For example, hosting extravagantly lavish parties, and simply being invited to attend these lavish parties, increased social status for the hostess and her guests. Eager to maintain her status at the top of the social hierarchy, Mrs. Trenor frequently flaunted her wealth by hosting these exquisite and exclusive social gatherings. In fact, Mrs. Trenor wanted to expand her ballroom at her estate, the Bellemont, in order to outdo the grand ballroom of another wealthy family, the Brys’. Van Alstyne in a conversation with Selden confided, “The dimensions of the Brys’ ball-room must rankle [Mrs. Trenor]: you may be sure [Mrs. Trenor] knows ‘em as well as if she’d been there last night with a yard-measure” (Wharton, 160). Apparently, the bigger the ballroom and the more expensive the party, the more social status that was attributed to host and hostess. With this increase in social status, came increased social influence. Mrs. Trenor was so successful in elevating her social status through conspicuous consumption, that “where Judy Trenor led, the rest of the world would follow” (Wharton, 229). While excessive parties and ballrooms were outwardly part of a happy convergence of friends for entertainment purposes, they served as instruments to achieve a mutually understood social agenda for those involved. Edith Wharton created an analogy between this conspicuous consumption involving social events, and the fight for social status, to reveal how dominance was achieved among the upper