Everything Can Be Related to The Titanic

The main character in Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth has been taught and shown that all her life luxury is the way to live and anything else is disgusting.  This is a similar upbringing of one of the main characters of James Cameron's Titanic, Rose Bukater.  She too is extremely conscious of social class, and everyone around her tells her to pursue the life of luxury, even if it means sacrificing happiness at times.  Rose, through interaction with a young man, finds that social class isn't the most important thing, and the people she had previously condemned and mocked were really the ones with whom she wanted to be associated.  She learns to let loose at a party with "trashy" people, where she finally has fun.  Lily comes to a similar realization when she loses her social footing and is forces to be with the Gormers, who have parties that feature loud people her other set of friends thought were horrible.  She comes to find these people enjoyable, and likes how they don't judge and condemn any action she may commit.  She finds they are also much more forgiving as "instead of shrinking from her as her own friends had done, they received her without question into the easy promiscuity of their lives," (Whaton, 189).  These new people are willing to accept someone as one of their own on a whim, as opposed to the social elite that carefully measure any and every person they may become close with.  Both women also struggle with still wanting to be socially elite, as Rose at one point declares she is done with the poor crowd, and Lily contemplates again marrying Rosedale for his money despite her hatred of him.  This similarity has been strong throughout the book, and hopefully Lily has an easier end than Rose did.