The Consumption Of Social Space In The House Of Mirth

The 19th century of America endured great social changes from economy to politics. With the development of industrialization and the influence of the Civil War, mass-consumerism began flourishing and many people became millionaires overnight. The material richness could not, however, enrich the citizens of the spiritual poverty, and traditions and rules were violated and abandoned along the tide of the modern world. As a member of the conventional yet modern New York society, Edith Wharton depicts the 19th New York societal circles in such a fictional way as to reveal the hidden vanity under the gilded cover. In her novel The House of Mirth, the capitalists make full use of everything to realize their ambition of reconstructing the society to their profits. As Henri Lefebvre states that space was produced, it could be considered as a product and be consumed. By consuming space, the capitalists first conquer the society and then manipulate it. They change the society into a vanity fair where the richer speaks louder and all the roles and principles are made as their wills. Edith Wharton expresses her concerns over the social crisis and voices implicitly her solutions based on the life experience and final epiphany of the heroine Lily Bart. Being a talent female writer and conscious of the space issue, Wharton emphasizes the important relation between harmony and order in space and the harmonious development of society. Hence, it is necessary and essential to reserve a private space to remain conscious and maintain self-esteem in a chaotic and money oriented world.