| The House of Mirth is the masterpiece of a well-known modern American writer Edith Wharton (1862-1937), a novel to establish her status as a writer. Since the publication in 1905, this novel has been an increasing concern. Different from other contemporary writers, Edith Wharton was born in high society of New York and had a profound insight into her society, so her works stood the test of time and had become a classic of modern American fiction. Taking the heroine Lily Bart for instance, her unfortunate experience in the patriarchal society described the woman's life and marriage difficulties in the beginning of the 20th century for the reader. At that time, marriage was the only way for women, since women's duties after marriage were believed to serve their husbands, so family angels were their roles. Whoever violated the guidelines, had to go to hell. Beautiful, kind, intelligent, but vain, vulnerable Lily lived in such a society, so social background and her own personality caused her tragic ending. This paper attempts to interpret the female issues of The House of Mirth from the Marxist Feminist perspective.Marxist feminism is an important school of feminism, which came into existence during the second women's movement in the 1960s. Marxist feminism inherited the female view of Marxism that the capitalist system is the source of women's oppression. Marxist feminism had been greatly developed in the nineteen seventies and eighties; it analyzed women issues from the patriarchy, private ownership, moral aspects and so on.Based on the Marxist feminism theory, this thesis makes a textual analysis of The House of Mirth with its main body in four parts: The first part expounds the patriciate's economic position and Lily Bart's pocketbook and living behavior. With no economic status, she just has to be dependent on high society. Her only goal is to marry the rich, and beauty is her only weapon to achieve real self. Finally she ends in tragedy. Her ruin typically represents the economic contradiction with men due to the development of capitalist private ownership and reflects all kinds of disasters of the aristocratic women. The second part reveals that as a small "decorative" in this novel, the beautiful heroine Lily Bart is a tool for men to view and entertain. This suffering of Lily also embodies the dilemma of the whole female sex in the particular capitalist society. The third part discusses the moral value of the aristocracy in the capitalist society. The so-called aristocracy's life is very empty, since they just indulge themselves in their circle,even delight in amusing each others. They can do anything for personal profit and measure the relationship between people in monetary terms .The capital rule turns the relationship between people into a mere money relation, love being no longer the intermediary. Lily is a typical victim of its class society. The fourth part reveals women's own problem from the feminist view of human nature. Lily's dual personality caused her eventual demise in the novel. Finally, the thesis concludes: Wharton made a positive ring to Marxist Feminism in describing the patriciate's social activities and the heroine Lily Bart's social intercourse or life in The House of Mirth. The ideology of the class society with perverse understanding of money value, patriarchal suppression upon women, wrong concept of morality as well as the weakness of human nature all contribute to the inevitability of the tragedy of the heroine. From Wharton's expressions, Women, only with adaptation, independence and ability can survive. The novel shows the women's subordinate position in society and their awareness to conscious rebellion. With keen insight into her times Wharton established her important statue in the field of literature at the turn of the 20th century. |
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