Environment·Destiny·Choice

Edith Wharton is one of the most important American novelists in the latenineteenth century and the early twentieth century. The Age of Innocence, which wonher the 1921 Pulitzer Prize, has been regarded as her best novel. Since it waspublished, the novel has drawn a lot of attention and has been studied from variousperspectives. The main objective of this thesis is to position The Age of Innocencewithin Wharton’s naturalistic perspective. The thesis attempts to analyze the novelfrom a naturalistic perspective to reveal Wharton’s naturalistic views and the featuresof her writing.Though not generally regarded as a naturalistic novelist, Wharton almost neverforgets to embed her naturalistic ideas into the creation of her novels. Wharton alwaysexplores the conflict between love and authority, the confrontation between strictconventions and personal fulfillment, as well as the futile struggles under a stiflingand isolated environment in her works. In fact, the central theme of constraints of thedevelopment of humanity and mind so remarkably runs through Wharton’s literarycreation.The thesis is a continuous study of Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence from anaturalistic perspective on the basis of the achievements of predecessors. It consists offive parts. The first part begins with a brief introduction of the novel The Age ofInnocence and its author, followed by an explicit literature review about the studies onthe novel.Chapter I is the theoretical foundation of this thesis, which elaborates on thedevelopment of naturalism and its characteristics, Wharton’s naturalistic inclination,and the distinctive naturalistic aspects in the novel.Chapter II expounds the determining forces of social environment and heredity inThe Age of Innocence. These naturalistic factors include hypocritical social relations,suffocating social conventions, heredity. Wharton describes the New York uppersociety at that time as a hierarchical pyramid. In this symbolic world, people’s manners and mind are bound and stereotyped. The forces of social environment andhereditary factors form irresistible influence on individual’s fate.Chapter III focuses on the major characters’destiny and choice in the influenceof determinism. Determinism is the core of naturalism. In a naturalistic sense, humanbeings are doomed to be victims of naturalistic factors. All men are products of thesociety, especially May Welland. Her apparent innocence covers her sophistication.She is not only an instrument of the society but also a tragic victim of the socialinstitution. Newland Archer is the man trapped in the world of traditions and honor.He tries but still fails to define himself. Ellen, the exiled female, fails to adapt to theold New York society.The thesis ends with the conclusion that The Age of Innocence is a fullembodiment of Wharton’s naturalistic views. Edith Wharton raises the naturalisticwriting to a fairly higher degree and the influence of her works is everlasting.