A Study Of The Custom Of The Country From The Perspective Of James Phelan's Narrative Ethics

At the turn of the 20 th century when American consumerism was on the rise,ethical issues arising from various consumeristic phenomena emerged,which caught Edith Wharton's attention and contributed to her publication of The Custom of the Country in 1913.Focusing on the female protagonist – Undine Spragg,this novel offers a seemingly inspiring story: throughout her lifetime,Undine sees ups and downs but she never gives up.With her unremitting efforts,she eventually realizes her dream,entering the high society that she craves for.In fact,it represents a competition between the Nouveau Riche and the Upper Class.On the one hand,the rising Nouveau Riche,who had accumulated certain amount of wealth,were trying to promote their social status and to achieve social dominance.However,due to their engagement in capitalist modes of production,they were considered to be humble and vulgar,thus being disdained by the Upper Class.In order to get rid of the “Invader” label,these Nouveau Riche began to imitate consumption habits of the upper leisure class,taking conspicuous consumption and sign consumption as an important means to establish their social position.On the other hand,encountering the invasion of these newcomers,the high society began to be concerned with their social dominance.They thus initiated a competition between themselves and the Nouveau Riche,with pecuniary strength and “genteel traditions” as their weapons.Nonetheless,with the fast expansion of capitalism,these newcomers' economic strength was witnessing an obvious improvement,while the high society continued to disdain business transactions and mere money-making,resting on their family wealth.Finally,these newly rich won the battle,not only becoming a member of the high society,but also causing devastating damage to their “genteel traditions”.This study is going to employ James Phelan's Narrative Ethics as a theoretical foundation to explore Edith Wharton's construction of consumption ethics.After the analysis of ethical positions of characters within the story world,the narrator and the implied author,the authorial audience is able to reconstruct Wharton's consumption ethics.Through this novel,Wharton gives expression to her deep worries about moral declining,as well as her strong criticism on vicious consumerism and filthy capitalism.Although she creates a story in which the Nouveau Riche,an embodiment of capitalism,thrive,she never expresses a tinge of appreciation for their success.Instead,her readers can see her obvious disapproval and sarcasm between the lines.As for the defeated Upper Class,Wharton takes a pity for their suffering while she is more furious at their reluctance to change and make progress.Apart from reconstructed consumption ethics,this study also contends that narrative art can give meaning to ethical issues.It is actually the interaction between ethics and narrative art that facilitates Wharton's communication of her ethical principles to her readers.With the employment of diverse narrative techniques,such as the third-person limited point of view,unreliable narration and elliptical narration,Wharton creates a fascinating story,successfully stimulating her readers' interests and allowing them to follow her narration more attentively.In this way,her story is by no means a didactic one,inculcating her thoughts and feelings in her readers' minds.Instead,such an exciting ethical experience will make them more alert to ethical issues and problems,and they will obtain a better understanding of Wharton's writing intentions.This thesis is divided into five parts.The first chapter makes a brief introduction to Wharton and The Custom of the Country,deals with literature review and theoretical perspectives,and brings forward significance and feasibility of the study.The second part is an analysis of the ethical environment of this novel,focusing on the manifestation of consumeristic phenomena in this novel,namely,conspicuous consumption and sign consumption practiced by main characters and their influences on the traditional culture.Meanwhile,it is worth noticing that this part is essential to the exploration of ethical positions in the following part.The third chapter elucidates the ethics of “the told”,that is,characters' ethical responses towards various consumeristic phenomena mentioned above.The fourth chapter moves on to the exploration of the ethics of “the telling”,namely,ethical consequences of narrative techniques and the implied author's text design,revealing the narrator's and the implied author's underlying ethical principles.The last part comes to conclusion,putting forth consumption ethics reconstructed in this novel,as well as the interaction between ethics and narrative art.