Category Archives: Wharton

New Women

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The character of Sally in The Berlin Stories helped me to gain a better understanding of Modernism’s New Woman. As I was reading I began to see the essence of Sally in several of the female characters in modernist literature. I thought of Sally Seton from Mrs. Dalloway, Daisy Buchanan from the The Great Gatsby, Kitty Baldry from The Return of the Soldier, Lily from The House of Mirth, Lady Brett Ashley from The Sun also Rises, Petronella from “Till September Petronella.” (Although not within the modernist time frame, I also thought of Holly Golightly from Breakfast at Tiffany’s because of the parallels in the relationship between Holly and the narrator of Breakfast at Tiffany’s and the relationship between Sally and Chris.)

Notwithstanding the individuality of these women, to varying degrees they share very similar characteristics and personality traits. They are sexaully liberated and are very aware of the power of their bodies to their male counterparts and even to themselves. They are explicit in their desires. They are outspoken. They are at times selfish. Their personalities are sometimes dramatic and purposely exaggerated as if they constantly have to perform to an audience. They are also clever and skilled at manipulation if not checked by other characters. One thing that is important to note is that they are also all seemingly white.

Is Emma Lou a New Woman? Are there Black female characters in modernist literature that are New Women? We have discussed in class the supposed responsibility put upon Black writers to be representative of their race. There were damaging stereotypes that plagued Black women at the time. These writers must “uplift” the race. Does that mean not including women characters that share the characteristics of New Woman? I think Emma Lou is a type of New Woman.

 

Trains and Movement in The House of Mirth

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I kept thinking about Casanova’s theories of place and movement as I was reading Wharton’s House of Mirth. As someone from the mid-west, the theory of epicenters of knowledge and creativity resonated with me, always feeling far away. A large part of choosing Wellesley had to do with being close to such wealths of knowledge and society.

I found similar themes in The House of Mirth. Much depends on Lily’s ability to be in the right place at the right time. She must be invited to all of the right parties; furthermore, she must not be seen in town during the traveling season. It seems as though place is a large factor in one’s ability to maintain status. To this end, trains because relevant. While Wharton also uses ships, carriages and automobiles, it is trains that carry Lily to and from these estates as she attempts to maintain her status. Additionally, the trains signify her slipping in social structure.

The novel begins with Lily being seen in the train station. She is brilliant compared to others common folk. On a train we first see her play the society game in manipulative small talk as a way to separate herself from her worries. When she picks up Trenor at the train station she accepts his offer to play the stock market and thus her debt begins.

I believe that trains and travel help to illustrate how Lily’s status is in flux, changing as she moves to and from party and house. As she never has a stable home of her own, her status is also always shifting.

Confinement (blog post by Chandler)

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In the last chapters of The House of Mirth, Lily experiences a new kind of containment in the working class that parallels restriction under society’s customs, but also contrasts sharply with Lily’s conscious subjection to restraint within society. The narrator utilizes the metaphor of a “great gilt cage” to depict the abstract sense of confinement created by the set of restrictions and customs of high society (Wharton 54). Though Lily resents the restrictions placed on her in society, she consciously chooses to remain a part of society and hold onto many of the material values and aspirations of society.

On the other hand, the world of the working classes into which Lily must enter reflects a more concrete type of containment, from which it is nearly impossible for Lily to escape. The descriptions of the physical spaces Lily inhabits in this world reflect this more concrete confinement from which Lily cannot raise herself. For instance, once she is forced to earn her own living, Lily’s life plays out in a series of cell-like, enclosed spaces such as the millinery workroom (Wharton 277) and Lily’s dingy room in the boardinghouse (Wharton 282). Additionally, the structure of the paragraph in which Lily encounters Miss Silverton parallels Lily’s movement from the expansive and fashionable avenues of New York into the small, confining spaces of the world in which she must now live: “this glimpse of the ever-revolving wheels of the great social machine made Lily more than ever conscious of the steepness and narrowness of Gerty’s stairs, and of the cramped blind-alley of life to which they led. Dull stairs destined to be mounted by dull people” (Wharton 258). The physical descriptions of spaces in the last chapters of this novel reflect this concrete stagnation and repression that sharply contrasts with the relative liberty found within the more abstract “great gilt cage” (Wharton 54). Lily feels confined and restrained in both society and in the working class; however, there is a key difference in her conscious choice to remain in society despite this resentment of her repression and the impossibility of her escape from the poverty in which she finds herself at the end of the novel.