From The Other To Self-discovery

The House of Mirth is the masterpiece of Edith Wharton, a famous American woman writer of the late 19th century. The protagonist of this novel is Lily Bart, who is a declining noble lady in 1890s trying to seek for a position in the upper class through marriage, but finally rejects her former material pursuit and chooses spiritual freedom. Different from previous perspectives of naturalism or feminism on the House of Mirth, this paper employs a new angle — feminist existentialism by Simone de Beauvoir to reveal Lily Bart’s situation as the Other and her self-discovery by transcending the role as the Other through constructive activities. This paper also draws some inspirations to the living state of contemporary women.Existentialism is a philosophical and cultural movement which analyzes relationships between the individual and things, or other human beings, and how they limit or condition choice. Feminism is a collection of movements aiming at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights for women. Simone de Beauvoir is a renowned existentialist and one of the principal founders of the second-wave feminism; thus she is called a feminist existentialist. Her feminist existentialism tries to explore women’s situation from the perspective of existentialism, aiming to reveal women’s position as a free human existent rather than the property of men. Many feminist existentialists are dedicated to exposing and undermining the socially imposed gender roles and cultural constructs limiting women’s self-determination. They criticize the third-wave post-structuralist feminists who deny the intrinsic freedom of individual women. A female who makes considered choices regarding her way of life and suffers the anxiety associated with that freedom, isolation, or nonconformity, yet remains free demonstrates the tenets of feminist existentialism.Simone de Beauvoir examines women’s subordinate role as the Other in The Second Sex and points out that the source of women’s situation lies in gender construction in society. By using gender difference, patriarchal structures deprive women of their intrinsic freedom, thus deconstructing the gender difference serves as a liberating tool for woman to regain freedom and transcendence. Beauvoir’s theories of the Other and Transcendence are adopted to analyze the course of the self-discovery of Lily Bart in this paper. According to Simone de Beauvoir, freedom is an ego choice, a kind of transcendence; human, as an unfinished project, attains his nature in continuous actions. Lily in The House of Mirth is just a figure who constantly makes free choices, and takes constructive activities to achieve her project — spiritual freedom. Thus, the death of Lily in the end of the novel is not a negative rebellion but a mark of positive self-discovery since her death is the result of her free choices and constructive activities. Beauvoir’s understanding of freedom establishes a theoretical basis for the analysis of females’ existing situation.Attaching the method of literature citation, this paper tries to research Lily’s existing situation from a new angle — feminist existentialism by inheriting and absorbing the theoretical achievements of the predecessors. With the purpose to enrich the current research on The House of Mirth, this paper also makes us rethink women’s status in contemporary society. Inequality still exists between two genders in current society. Only through the deconstruction of the old gender relation and the establishment of a reciprocal relation can equality really be achieved between the two genders.