Wharton's Understanding Of Human Nature In The House Of Mirth And The Age Of Innocence

Edith Wharton is a most influential woman writer in the history of American literature. With sharp insight, Wharton created plenty of works on extensive literary genres. During her lifetime, her works were once ignored and continually caused controversy; however, more and more people have begun to notice her. Her works were favorably reviewed and given in-depth researches from different perspectives. Her two most typical novels, The House of Mirth and The Age of Innocence, have been studied most frequently.Up until now, perspectives of analyses have covered feminism, naturalism, modernism, moral consciousness and the problems of sex, race, religion and language. Psychological and spiritual aspects have rarely been mentioned or researched into depth. As a matter of fact, Wharton excels at accurate and vivid depiction of the inside world of her characters, and that is why she was once praised as a representative of psycho-realism. From the historical and psychological angle, this thesis is aimed to seek her understanding of human nature through a detailed analysis of the inner world of the protagonists in The House of Mirth and The Age of Innocence, with the help of her own life and writing experiences. The writer attends to discuss the ambiguities and contradictions, conventions and constraints in her understanding of human nature, revealed in the two novels, especially through her detailed and vivid description of the inner activities of those main characters, Lily Bart, Newland Archer, May Welland and Ellen Olenska, who themselves are full of ambiguities and contradictions, conventions and constraints. Lily is a struggling rose, beautiful, strong but a sacrifice; Newland Archer is a brave coward, eager for freedom but an idealist; May Welland is a complex product of society, "innocent", hollow but a winner and Ellen Olenska is a mild rebel against conventions, mysterious, unconventional, but a victim. There are also two main types of conflicts, the conflicts between the social groups, the conflicts between the ideal-self and the social-self. The big historical environment, the small social circle and Wharton's double roles as a woman and a writer together lead to the ambiguities and conflicts in her understanding of human nature. Being put in the special historic background, they bare the mark of the age and the shadow of the writer herself. Wharton wrote her own rich rough life and writing experiences into their stories, which reflect the conventions and constraints in her understanding of human nature.This thesis will cover the following four chapters. Chapter one gives a general introduction of the writer Edith Wharton, her works and literary criticism of her works at different stages in western world as well as in China. Edith Wharton is a very influential American female writer. Her two main novels, The House of Mirth and The Age of Innocence, have brought her great fame and success. Yet she is also a writer at controversy. As a female writer, she and her works have aroused a great deal of literary criticism in her lifetime and even after her death home and abroad. Then the major argument of this thesis and an overview of the chapters will be given. Chapter two begins to discuss the ambiguities and contradictions in Wharton's understanding of human nature as well as its source. In her two main novels The House of Mirth and The Age of Innocence, Wharton depicts us the colorful and complicated inner activities of the protagonists who are filled with ambiguities and contradictions. The social conflicts are reflected as well in the peculiar historical background. The historical and social backgrounds together with Wharton's double roles as a woman and a writer constitute the sources of the ambiguities and contradictions in Wharton's understanding of human nature. The major concern of Chapter three is the conventions and constraints in Wharton's understanding of human nature. The main characters Lily Bart, Newland Archer, May Welland and Ellen Olenska in these two novels are full of conventions and constraints, which in turn reveal Wharton's conventional and constrained views on human nature. The deep causes will also be analyzed here. The era Wharton has ever lived through has its limits which influence her concepts of values toward the outside society. All these together with her writing and life experience lead to the conventions and constraints in Wharton's understanding of human nature. Chapter four is a conclusion of the main points of the whole thesis discussed in the above chapters. Edith Wharton, as a female writer, holds ambivalent attitudes toward Old New York society and everything there, which she shows us through her subtle description of the protagonists in The House of Mirth and The Age of Innocence. She is still conventional while facing the old lost world and cannot get beyond her own constraints. The big historical environment, the small social circle and Wharton's special life experience make up the sources of the ambiguities and contradictions, the conventions and constraints in her understanding of human nature. Finally the limitation of this thesis will be offered.This thesis tries to do a further analysis and exploration of Wharton's works from a relatively fresh perspective, so as to make some contribution to the study of Edith Wharton in China.