Women's Struggle In A Patriarchal Society

The Age of Innocence, published in 1920, helps Edith Wharton win the Pulitzer Prize. As a woman writer, Wharton shows her sincere concern about women's status and fates in her age. This thesis attempts to analyze the feminism reflected in the life struggle of the two heroines in The Age of Innocence. On one hand, women endeavor to pursue their own happiness and freedom. On the other hand, it is an arduous struggle for women in such a patriarchal society as they can neither find any male ally nor set themselves free from the tangled web of the whole Old New York society that gets united to suppress their struggle.The thesis consists of five parts. The first part is a brief introduction of Edith Wharton's writing experiences, literature review about her and her works, and the relevant theory of feminist criticism. The second part analyzes women's pursuit of happiness: superficially, May, like all the other traditional women, is obedient, passive, innocent, charming and pure; however, essentially, she is ingenious, as she, taking advantage of her purity and innocence, defeats Ellen and finds her bliss eventually. The third part focuses on women's pursuit of freedom. As an independent woman, Ellen tries to rid herself of the unhappy marriage though divorce is regarded as a dishonor in the old New York. In addition, she shows independence in the love with Newland. Although she loves Newland very much, she refuses to be his mistress as she does not want to lose her dignity. Furthermore, compared with traditional women, Ellen dares social conventions and patriarchal principles, and possesses her unique personality and characteristics. This can be indicated from the author's depiction of the style of her dress, the decoration of her house, her tastes and her way of life. The fourth part tries to explore the complicated root causes of women's arduous struggle in the patriarchal society. Women fail to ally any man. Newland, the hero in the novel, is a superficial supporter of feminism and a real male chauvinist. Moreover, the whole New York society gets united to suppress women's pursuit of freedom and self-identity. All these force women to live in a terrible plight: May saves her marriage with Newland but there is no love between the couple; Ellen wins her freedom at the cost of her love with Newland. The fifth part is the conclusion, making a summary of the protagonists'feminist thoughts. During her life time, Wharton has never stopped worrying about women's fate and probing into these social problems. As Wharton has pointed out when she expresses her true feeling of writing:"It has always seemed to me that the message I had to deliver was not for myself alone, but for all the other women in the world who have felt the hollowness of our social shams but have lacked either courage or the power to proclaim their independence."...