# Judy Trenor — The House of Mirth character guide

> Judy Trenor in The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Judy, Mrs. Trenor

**First appearance:** 0004-iv

## Snapshot

Bellomont's formidable hostess, Judy Trenor arranges her guests like chess pieces and measures the season by who is bored and who is dangerous.

## Who they are

Judy runs the social machinery that Lily depends on, and she runs it with an eye to amusement rather than affection — fond of dangerous people because they are safer to know. Her letters, her lists, and her grudges determine who rises and who is quietly dropped. She matters because her house is Lily's stage, and because her casual calculations reveal how little loyalty underwrites any of it.

## Relationships

### [Lily Bart](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_house_of_mirth_se/characters/lily_bart)

_friendship_

A superficial social friendship that turns cold when Lily becomes a liability to Judy's social standing.

### [Lily Bart](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_house_of_mirth_se/characters/lily_bart)

_friendship_

A superficial social friendship that turns cold when Lily becomes a liability to Judy's social standing.

### [Lily Bart](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_house_of_mirth_se/characters/lily_bart)

_friendship_

A superficial social friendship that turns cold when Lily becomes a liability to Judy's social standing.

## In the story

### [Chapter I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_house_of_mirth_se/chapters/i)

Lily is on her way to visit the Trenors at Bellomont.

### [Chapter IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_house_of_mirth_se/chapters/iv)

Judy Trenor advises Lily on how to handle Percy Gryce, helps create a social solitude for her courtship, and later asks Lily to assist with social correspondence.

### [VI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_house_of_mirth_se/chapters/vi)

Judy Trenor is referenced as having warned Lily to go slowly in her social maneuvering, and as the hostess of the Bellomont party.

### [Chapter VII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_house_of_mirth_se/chapters/vii)

Lectures Lily on her missed opportunity with Percy Gryce, unaware of the true extent of Lily's financial distress.

### [XII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_house_of_mirth_se/chapters/xii)

Lily senses a coldness in her manner and worries about estrangement; she proposes a weekend at Bellomont to mend the friendship.

### [XIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_house_of_mirth_se/chapters/xiii)

Sends a note to Lily inviting her to dine, but is not actually in town; Gus Trenor reveals she is at Bellomont.

### [Chapter XI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_house_of_mirth_se/chapters/xi)

Judy Trenor is glimpsed in a carriage on Fifth Avenue, representing Lily's lost social world.

## Links

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