On Female Plight In The Reef

Edith Wharton(1862-1937) was an important American realist writer at the end of nineteenth century. Her works The Age of Innocence(1920) and The House of Mirth(1905)are popular in America. In contrast, The Reef draws little attention from the public. The fiction was created during Wharton’s travel in France when she was suffering weary marital problems. The novel takes spatial variation as the clue and illuminates experiences of two women from different classes in the turbulent turn of the century. Many critics explore the heroines’ psychological process and Wharton’s insight on traditional marriage system in the light of Wharton’s emotional life. But there are few studies focusing on female plight in this novel.Female plight has always been the focus of feminism. Feminist critics think that woman is always regarded as second sex in the patriarchal society due to the influence of economy,social status, etc. The social consciousness of patriarchal institution molds women and restrains their development by a series of cultural conventions, thus they confront with various social plights. The thesis tends to make a thorough analysis of the two heroines’ plights in the novel from the perspective of feminist criticism. It maintains that the physical,moral and identity plights of the two heroines reflect the real situation of American modern woman and traditional woman in the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century,conveying Wharton’s neutral views on woman.The thesis consists of three chapters. Chapter one analyzes the two heroines’ physical plight. On the one hand, it discusses that modern woman lacks of independence and freedom in the male-oriented society because of her deficiency of physical security in pursuing her dreams. On the other hand, it holds that traditional woman suffers the plight caused by marital roles imposed by the patriarchal society, which is shown in her physical confinement in pursuing happy marriage. Chapter two analyzes the two heroines’ moral plight. This part holds that female’s moral plight is caused by social moral conventions on female chastity and fidelity in love, presenting traditional woman and modern woman’s resistance and conformity to sexual ethics. Chapter three analyzes the two heroines’ identity plight. It points out thatmodern woman is caught in the plight of limited identity construction on account of occupational selection, while traditional woman confronts the identity plight of losing self-identity because of playing family roles.The conclusion points out that the plight of the two heroines is significant to understand the society in the late nineteenth century, reflecting Wharton’s concern and thinking on the issue of female plight. In Wharton’s view, women should have certain female consciousness and abide by the reasonable traditional conventions. This is the neutral position that Wharton holds toward for helping traditional woman and modern woman out of plight.