, not only does Wharton (again) completely transform the meaning of nature, but she also ironically draws on the romantic imagery of nature to complete this transformation: “(Lily) could not be pictured anywhere other than in a drawing room, spreading elegance as a flower sheds perfume” (100). perfume” accurately captures the irony that Wharton sees in the use of romantic images of nature (i.e. flowers) in the context of his own version of Nature, that of the salons. Saying that a "flower gives off perfume" conjures up the image of a flower giving off a smell, a smell which is then bottled and made into "perfume", a perfume which is then used by high society ladies to smell good. Thus, Wharton, by choosing to describe Lily as a "flower", reinforces the idea that Lily's "nature", her "natural habitat" was that of the living room. But as she is a "flower" that sheds a "fragrance", Wharton captures the double meaning existing in such a symbol, showing that not only was Lily's "natural habitat" the living room, but also highlighting the irony of the.