Absence Of Feminine Awareness As An Individual Being

After being reevaluated in the second wave of feminist movement in the sixties and seventieth of the last century, Edith Wharton has been established as an outstanding precursor of feminism. The House of Mirth is her first novel as well as the first work which wins international fame for her. In this novel the writer gave us a vivid account of the deteriorating journey of the female protagonist Lily from the "house of the mirth" of the upper class to her death in a shabby boarding house. It is evident that Edith Wharton showed earnest concern on women's fate and situation. As a contemporary member of Lily's society, she understood well the reasons which caused Lily's tragedy: the oppression of the patriarchal society, the absence of feminine awareness as an individual person, the blind internalization of the socially defined gender role for woman.The focus of this thesis is to track down the root course of the protagonist's tragedy by using the approach of feminist theory. By doing this, I want to prove that in the early time of the twentieth century, because of their inferior status in spheres of economy, politics, culture, and education, most women, just like Lily, could only act the role the tradition and the patriarchal culture determined for them. By and by, they lost their awareness as an individual being unconsciously and fell as the sacrifice of the society.The thesis includes an introduction, three chapters and a conclusion. Chapter one attempts to research on the formation of the dependent personality of the protagonist from three perspectives: the dehumanizing power of the male-dominated society, the negative influence of the protagonist's domestic education, and the powerful shadow of the traditional gender stereotype. Chapter two focuses on the self-depriving roles Lily chose for herself voluntarily. The last chapter is centered on...