Bog 8-Analysis of the effect of setting

At the close of Book I of The House Of Mirth by Edith Wharton, Lily reads in the newspaper of Lawrence Selden's voyage to Havana and the West Indies. Lily, heart wrenched and depressed knowing he won't return, is relieved to find an invitation to accompany the Dorsets in the Mediterranean. The setting of Book II on the Riviera is significant in the fact that the outcome of Selden and Lily's reunion is anything but predictable. Having taken into account their growing feelings for the other, I would have thought the reunification of both to be heartfelt and grand. This happens to be quite opposite from the case. I believe Wharton's choice for this transition to a far away setting to symbolize Selden's running away from his past home life and roller coaster relationship with Lily Bart."...if she could be entirely excluded from his life, the pressure of new and varied impressions, with which no thought of her was connected, would soon complete the work of separation,"(Wharton,153). I find it ironic that Selden's running away from Lily and his past ways is halted by Lily's running toward him. The actual encounter of the two at the train platform to me symbolized both Lily Bart and Lawrence Selden starting at the same point, but the train taking them too two different destinations. Or, the train can show the two traveling away from one another, wherever that may be.