The lives we lead and the type of character we possess are said to be individual decisions. Yet from early stages in our life, our character is shaped by the values, customs and mindsets of those who surround us. The characteristics of this environment affect the way we think and behave ultimately shaping us into a product of the environment we are raised in. Lily Bart, the protagonist in Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth, is an exceedingly beautiful bachelorette who grows up accustomed to living a life of luxury amongst New York City’s upper-class in the 20th century. When her family goes bankrupt, Lily is left searching for security and stability, both of which, she is taught can be only be attained through a wealthy marriage. Although, Lily is ashamed of her society’s tendencies, she is afraid that the values taught in her upbringing shaped her into “an organism so helpless outside of its narrow range” (Wharton 423). For Lily, it comes down to a choice between two antagonistic forces: the life she desires with a happiness, freedom and love and the life she was cut out to live with wealth, prestige and power. Although, Lily’s upbringing conditioned her to desire wealth and prestige, Lily’s more significant desires happiness, freedom and love ultimately allow her to break free. The world in which Lily grows up in is one where money is the standard by which everyone is judged. In a setting like this, “money stands for all kinds of things- its purchasing quality isn’t limited to diamonds and motor cars” (Wharton 66). Therefore, even small things such as the way a person dresses or the places someone frequents become of high importance as they are representative of how much money a person possesses. This materialistic tendency ... ... middle of paper ... ... lavishness now seemed to beckon her with open arms to a life a where she could live expensively. Despite she sadness she was facing Lily knew she could not return to the realm of elites, “it was happiness she still wanted and the glimpse she had caught of it made everything else of no account” (449). At this stage of the novel, the demise of the Lily whose most ardent desire was money, power and prestige was complete. Lily’s loneliness and lack in what Lawrence show Lily that there is a fate that will cause greater pain than lack of wealth. Near her tragic end, Lily finds herself without both of her competing desires. It is then she finally understand that a life without love, happiness and freedom causes greater misfortune that a life without wealth. Works Cited Wharton, Edith. The House of Mirth. New York: Scribner Paperback Fiction, 1995. Print
Wharton’s parents raised her in aristocratic society. Her father, George supported the family working in real estate, while her mother Lucerita was a stay at home mom. Her mother was devoted to high society, and was unsupportive of her interests in writing. (Todd and Wetzel) Unlike her mother, Morton Fullerton supported Wharton. While in England, Wharton met Fullerton. As their relationship progressed, she became close friends with Katharine Fullerton. Katharine was Morton’s orphaned sister, that his family took in. (Witkosky) While Wharton was in England her husband was seeking “cures” for his depression. As portrayed in the novel, Ethan Frome’s wife Zeena was constantly seeking cures for her illness. Like Teddy, Zeena was isolated from society and kept to herself. Ethan’s wife was devoted to high society because she came from an aristocratic home. Therefore, Zeena never supported Ethan’s interest in becoming an engineer. Wharton’s mother was alike to Zeena when it came to how her life was lived. Ethan’s lover, Mattie Silver, was taken in by the Frome’s in the novel. She had no family who wanted her just like Katharine Fullerton. Mattie was raised by the Frome’s in a society she did not know how to adapt to because she was never taught how. “Mattie is attempting unsuccessfully to fit in a society she does not understand.”
Throughout “Ethan Frome,” Edith Wharton renders the idea that freedom is just out of reach from the protagonist, Ethan Frome. The presence of a doomed love affair and an unforgiving love triangle forces Ethan to choose between his duty and his personal desire. Wharton’s use of archetypes in the novella emphasizes how Ethan will make choices that will ultimately lead to his downfall. In Edith Wharton’s, “Ethan Frome.” Ethan is wedged between his duty as a husband and his desire for happiness; however, rather than choosing one or the other, Ethan’s indecisiveness makes not only himself, but Mattie and Zeena miserable.
...el, The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson accentuates the fact that society’s expectations of a character causes negative impacts upon their lives through the creation of a struggle to achieve his goal. Ian is an impeccable example of this because he is prone to adolescent tendencies due to youth. Ian struggles to achieve his goals due to the following expectations: to leave Struan, for a superior opportunity to become successful; to strive for a medical career, since he excels at the trade already; and to … Society is too abrupt in its assumptions of an individual, these assumptions often catch one unprepared, spreading chaos and confusion through one’s mind. It would be substantially more beneficial if society did not place expectations at all.
In the novel The House of Mirth, Lily Bart is introduced to us as a rich, single lady in the 1900's. She is brought up into an upper class society, where the society is based on people that have "old money". In her society, people who want to climb the social scale, must have money, and must have power. If ever Lily were to talk to David from Call it Sleep, her views on climbing the social scale would completely be different than David's. Since Lily is in a totally different environment than that of David, and since she is an adult, her views are about how to survive in her upper class world. In order to survive in Lily's world one must have money, not simply be rich but one must have a certain kind of money. They have to have inherited money, called "old money", this is the first step to survive in Lily's community. In the book, we see that although Mr. Rosedale is a very wealthy man, he is outside the social circle because he does not have old money. He has new money, which shows that he is not part of a great, rich family. The second step to climb up in the social scale is to use other people for one's benefit. For a woman to climb up in this society, Lily says one must marry not for love but for money. If one marries into a wealthy family, than her status is automatically heightened to that level. A lady should marry a wealthy man, and a man must marry a beautiful lady to survive in the society.
In the first chapter of The House of Mirth, while drinking tea with Selden in his apartment, Lily says to him, “you can’t possibly think I want to marry you” (Wharton 10). This comment is stated and accepted without further explanation, because both Lily and Selden know that Selden is not wealthy enough to meet Lily’s expectations, even though it is apparent throughout The House of Mirth that Lily has feelings for Selden, and he for her. Linda Wagner Martin’s remark, “The poignant but all-too-real narrative of the beautiful Lily Bart, fast aging beyond marriageability” points to the fact that Lily Bart was in her late 20’s and was expected to have found a husband by that age (Wagner-Martin 6). Wagner Martin also claims that, “Wharton creates in The House of Mirth the impressionable character of Lily Bart, flowerlike in fragility as well as name, who has accepted the social decree that she become a beautiful marriageable object” (Wagner-Martin 4). The narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper points out that her husband is a respected doctor, and that he provides for her. Despite his controlling and dismissive treatment of her, she consoles herself with the thought that, “He said I was his darling and his comfort and all he had, and that I must take care of myself for his sake, and keep well” (Perkins Gillman). In exchange for perceived comfort, she is his
In order to establish her novel in Darwinian terms, Wharton dehumanizes her characters to portray them as creatures that rely on money for survival. Specifically, this applies to the symbolic biome of the upper class. While Selden, a friend and spectator of the wealthy, talks with Lily he comments, “And so it is with [the] rich people-they may not be thinking of money but they’re breathing it all the while: take them into another element and see how they squirm and gasp” (Wharton 75). Wharton’s diction characterizes the wealthy as animals, rather than people, so she can relate the classes to biomes, or environments that are based on wealth. Instead of climate changing between the different environments, it is one 's income changing between
In ‘The Great Gatsby’ Fitzgerald criticises the increase of consumerism in the 1920s and the abandonment of the original American Dream , highlighting that the increased focus on wealth and the social class associated with it has negative effects on relationships and the poorest sections of society. The concept of wealth being used as a measure of success and worth is also explored by Plath in ‘The Bell Jar’. Similarly, she draws attention to the superficial nature of this material American Dream which has extended into the 1960s, but highlights that gender determines people’s worth in society as well as class.
Edith Wharton was the author of The Age of Innocence, a novel published in 1920. In the book, many topics were considered, such as divorce, the empowerment of women, and the lifestyle of the wealthy. The inspiration for these motifs occurred throughout her life. Although Edith Wharton’s work was not well-received, the topics included in her writings held many truths about upper-class society in the late 1800s; therefore, Edith Wharton was influenced by her past and societal experiences.
Edith Wharton once stated that she “ . . . [doesn’t] know if [she] should care for a man who made life easy; [she] should want someone who made it interesting,” showing how Edith reflects Lily Bart, an unwed woman living in the midst of the elite society of New York, who struggles to find a suitable husband and live in the elite society that leads to her inevitable demise, in Edith's novel The House of Mirth (CITATION). Although many of the characters in the novel were in an elite and prominent society, they were possibly the most morally corrupt people since women married men for their wealth, and men expected women to constantly act proper and sophisticated. Edith Wharton’s modern novel The House of Mirth demonstrates why people in the
It’s like Tom Outland’s death stirred up turmoil for the family. Everyone became at odds with each other. Before Tom died, Mrs. St. Peter had a grudge of jealousy towards him because of the bonding relationship he and her husband, Professor, St. Peter had formed. Rosamond and Kathleen have a grudge against each other because both girls were fond of Tom but Tom loved Rosamond. Tom left all his money and inventions to Rosamond and it was a large sum that provided her with the enablement to live comfortably. Kathleen feels like Rosamond flashes the money in her face and finds it preposterous. ““I can’t help it, father. I am envious. I don’t think I would be if she let me alone, but she comes here with her magnificence and takes the life out of all our poor little things. Everybody knows she’s rich, why does she have to keep rubbing it in”” (69)? The Outland holds bitterness and unresolved
In Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome, there is a prevalent conflict of class struggles. Ethan Frome, his wife Zeena, and their maid Mattie all live in extreme poverty. Wharton portrays them as miserable beings, seemingly always encompassed in misfortune. Wharton herself, however, lived a near opposite life compared to that of her characters. She was born into fortune; money was rarely a concern for her (Lee). Through a Marxist lens, one could argue that Edith Wharton, a woman of extreme wealth and privilege, would characterize lower, working class people such as the ones in Ethan Frome in an inaccurately dismal light. The consistent image of winter and coldness, typically associated with misery, in Ethan Frome foreshadows an unhappy ending for the
...er without all of that. Poverty is repulsive to that society and overshadows her beauty, the one thing she comes to depend upon as her saving grace. Faced with financial destitution, she is forced to attempt to reconcile with herself; with the values that have been instilled in her since childhood and with her desire for individual freedom. Her desire for individuality is strong and causes internal conflicts, as well as goes against the group mentality of the society she is a part of, leading to external consequences. The reasons for Lily's death are not fully clear, and it remains to be seen whether the overdose was intentional or an accident. Why she died is not as important as is Wharton's message to society from those who attempt to thwart its power: "You win."
Fitzgerald’s life is quite proportional to the story he creates. He shows the obstacles in his life that deal with love affairs, while trying to climb the social ladder to enhance his image. The overall moral in this story shows that materialistic possessions can not buy someone’s love in a deep and affectionate way. After all, Daisy is just a dainty, exquisite flower, lacking depth of human character, and is a trophy for Gatsby and Tom’s conquest.
Lily Bart and her mother have been socially "ruined" in a sense because of the economic failures of their father and husband respectfully. However, Lily's mother teaches her that she can still maintain a high social status if she marries well, i.e. a rich man. In fact, Lily's mother is known for making the most out of the least as she is "famous for the unlimited effect she produced on limited means" (Wharton 48). In a society where women are considered valuable only for the appearance they present, it is impossible f...
The author shows that money can change a characters behavior. You see this behavioral change in Claire by the way she dresses and acts as she is above everyone. In the beginning