Disorientated And Seeking

Edith Wharton,one of the leading figures of the twentieth century in American literature,who became famous before World War I,created a cast of 19th-century American female characters full of moral implications and is thus considered a writer composing both social satire and novels of manners and even black humor.The House of Mirth,her masterpiece establishing the main theme for her later literary writing,is a unique blend of romance,realism,and naturalism,exuding artistic charm and social critical power.The novel has been attracting extensive critical attention from psychoanalysis,feminism,to ethical criticism,with an effort to bring out its rich themes.This thesis argues that the crucial social problems touched by The House of Mirth have profound cognitive value,and that it is necessary to further penetrate theory of the consumer society the contemporary relevance embedded in its satire and black humor combined with tragedy and comedy according to Bardrillard's.The thesis aims to demonstrate that from the perspective of Bardrillard's consumer society theory the conflicts of the characters between money and moral beliefs are just the “lost” House of Mirth in the form of “symbols,” that symbolic exchange can only be a failed way out of alienated society,and that at the end the character who is disoriented and seeks in the simulacra world has nothing to do but “die” as the outcome in order to “end” and “beautify” the sham simulation.The thesis consists of six chapters.In the chapter of theoretical frame work,a theoretical linkage is established between Bardrillard's symbol consumption,symbolic exchange and the simulacrum and disorientation,alienation and self-seeking.On this basis,it develops an in-depth discussion about the novel in the form of textual analysis and in response to the manifestations of symbol consumption,symbolic exchange and the simulacrum.And finally in the chapter of conclusion,the value and significance of studying the novel by applying Bardrillard's consumer society theory are reiterated with an emphasis on the fact that Lily Bart's death seems to be an alternative way out found by the novelist for her character to escape from the gaudy society,while it also confirms that mankind finds difficulty stepping out of the dilemma of consumer society.