| An American modern woman writer, Edith Wharton(1862-1937) occupies an important position in realism of the late 19th and early 20th century. She has touched off many critical arguments since her many works she consciously describes women's situation and psychology, and reflects their misfortunes and painful struggles. From the 17th century to the 19th century, women in either male or female American writer's works were mainly molded as either a good wife and a loving mother, a faithful spouse, a mistress, or a witty "angel". They often live or act as men's "pure angels", "frail vessels" or subordinates. These traditional images were accepted by most women at that time. In the early 20th century, however, many women writers with awakened consciousness began to spring up. They depicted women from women's viewpoint, and made great achievement in creating the anti-traditional women. Expressing women's consciousness and awakened consciousness, Edith Wharton is a forerunner in this field. Her works have influenced and pushed forward the feminist activity. Different from most her contemporary women writers, Edith Wharton was born in the higher society of New York. It was, in the 19th and 20th century, a closely small circle composed of about "four hundred" prominent families and is characterized by the conservatism attitude toward love, marriage, and family. Edith Wharton called the small circle "Old New York" in which she and her parents had been living and she couldn't break away in all her life. She had the complicated feeling toward the "Old New York". Using the upper class of New York as materials, she wrote a series of successful novels of manners, such as The House of Mirth, The Custom of the Country, The Age of Innocence, and so on. Wharton's contemporary writers, like Henry James, F. Scott Fitzgerald, are also good at describing the higher society. But nobody can surpass her in the sharp observation and keen understanding toward the observances and custom of the higher society, especially on molding the images of women in the upper class. Through the analysis of the "new women" (Lily, Undine, Ellen) in Wharton's three novels, The House of Mirth, The Custom of the Country, The Age of Innocence, the thesis tries to expose and examine the women's situations in "Old New York" at that time and Wharton's constant exploration about women questions. The thesis will develop in the following aspects:Since the three heroines in the novels are in one or another way related with Edith Wharton or they are reflections of Edith Wharton, Part One tells about Edith Wharton's life and its influence upon her writing. In a sense, Edith Wharton herself is a new woman out of "Old New York". At the beginning, like other ladies in this upper class, she had to obey the old-fashioned mores of "Old New York". When young Edith just showed a literary talent and interest, her literary efforts came to a temporary halt, for she was pushed to a marriage by her mother. Through a long-time struggle, she finally shook off the bondage and became a successful writer. Her experience provided her with a deep understanding about woman's status and situation in "Old New York". In her works, Wharton reveals that "Old New York" represses and destroys women's intellectual and emotion. At the same time, she creates some new women like herself.Part Two is a summary of reviews about Edith Wharton and her important position in American literature. Edith Wharton's works are especially helpful to the research on feminism of her time. In1930s and 1940s, most of critics charged her novels with pessimism. Some even thought her a follower of Henry James. From 1970s, the critics took a new interest in Wharton and her works. They mainly researched on the relationship between Wharton and her works according to her autobiography and the analysis of her psychology. In 1980s, the feminist put the emphasis on the analysis of women's fates in her works. From 1990s, studies on Wharton's works grew more colorful. Some critics did some comparing resear...
|
PDF Full Text Request