why mix a confession and an excuse

I'm confused about the premise for the whole book. If he is writing his confessions to god, why make excuses? A confession of guilt from someone claiming to not be guilty doesn't seem to make sense. What he did when he was a child wasn't his fault. What he did in a group wasn't his fault. Where is the true confession here?

stealing pears

I was looking up things about the confessions to see if I could get some insight to help with the reading and I found an explanation about when Augustine stole pears only because he could share in sin with others, and this was a basis for group mentality. I thought it was interesting to have that as a foundation for group mentality.

re-thinking Lily's suicide

Re-reading the scene of Lily's death I'm starting to think that maybe it wasn't a suicide after all. Although she doesn't seem to care too much about the risk, this is more of an act of neglect and apathy then a decision to commit suicide.

"She knew she took a slight risk in doing so; she remembered the chemist's warning. If sleep came at all, it might be a sleep without waking. But that was but one chance in a hundred : the action of the drug was incalculable, and the addition of a few drops to the regular dose would probably do no more than procure for her the rest she so desperately needed. "

Then the narrator speaks more as an outside analyzer of Lily: "She did not, in truth consider the question very closely; the physical craving for sleep was her only sustained sensation. Her mind shrank from the glare of thought..."

House of Mirth

I was thinking about the title and why it was named House of Mirth. The title comes from Ecclesiastes 7:4 "The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth." I found a bunch of other versions of the same quote (from different bibles)

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
The mind of the wise is in the house of mourning, While the mind of fools is in the house of pleasure.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
The minds of wise people think about funerals, but the minds of fools think about banquets.

King James Bible
The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.


Then to give it context I looked up 7:3 and 7:5

Ecclesiastes 7:3

Sorrow is better than laughter, For when a face is sad a heart may be happy

Ecclesiastes 7:5

It is better to listen to the rebuke of a wise man Than for one to listen to the song of fools

Marx and Wharton

The society that Wharton describes in The House of Mirth is the type of society that Marx is reacting to. Lily lived in a world of Commodity-Fetishism. Lily's world is capitalism at its worst.

Edith Wharton

I looked up Edith Wharton on wikepedia, and although I knew she was born into a wealthy family I found interesting how involved she was in high society. She was friends with many famous and powerful people and she was an influential "taste-maker" of her time.

Money Beats Soul

Thinking about the moral of the story made me think of a song:

Money Beats Soul
-The Doors

There are two paths a man can go
One leads to money, and the other leads to soul
Money beats soul,
Money beats soul every-time
Hard fact of life boy,
but money beats your soul every-time