One of the most pathetic characters in literature, and one of the nastiest

It's definitely a stunning surprise (spoilers to follow) a when Ralph Marvell, in complete despair when he learns that he's foolishly given up all rights to his son (with most other characters, this would not be credible - the guy's a Harvard-educated lawyer who tells his own, incompetent, counsel to give his wife complete custody, even though he plans to raise the boy and his wife will abandon them both), that he may lose the child, that his ex-wife, Undine, has lied to him from the outset, that she was married briefly to the sleazy businessman who'd lured him into a bizarre land deal, that the sleazy guy to whom he'd idiotically entrusted a $50,000 investment (pulled together from family and friends) that is supposed to double in two weeks has lied to him as well (how he could not have seen this coming is incomprehensible), when he rides the subway of all things back to his parents' house on Washington Square, a great scene of revulsion at the very life of the city - he's seeing it from underground, the lower depths, for perhaps the first time - puts a gun to his temple - end Book 4 of Edith Wharton's The Custom of the Country with not exactly a bang but with silence - we don't actually know that he pulled the trigger until Book 5 opens a few months later (in yesterday's post I mistakenly said there were 4 books in Custom). Now, in Book 5, we see Undine, happily (?) married to that slightly impoverished (she laments at having to squeeze into his bachelor flat - can't they afford more rooms, she peevishly asks) aristocrat de Chelles, and trying to raise son Paul.  All of this further confirms that Marvell was one of the most pathetic characters in literature - he finally had started writing his long-anticipated novel, and I began to suspect that maybe Wharton was going to allow this to be his salvation, but no as in everything else in his sad life it's incomplete, a failure - and that Undine is one of the nastiest. And let's add to this some irony and some hypocrisy: de Chelles, who has made such a big deal about not marrying a divorcee (her quest for a marriage annulment set in motion the financial shenanigans that led to Marvell's suicide, is fine with marrying a widow - not realizing she was divorced from her youthful first marriage to Elmer; speaking of whom - it turns out that his financial deal, shady though it may have been, was good - as Ralph's estate did inherit $100,000 from the Apex Consolidated Co. - and it all goes to child Paul (no doubt de Chelles husband and wife will rape that account): is there any thought of paying back those who loaned Ralph the $ to make the deal?