Who is Miss Lily Bart?

After reading chapter three, I have discovered much about Lily's character.  In this chapter of The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton develops background for her character.  It shows the evolution of her personality over time and how it has become the way that it currently is in the story.  The story of her mother and father shows two stories of obsession.  Her father, obsessed with work, and her mother, obsessed with money, both lived short and unhappy lives.  Inspired mostly by her mother, she devotes her life to escaping from poverty and  becoming wealthy so that she can live an extravagant  and elegant lifestyle.  This is a major fundamental of her character.  All her decisions in some way can be traced back to her desire to become rich.  Although she had not always felt that way, she began to share more in her mother's obsession after being exposed to the wealth of her friends and extended family.  The novel also reveals that her mother taught her to to use her beauty as a tool to regain her money.  It reads: "Lily understood that beauty is only the raw material of conquest, and that to convert it into success other arts are required (p27)." This also explains her strategic manipulation of men.  The way she reads men and works to please them is a skill she has gained by years of attempting to marry.  I think these skills will remain in use for most of the story as she struggles to find a spouse.