Bertha’s Letters Symbol Analysis

During Bertha Dorset’s affair with Lawrence Selden, Bertha wrote the young man love letters that he failed to destroy. When Lily Bart comes in possession of these letters, she realizes that Bertha’s reputation is in her hands, since these letters serve as incriminating evidence of Bertha’s adultery. Therefore, after Bertha spreads lies about Lily and ejects her from their social circle, the possibility for Lily to use these letters to blackmail Bertha represents a tempting opportunity, as it would allow Lily to regain her position in high society without creating a public confrontation. Although Lily’s visceral reaction to such a strategy is moral revulsion, she later feels tempted to use it to escape her desperate financial and social situation. Over the course of the novel, Bertha’s letters thus represent the difficult choice that Lily is going to have to make between two opposites: living a righteous life but being condemned to poverty, or sacrificing her moral values to re-enter the high society she so desperately wants to belong to. When Lily finally destroys these letters for good, she demonstrates her incapacity to behave in a way that is contrary to her principles, even if this means giving up on a lifelong dream. Bertha’s letters thus highlight the ways high society can be debased and immoral. They suggest that, to avoid its unethical temptations entirely, all an individual might be able to do is escape.