A Withered Lily

Edith Wharton (1862—1937) is a celebrated woman writer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the United States. Acknowledged as the first woman writer who received international reputation then, she also touched off many critical arguments. Edith Wharton finished more than forty works in her 50 years of writing career, including long novella, poetry, autobiography, literary criticism, travel notes even interior decoration works. Growing up in the upper class of New York society, Edith Wharton was good at drawing inspiration from her living environment. Taking it as the writing background, Edith Wharton showed us in her works a vivid description of the daily life of different people of Old New York society,and gave us a discussion of the social problems they exposed. Her works reflected the influence of society on personal character and fate, and they expressed her reflection on the environment of Old New York society, and the concern for people's living condition.Published in 1905, The House of Mirth is her second novel, and also her first well-known piece of writing. In order to improve her social status, Lily Bart, a young woman, who attached herself to the upper class of the Old New York society, tried her best to hunt for a rich husband, in order to step in"the house of mirth". But in that patriarchal society which centered on money, Lily, who insisted on the traditional moral standard, was marginalized from the main society further and further, and finally, accepted death as her end.Karen Horney (1885—1952), a leading figure of the neopsychoanalytic school, was the pioneer and the main representative socio-cultural school of psychoanalysis. Horney inherited some ideologies, outlooks and methods of Freud's traditional psychoanalysis. Meanwhile she developed it and formed her own socio-cultural neurosis theory. In her elementary theory, Horney laid emphasis on the importance of social and cultural values. She expounded that a person's living environment determined his emotion and attitude. The living environment included the macro social-cultural environment and a person's individual environment, which mingles with each other; at the same time, the individual environment also embodies the social-cultural environment. Taking the viewpoints of Karen Horney into consideration, the author of this paper will analyze the marginalized identity of Lily Bart in The House of Mirth mainly from the perspectives of the cause and the behavior.This thesis consists of five parts.The introductory part briefly introduces Edith Wharton and The House of Mirth, makes a literature review, and explains the perspective and the significance of this study.The first chapter is an overview of the social-cultural neurosis theory of Karen Horney. This chapter first gives a brief introduction to Karen Horney and then explores her social-cultural neurosis theory in detail. This part also touches on the aim and value of social-cultural neurosis theory, which paves the way for a better understanding of the following parts.Chapter Two, subdivided into two sections, mainly enumerate the performances of Lily Bart as a marginalized person. The first section is about the definition of marginality, the second section concentrates on the marginal state of Lily Bart. The second section deals with the marginal state of Lily Bart. According to the definition of marginality, this section is subdivided into two parts, the first part is about Lily's marginality in economic status, and the second one deals with her marginality in social structure.In the third chapter, the reasons that made Lily become a marginalized person are analyzed. According to Karen Horney, to a great degree, a person's emotion and attitude was determined by his living environment. The living environment included the macro social-cultural environment and a person's individual environment, which mingles with each other, at the same time, the individual environment, also embodies the social-cultural environment, and, together, they compose an individual's living conditions. Here, the social-cultural environment refers to the macroscopic social conditions, shared by the people of the society. As to the individual environment, it refers to the microscopic social conditions, a specific surrounding after one was born. So, in this chapter, the exploration of the reasons for Lily's marginalized identity will be divided into two parts: first, the background and influence of her family; second, the social background then. Influenced by her mother, Lily developed a sense of value for the luxurious life of the upper class, but her father's impact bestowed her elegant taste in art and beauty, the longing for spirit, and very strict moral standard. In her pursuit for the luxurious life of the upper class, Lily, who insisted on her moral standard, refused to accept their regulations, so, she was expelled by them. The second part of this chapter discusses the social background then. The perfect material life condition and the elegant taste in culture in Old New York are the main reasons that attracted Lily firmly and made her try every way to stay in this circle. But the upper class also had its evil sides: they set multiple standards for men and women, they took money as the golden standard in judging people's behavior and reputation, and the relationship among people became alienated. During her pursuit, Lily only saw the advantages of Old New York, but she did not have enough understanding of its evil side, this, led to her tragedy.The fifth part is the conclusion of this thesis.