Versions of the feminine: Gender construction in the novels of Henry James and Edith Wharton

This thesis examines the representations of women in three novels by Henry James (Daisy Miller, The Wings of the Dove, and The Golden Bowl) and three by Edith Wharton (The Custom of the Country, The House of Mirth, and The Reef). In the novels, James and Wharton represent and redefine the three versions of the 'feminine' that prevailed within American society and American literature during the Gilded Age. Daisy Miller and Undine Spragg are examples of the 'American girl' who is characterized by her blankness, her lack of definition. Kate Croy and Lily Bart reveal the potential for subversion embodied in another idea of the feminine. They threaten the assumptions of patriarchal society by their refusal to be defined in abstract terms; for this reason, they are feared and abused by a society that compels women to be physical embodiments of such abstractions as 'Beauty,' 'Motherhood,' or 'Virginity.' Finally, Maggie Verver and Sophy Viner show the feminine in alliance with the patriarchy. In the name of the family, they oppose feminine subversion; they devote themselves to preserving masculine values and force the women they encounter to conform to masculine definitions of femininity.;These three versions of the feminine--the empty, the subversive, and the conservative--are constructed from a masculine perspective by both James and Wharton. Their female characters succeed or fail, live or die, according to how well they adopt feminine genders that conform to masculine needs and expectations. Neither James nor Wharton could conceive of a feminine gender that was not defined in masculine terms. They did, however, demonstrate repeatedly in their novels the dangers and limitations of the masculine-centered versions of femininity that were promoted at the time.