After her social decline has truly begun, Lily experiences a creeping sense of ostracization from everything she knows. As if it has opinions of its own, “Society” is personified in this passage:
Society did not turn away from her, it simply drifted by, preoccupied and inattentive, letting her feel, to the full measure of her humbled pride, how completely she had been the creature of its favor.
In this passage, “Society” is personified as a being, capable of giving or taking away favor from the people within it. This personification serves to illustrate the capricious nature of public opinion. In Lily's world, one's social standing can be fickle. Lily feels a growing sense of separation from the friends she used to be close with. Bertha's gossip about her quickly translates into a steep decline in invitations to anything at all. She has simply ceased to matter to “Society,” who is “preoccupied” with more interesting people. By giving society human-like characteristics, the author conveys how it can be as indifferent or cruel as an individual.
As a woman without money, too old to make a good marriage, Lily becomes conscious of how much being popular and respected helped her previously. This highlights the power that gossip and misinformation—like that spread by Bertha Dorset in person and via her vicious letters—hold over people in The House of Mirth.
