Marxism Approach

Bread and Wine

 by Ignazio Silone

PLOT:

Bread and Wine opens on a warm April morning at the house of Don Benedetto. Benedetto, a priest and former teacher, is expecting the arrival of several of his former students in order to celebrate his seventy-fifth birthday. Benedetto is eventually visited by Dr. Nunzio Sacca, Concettino Ragu -- a civil servant in the Fascist government -- and Don Piccirilli, who acts as a spy for the bishop when not performing his normal priestly duties. After several minutes of idle chatter, talk turns to classmates not present at the gathering. Finally, when confronted with the question of who his favorite student was, the priest admits that Pietro Spina had always been his favorite. Benedetto is then informed that Spina had been arrested years before, and then escaped to France. Ever since then, Spina had been continuously expelled from various European countries, and no one was sure of his current condition. As Benedetto's visitors leave, Ragu secretly tells Sacca that Pietro Spina has successfully entered into Italy after an exile in Belgium.

Soon after, Sacca is called upon by Cardile Mulazzi. Mulazzi knew Spina from an encounter in France, and Spina had arrived at Mulazzi's doorstep near death. Against Spina's will, Mulazzi urges Dr. Sacca to help his former classmate. Sacca hardly recognizes the withered Spina, who has deliberately aged himself in order to avoid being recognized by police. The doctor advises a great deal of rest and relaxation to improve Spina's condition. Spina leaves in a hay loft, while Mulazzi brings him daily rations of food and medicine. Eventually, Sacca comes up with a plan to hide Spina in a remote mountain village disguised as a priest. There Spina can rest unnoticed for two to three months. That night Pietro Spina changes his name to Don Paulo Spada, and begins his journey to Pietrasecca.

During his trek to Pietrassecca, Spada stops at the Girasole Hotel to rest for a night. While there, Spada is forced into granting absolution to Bianchina, a girl who will almost certainly die from complications arising from an attempted abortion. Miraculously, Bianchina survives, and returns later to play a more involved part in Spada's life. Spada leaves Girasole and arrives at Pietrasecca, a tiny village with only one convenience -- the authorities take little notice of it.

Spada is looked after by Matalena Ricotta, the superstitious innkeeper of the hotel where Spada is staying. Although Spada refuses to perform any religious ceremonies, shortly after his arrival his is forced into blessing the unborn baby of a young woman who threatens to throw herself out a window. Soon after this performance, Bianchina arrives at Pietrasecca convinced that Spada is a saint, or possibly even Jesus Christ himself. After Checking Spada's hands for stigmata, both Bianchina and Matalena become convinced that Spada is not Christ, but they do believe he is a saint. Spada becomes convinced of Bianchina's trustworthiness, and decides to send her on a special mission to Rome for him.

While waiting for news from Bianchina, Spada attempts to have serious discussions with the poor cafoni of the valley. He is greatly disappointed by the cafoni's unwillingness to talk about politics. The cafoni have no use for politics, and would rather talk about sins they have committed, or Biagio, a cafone greatly respected for his violent behavior. The cafoni show their distaste for politics when they make a mockery out of the schoolmistress' reading of News From Rome. The cafoni believe that all laws are evil, and that damnation is eternal in this world. Because of the cafoni's inaccessibility to politics, Spada tries to convey his ideas using a metaphor while settling a dispute in a card game between several cafoni.

Spada decides that he must return to Rome and once again become involved in the Socialist movement. Before leaving for Rome, Spada strikes up a friendship with a young man named Pompeo, who shares many of the same views and ideals as Spada. While in Rome, Spada (who has now returned to the identity of Pietro Spina) meets with Battipaglia, a high ranking member of the socialist movement. Spina and Battipaglia erupt into an argument, with Spina accusing Battipaglia of losing his critical spirit, and becoming a conformist to the majority. At this point, Battipaglia threatens to have Spina kicked out of the Socialist party.

After this incident, Romeo gives Spina the names of former party members. Romeo urges Spina to try and bring these men back into the party. Spina first confronts Uliva, who tells Spina that he is a member of the party out of fear. Uliva accuses Spina of being afraid to believe that progress, liberty, and freedom cannot exist. Spina leaves sickened, disillusioned, and disgusted. Later, Romeo tells Spina that Uliva's apartment was blown up shortly after Spina left. Apparently Uliva was building a bomb to blow up a church service that many government officials were planning to attend.

Spina wishes to find at least one experienced party member in Rome who can help organize Pompeo and his friends. Spina is unable to contact Murica, but is able to locate his girlfriend Annina. From Annina, Spina learns that Murica had spent several harrowing months in prison. The time spent in jail disturbed Murica greatly, and his relationship with Annina was never the same, especially after she granted sexual favors to two policemen who threatened to arrest Murica.

Spina assumes the identity of Spada once again, and returns to Fossa during a war rally. Cafoni are rounded up like cattle and are told to sing and shout government slogans on cue. Spada and Zabaglione talk about the absurdity of speeches on subjects such as "The Revival of the Roman Tradition." The cafoni, as is usual, simply accept the rally and do as they are told, neither questioning its motives or its effects.

The next night, Spada, disgusted by the apathy which surrounds him, writes slogans such as "Down with War" and "Long Live Liberty" on several public buildings in Fossa. Afterwards, he encounters Pompeo, who has enlisted in the army, believing that the war will be beneficial for both the poor and Socialism. That night, as he returns home, Spada begins to cough up blood, much to the dismay of Bianchina, who attempts to help him regain his strength.

The next day, after a visit with Don Angelo Girasole, the parish priest of Fossa, Spada feels an urgent need to speak with Don Benedetto, his former teacher who Don Angelo had spoken ill of.

While waiting for Spina to arrive, Don Benedetto tells of a crime which Spina witnessed as a boy. "It was a robbery with violence at th e expense of an injured or dying man....the person concerned enjoyed universal respect and after the crime he went on living as before."(p. 222) This crime had changed Spina's entire perception of life, and it affected him to this very day. After a short discussion on faith and duty, Spina must flee from Don Benedetto's house when Don Piccirilli arrives for a visit.

The next day, Luigi Murica comes to visit Spada at the recommendation of Don Benedetto. Murica repeats the story which Spada has already heard from Annina. Afterwards, Spada shows his trust for Murica by revealing his true identity of Pietro Spina. The two men have mutual respect for one another, and quickly strike up a friendship.

Several days later, after the first snow reaches Pietrasecca Spada receives a note revealing that Murica had been arrested. Immediately, Spada heads for the Murica house, but before arriving, he learns that Luigi Murica has died while in prison. While at the Murica house, Bianchina, who now knows Spada's true identity, warns Spina that the militia has discovered his whereabouts, and are on their way to Pietrasecca to arrest him.

Spina heads directly for Pietrasecca, where he has left some papers which he must burn. While at Pietrasecca he reveals his true identity to Cristina, and flees for the pass at Goat's Saddle. Cristina, frantic over Spina's condition, grabs some food and warm clothing, and tries to catch up with Spina during the blizzard. Cristina collapses in the snow, calling out "Pietro" every so often. Cristina never receives a reply from Spina, and is answered only by the howls of the approaching wolves.

Criticism:

            Marxism is based on a materialist understanding of societal development, taking as its starting point the necessary economic activities required by human society to provide for its material needs. In the novel, Bread and Wine by Silone, It shows the compatibility between Socialism and  Christianity. Though Don Benedetto and Spina differ in their principles about Christianity and Socialism, they are both extremely devoted to their beliefs and how they stand for it. Don Paulo Spada is the unification of a Benedetto and a Spina. He is like a bread and wine, which the peassants subsist on, and it is also used by the church as a symbol of salvation and resurrection.
            Bread and Wine symbolizes two simultaneous existences, one secular, one spiritual , both in harmony and in balance with one another.

Existentialism Approach

Amerika

(novel)

Synopsis:

The story describes the bizarre wanderings of a sixteen-year-old European emigrant named Karl Romann in the United States, who was forced to go to New York to escape the scandal of his seduction by a housemaid. As the ship arrives in USA, he becomes friends with a stoker who is about to be dismissed from his job. Karl identifies with the stoker and decides to help him; together they go to see the captain of the ship. In a surreal turn of events, Karl's uncle, Senator Jacob, is in a meeting with the captain. Karl does not know that Senator Jacob is his uncle, but Mr. Jacob recognizes him and takes him away from the stoker.

Karl stays with his uncle for some time but is later abandoned by him after making a visit to his uncle's friend without his uncle's full approval. Wandering aimlessly, he becomes friends with two drifters named Robinson and Delamarche. They promise to find him a job, but Karl departs from them on bad terms after he's offered a job by a manageress at Hotel Occidental. He works there as a lift-boy but is fired one day after Robinson shows up drunk at his work asking him for money. Robinson, in turn, gets injured after fighting with some of the lift-boys.

Being dismissed, Karl leaves the hotel with Robinson to Delamarche's place. Once there, a police officer tries to chase him, but he gets away after Delamarche saves him. Delamarche now works for a wealthy, and quite obese lady named Brunelda. She wants to take in Karl as her servant. Karl refuses, but Delamarche physically forces him to stay. He decides to stay but looks for a good opportunity to escape.

One day he sees an advertisement for the Nature Theatre of Oklahoma, which is looking for employees. The theatre promises to find employment for everyone and Karl is taken in by this. Karl applies for a job and gets engaged as a "technical worker". He is then sent to Oklahoma by train and is welcomed by the vastness of the valleys.

Criticism:

              In existentialism, the individual's starting point is characterized by what has been called "the existential attitude", or a sense of disorientation and confusion in the face of an apparently meaningless or absurd world. Many existentialists have also regarded traditional systematic or academic philosophies, in both style and content, as too abstract and remote from concrete human experience.
               The novel "Amerika"lies under the Existentialism approach for this is all about the experiences of the main character Karl Romann after he went to New York to escape the scandal of seduction by a maid. The novel identifies the different happenings in his life with his relative and friends, the different people that he had met and the jobs that he had in New York and in Oklahoma. The novel also shows the different principles of Karl as a human and on how he reacts on things that are happening around him.

Reader Response Criticism

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

by: Maya Angelou

 

Synopsis:

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings follows Marguerite's (called "My" or "Maya" by her brother) life from the age of three to seventeen and the struggles she faces – particularly with racism – in the Southern United States. Abandoned by their parents, Maya and her older brother Bailey are sent to live with their paternal grandmother (Momma) and crippled uncle (Uncle Willie) in Stamps, Arkansas. Maya and Bailey are haunted by their parents' abandonment throughout the book – they travel alone and are labeled like baggage.^[22]

A turning point in the book occurs when Maya and Bailey's father unexpectedly appears in Stamps. He takes the two children with him when he departs, but leaves them with their mother in St. Louis, Missouri. Eight-year-old Maya is sexually abused and raped by her mother's boyfriend, Mr. Freeman. He is found guilty during the trial, but escapes jail time and is murdered, presumably by Maya's uncles. Maya feels guilty and withdraws from everyone but her brother. Even after returning to Stamps, Maya remains reclusive and nearly mute until she meets Mrs. Bertha Flowers, "the aristocrat of Black Stamps",who supplies her with books to encourage her love of reading. This coaxes Maya out of her shell.Many of the problems Maya encounters in her childhood stem from the overt racism of her white neighbors. Although Momma is relatively wealthy because she owns the general store at the heart of Stamps' Black community, the white children of their town hassle Maya's family relentlessly. One of these "powhitetrash" girls, for example, reveals her pubic hair to Momma in a humiliating incident. Early in the book, Momma hides Uncle Willie in a vegetable bin to protect him from Ku Klux Klan raiders. Maya has to endure the insult of her name being changed to Mary by a racist employer. A white speaker at her eighth grade graduation ceremony disparages the Black audience by suggesting that they have limited job opportunities. A white dentist refuses to treat Maya's rotting tooth, even when Momma reminds him that she had loaned him money during the Depression. The Black community of Stamps enjoys a moment of racial victory when they listen to the radio broadcast of Joe Louis's championship fight, but generally they feel the heavy weight of racist oppression.

Later, Momma decides to send her grandchildren to their mother in San Francisco, California, to protect them from the dangers of racism in Stamps. Maya attends George Washington High School and studies dance and drama on a scholarship at the California Labor School. Before graduating, she becomes the first Black female streetcar conductor in San Francisco. While still in high school, Maya visits her father in southern California one summer, and has some experiences pivotal to her development. She drives a car for the first time when she must transport her intoxicated father home from an excursion to Mexico. She experiences homelessness for a short time after a fight with her father's girlfriend.

During Maya's final year of high school, she worries that she might be a lesbian (which she equates with being a hermaphrodite), and initiates sexual intercourse with a teenage boy. She becomes pregnant, and on the advice of her brother, she hides from her family until her eighth month of pregnancy in order to graduate from high school. Maya gives birth at the end of the book and begins her journey to adulthood by accepting her role as mother to her newborn son.

 Criticism:
               The Reader Response Theory of Criticism focuses primarily on the readers' reaction to the text. It recognizes the reader as an active agent who imparts "real existence" to the work and completes its meaning through interpretation. Reader Response defines a text as a collection of meanings which are created by words we understand that exist together in our minds. In the novel "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", the cage bird signifies the life of Maya and her family, Caged in a way that they were trapped in the problem of racism . There struggles are bought by the white people around them. Sing denotes their desire to speak out there anger to those people who were the reason for their sufferings. In this novel, we can see the urge of  black people to at least  live there lives normally despite the issue of racism they are into.

Humanism

Necessary Doubt 

by Colin Wilson (1964)

Psycho-analytic Criticism

VERTIGO

PLOT:

After a rooftop chase in which his latent acrophobia results in the death of a police officer, San Francisco detective John "Scottie" Ferguson (James Stewart) retires, spending much of his time with his ex-fiancée Midge Wood (Barbara Bel Geddes). Scottie tries to gradually conquer his fear but Midge suggests another severe emotional shock may be the only cure.

An acquaintance, Gavin Elster, asks Scottie to tail his wife, Madeleine, claiming she has been possessed; Scottie reluctantly agrees. The next day Scottie follows Madeleine to a florist where she secures a bouquet of flowers; next, she visits the grave of Carlotta Valdes; then she visits an art museum where she sits watching Portrait of Carlotta, a painting of a woman resembling her. Lastly, she enters the McKittrick Hotel, but when Scottie investigates, she is missing and the clerk insists she has not been there.

Midge takes Scottie to a local history expert, who informs them Carlotta Valdes tragically committed suicide. Another visit with Gavin reveals Carlotta is Madeleine's great-grandmother, whom Gavin fears is possessing Madeleine. Gavin also says Madeleine has no knowledge of Carlotta. Scottie tails Madeleine to Fort Point (just beneath the Golden Gate Bridge), where she suddenly leaps into San Francisco Bay. Scottie rescues Madeleine and takes her to his home. The meeting is tense and leads to a strange intimacy between them, but Madeleine quickly slips out when Scottie receives a phone call.

The next day Scottie follows Madeleine to his own house, where she is hand-delivering a thank-you note to him for rescuing her, and they decide to spend the day together because Scottie fears Madeleine might attempt suicide again. The two travel to Muir Woods and then Cypress Point along 17-Mile Drive near Pebble Beach, where Madeleine, embarrassed from confessing that her dreams sound mad, runs to the ocean. Scottie chases after her and they embrace and kiss. Upon hearing the details of her nightmare, Scottie identifies the setting as Mission San Juan Bautistaand takes Madeleine there, where they proclaim their love for each other. Madeleine suddenly runs into the church and up the bell tower. Scottie, halted on the steps by vertigo and paralyzing fear, watches as Madeleine plunges to her death.

An inquest declares Madeleine's death a suicide, but Scottie feels ashamed that his weakness rendered him incapable of preventing someone's death. Gavin does not fault Scottie, but in the following weeks Scottie becomes depressed. While undergoing treatment in a sanatorium, he becomes mute, haunted by vivid nightmares. Although Midge visits, his condition remains unchanged. After release, Scottie haunts the places that Madeleine visited, often imagining that he sees her. One day, he spots a woman who reminds him of Madeleine, despite the woman's less elegant dress and heavier makeup. Scottie follows the woman to her hotel room, where she identifies herself as Judy Barton from Kansas. Though initially suspicious and defensive, Judy eventually agrees to join Scottie for dinner.

After Scottie leaves, Judy has a flashback revealing that she was, in fact, the woman known as "Madeleine", but she is not Gavin's wife. Judy prepares to leave and writes a confession letter to Scottie explaining that she was an accomplice to the real Madeleine Elster's murder by Gavin, and how Gavin had taken advantage of Scottie's acrophobia. She rips up the letter and decides to continue the charade because of her love for Scottie.

Scottie remains obsessed by his memory of "Madeleine" and their similarities. He transforms an initially unwilling Judy until she once more resembles Madeleine. Judy agrees to change on the chance that they may finally find happiness together. But Scottie realizes the truth when Judy wears a unique necklace that he remembered from the portrait of Carlotta Valdes. Instead of dinner, Scottie insists on taking Judy to the Mission San Juan Bautista.

There, he reveals that he wants to re-enact the event that led to his madness, admitting that he now knows Madeleine and Judy are the same. Scottie forces her up the bell tower and angrily presses Judy to admit her deceit. Scottie reaches the top, conquering his acrophobia at last. Judy confesses that Gavin had hired her to pose as a possessed Madeleine; Gavin faked the suicide by tossing the body of his already-murdered wife from the bell tower.

Judy begs Scottie to forgive her because she loves him. The two embrace when a nun, in shadow, emerges from the trapdoor; startled, Judy steps backward and falls to her death. Scottie stands on the narrow ledge while the nun rings the mission bell.

Criticism:

      The Psycho-analytic theory of criticism refers to the definition and dynamic of personality development which underlie and guide psychoanalytic and psycho dynamic psychotherapy. Psychoanalytic theory came to full prominence as a critical force in the last third of the twentieth century as part of the flow of critical discourse after the 1960s.[1] Freud ceased his analysis of the brain and his physiological studies in order to turn his focus to the study of the mind and the related psychological attributes making up the mind, something not many psychologists were willing to do. His study then included recognizing childhood events that could potentially lead to the mental functioning of adults. He examined the genetic and then the develeopmental aspects that made the psychoanalytic theory become what it was. 

        The "Vertigo" fits this theory because the characters undergoes the psychological problems. 

But this is not real for Gavin who was payed by Scottie to tail his wife planned to fake the possession and death of Madeleine. Before Scottie discovered the truth of Madeleine's death, he also suffered from nightmares which made him silent and depressed.

        This also shows the desire of Scottie to bring back into life Madeleine in the presence of Judy. 

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Auto-biographical Criticism

"Journey to the End of the night" (novel)

by: Louis-Ferdinand Celine

Summary:

The novel opens in Paris, near the time of World War I, in 1914. Surrounded by the music of a military parade, a young Frenchman, Ferdinand Bardamu, decides, in a moment of heroism, to enlist in the army and join the fight against the Germans. Once at the front, faced with the horrors and absurdity of war, he quickly loses his enthusiasm. Bardamu cannot understand why he is supposed to shoot at the Germans, who have never personally harmed him. Bardamu also realizes he is, in the eyes of his countrymen, something of a coward. Ferdinand Bardamu is given a reconnaissance mission, during which he meets a fellow soldier named Robinson, who is looking for a way to desert the army. They make plans to escape together, but their efforts fail. Wounded and traumatized by the war, Bardamu returns to Paris for treatment and is given a military medal. This is when he meets Lola, a pretty American nurse who has come to volunteer. Bardamu realizes how much profit stands to be made during wartime by those who are not actually forced to fight in the trenches. When he begins to resist going back to the front, Lola leaves him. Ferdinand's second girlfriend, a violinist named Musyne, who also works entertaining the troops, abandons him during a bombardment of the city. Once cured of his illness, Ferdinand Bardamu decides to go to Africa, where he is faced with the unbearable heat and boredom of the colonies, as well as the cruel exploitation of the natives. Here, he meets Robinson again and takes over his position as manager of a colonial rubber trading post, a solitary and ramshackle hut in the middle of the African bush. Bardamu falls sick and becomes so delirious with fever that he sets fire to the post and deserts it. Bardamu leaves Africa in a terrible fever, aboard a Spanish ship, which has hired him as an oarsman, should he recover. The ship docks in New York City, a place Bardamu has always dreamed of visiting. Bardamu manages to stay in the United States, but finds poverty and solitude, instead of the riches and friends of which he had dreamed. After an unfortunate meeting with Lola, he leaves New York for a job in Detroit. Working on the automobile assembly line for Ford, he nearly goes crazy with the mechanical repetitiveness of the work. A generous young prostitute named Molly falls for Bardamu and helps to buy his freedom from the plant. Molly offers to help him settle in the New World with her, but Bardamu's craving for adventure is too strong and he sacrifices his happy life with her in favor of returning to Paris. Bardamu leaves the United States with a heavy heart. After earning his medical diploma, Bardamu continues to lead an impoverished existence. Bardamu sets up his medical practices in Rancy, a grim, underprivileged suburb. There, he uncovers some of the most desperate and repulsive sides of the human condition. Bardamu becomes involved in a sordid affair with the Henrouilles, a middle-aged couple, seeking to get rid of their elderly, clever mother-in-law. The couple pays Robinson to murder the old woman so that they can rent out her room, but Robinson's clumsiness in setting up the trap for his victim results in an explosion that injures him, leaving him temporarily blinded. Bardamu takes care of Robinson and helps arrange for his exile in Toulouse. Grandmother Henrouille is sent away with him to prevent her from telling the police of the affair. Bardamu leaves Rancy and gives up practicing medicine for a while. Bardamu visits Robinson in Toulouse, where, surprisingly, his friend is doing well, cooperating with Grandmother Henrouille (his former intended murder victim) in a small business. They work at a small church, showing the mummified corpses in the basement to the tourists. Bardamu meets Robinson's new fiancée, Madelon and, on a whim, has a short affair with her. Despite their romantic betrayals and uncertain loyalties, they all spend a few weeks together on holiday. It ends abruptly when Bardamu hears that Grandmother Henrouille has fallen down the stairs at her job, clearly having been pushed to her death by Robinson, who wanted the business to himself. Bardamu leaves the unpleasant scene and returns to Paris, where he takes a new job at a psychiatric institute, under the leadership of Dr. Baryton. Unfortunately for Bardamu, Robinson turns up again in a few months and asks to be sheltered at the Institute. Robinson has recovered his sight and left Madelon, who has been pursuing him and threatening to turn him into the police unless he marries her. In an effort to reconcile the three, who have all had quarrels with each other, one of the nurses at the clinic proposes a night at the carnival. Madelon refuses to join in the fun. During the taxi ride home and when Robinson continues to reject her declarations of love as meaningless, she shoots and kills him. After watching his friend die, Bardamu finds himself wondering if Robinson had actually planned for Madelon to shoot him all along. After all, Robinson had sought a way out of the war by surrendering, maybe he was just looking for an easy way out of life, which, thinks Bardamu, in the end is just a carnival full of empty, cheap pleasures meant to distract us from our troubles.

Criticism:

                          Auto-biographical criticism is a form of literary criticism that analyzes a writer's biography to show the relationship between the author's life and their works of literature. It is also often associated with Historical-Biographical criticism, a critical method that "sees a literary work chiefly, if not exclusively, as a reflection of it's author life and times." The novel "The Journey to the End of the Night" fits the theory because the novel describes the of  life antihero Ferdinand Bardamu, who is involved with world war 1, colonial Africa, and post-world War 1 America. This novel shows the reason behind Bardamu's principles. It also satirizes the medical profession and the vocation of scientific research.

                           

Feminism

Feminism
Feminist criticism is a type of literary criticism, which may study and advocate the rights of women. As Judith Fetterley says, "Feminist criticism is a political act whose aim is not simply to interpret the world but to change it by changing the consciousness of those who read and their relation to what they read." Using feminist criticism to analyze fiction may involve studying the repression of women in fiction. How do men and women differ? What is different about female heroines, and why are these characters important in literary history? In addition to many of the questions raised by a study of women in literature, feminist criticism may study stereotypes, creativity, ideology, racial issues, marginality, and more.

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Synopsis

The House of Mirth tells the story of Lily Bart, a woman who is torn between her desire for luxurious living and a relationship based on mutual respect and love. She sabotages all her possible chances for a wealthy marriage, loses the esteem of her social circle, and dies young, poor, and alone.

Lily is initially of good social standing and rejects several offers of advantageous marriage. Lily's social standing erodes when her friend Judy Trenor's husband Gus gives Lily a large sum of money. Lily innocently accepts the money, believing that it is the return on investments he supposedly made for her. The rumors of this transaction, and of her mysterious visit to Gus in his city residence crack her social standing further.

To escape the rumors and gossip, she accepts an invitation from Bertha Dorset to join her and her husband, George, on a cruise of Europe aboard their yacht the Sabrina. Unfortunately, while aboard the yacht, Bertha accuses Lily of adultery with George in order to shift societal attention from Bertha's own infidelity with poet Ned Silverton. The ensuing scandal ruins Lily, leading her friends to abandon her and Aunt Peniston to disinherit her.

Lily descends the social strata, working as a personal secretary until Bertha sabotages her position by turning her employers against her. Lily then takes a job as social secretary for a disreputable woman, but resigns after an associate of hers, Lawrence Selden, comes to rescue her from complete infamy. She then works in a millinery, but produces poorly and is let go at the end of the season. Simon Rosedale, the Jewish suitor who had proposed marriage to her when she was higher on the social scale tries to rescue her, but she is unwilling to meet his terms: to use love letters she bought which prove the affair Bertha Dorset and Selden had years earlier. Lily refrains for sake of Selden's reputation, and secretly burns the letters when she visits Selden for one last time. Eventually Lily receives her $10,000 inheritance, which she uses to pay her debt to Trenor. Lily dies from an overdose, possibly accidental, of the sleeping draught to which she had become addicted. Hours later Selden comes to propose to her, but finds she has died. Only then is he able to be close to her in a way he never was able to when she was living and admit his true love for her.