by Edith Wharton
Book 1, chap XI-XII
"She smiled at the latter's question. 'People always say unpleasant things- and certainly they're a great deal together. A friend of mine met them the other afternoon in the Park- quite late, after the lamps were lit. It's a pit Lily makes herself so conspicuous' " (Wharton, 101).
Grace's long conversation with Mrs. Peniston calls to mind a common theme in multiple teenage dramas- one girl feels unappreciated or unnoticed, so she spreads gossip about the more noticed girl to someone else. Girls frequently get jealous of each other and spit of a list of unpleasant rumors the the subject's parents, teachers, friends, or boyfriend. This theme is shown in the movie Mean Girls and even in The Help. In one particular scene, the sweet Celia is denied an invitation to party thrown by the popular Hilly because Hilly has a personal distaste for Celia and spread rumors to make her other guests dislike Celia as well. Celia was rumored to be quiet promiscuous when in reality she never did anything wrong.
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| Hilly (in the flower print dress) gossips to her friends about Celia's supposed indecencies |
Grace's gossip about Lily's flirtations and debts serve only to upset Mrs. Peniston, and not in the way Grace had really wished. This kind of gossip is apparent in the novel and the movie, but in contrast to The Help, it was Grace that was left out of the party. On the other hand, another commonality between Celia in The Help and Lily is that society seems to frown upon them for be pretty and friendly. People used to admire Lily solely for her beauty, but now that she has seemed to make a habit out of being friendly to married men for her own advantages, her name is being given a negative connotation. Lily needs to get her financials and her future husband in order fast so that she can once again be the apple of the public's eye.
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