Khadija Alasow
ENG 337
Final Essay
Oppression and suppression of Lily’s identity
The notion of Identity is made up of individual qualities and/or beliefs that are inherent in one’s character. The identity also plays a role in how they portray themselves to others. However, if society isn’t accepting of your beliefs and values one will attempt to mask their true identity and adopt the given one. Written in 1905, Edith Wharton’s novel The House of Mirth portrays the downfall of Lilly Bart ……..consumed with superficial materialistic . Wharton’s uses Lily’s narrative to metaphorically highlight how gender oppression and repression results in dual identity as “masked social performance” that leads to her death as the ultimate answer. In other words,
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During the American Modernist period the first wave of feminism emerged during this period which many of its characteristics is seen in The House of Mirth. Women actively sought changes that would allow them to experience life as men’s equals rather than as their subordinates. Gender roles were rigidly defined, and women who resisted them were often ignored, and/or criticized. As a result of these and many other limiting factors, women, especially wives, were significantly dependent on men. In Edith Wharton's Arguments with America, Elizabeth Ammons notes that:
The culture at large boasted symbols of progress like the world-famous Woman's Building or the Amazonian Gibson Girl, announcements each of the modern woman's freedom from Victorian strictures...With this enthusiasm in the air, Edith Wharton sounded a sour, dissenting note.
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Thus Lily develops a ‘double consciousness or masquerade that permits her to be aware of the main culture even though she is a marginalized character.When LIly places so much importance and preoccupation on maintaining a public persona or social mask, the mask starts to gains too much power. In his article “Disowning ‘Personality’: Privacy and Subjectivity in The House of Mirth” William E. Moddelmog argues:
The “real Lily” for whom [Lily] searches turns out to be plural rather than singular. While burning the letters Lily at the moment imagines herself possessing two selves, a fact that complicates her ‘passionate desire to be understood’ and her desire that Selden ‘see her wholly.’ (Moddelmog 353).
Lily tries to create a prominent, satisfying place for herself in society through commodification such as masking a social performance. She conflicted between feelings of “consumerist elation” and a desire to break free from the restraints of her society. Sometimes Lily is interested in being a part of the “hierarchies of wealth and prestige,” but she also wants to be an individual who won’t be defined by her place in any “naturalized social ranking.” (23). The latter sounds close to Selden’s “republic of the spirit.” Selden desires to live his life with a “personal freedom...from everything—from money, from poverty, from ease and anxiety, from all
Lily's creativity, activated by religious observance, allows her to be more creative. Later on in the passage, when Lily describes her outward expression, she notes that “[She] wanted to cry, but in the next instant, [she] wanted to laugh” (Kidd 71). Through the use of juxtaposition, Kidd carries out an image of Lily about to sob until she suddenly starts chuckling. By using the diction of “cry” and “laugh,” two words that completely differ in emotion, Kidd shows that the religious statue made her recall events of her past, truly making her analyze the type of person she was. Religion allowed her to have the trait of being self-aware allowing her to forgive herself for her past and move on because she knew that the religious statue could see good in her.
In hopes of discovering more about her mother, Lily travels to Tiburon but unexpectedly develops a maternal relationship with August, ultimately compelling her to lie about her identity and purpose in Tiburon because “[She] love this place with [her] whole heart” (225), and is certain that this is the life she wants.
Lily feels that these words were directed to her and felt like a bad person for the mistake of killing her mother. In a newspaper written by The Newcastle Herald, a statement stands out to the resemblance of this book and what the author is trying to show. As it states, “Lily finds solace in the guidance of the senior sister August, who holds the key to her past and slowly the rhythm of a new life with its funniness and sweetness is born…” THis helps to support my statement that Lily’s happiness and funniness grows when meeting and spending time with these girls. This was just the thing the young girl needed because at the time, Lily was feeling deep guilt for her actions.
THESIS: In her novel The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton shows that the impacts of societal norms, customs, and traditions are inescapable, through the experiences of characters Ellen Olenska and Newland Archer, and the progression of their relationship. Ellen Olenska is one of the most unique members of New York society, and even though she defies social norms, she is unable to avoid their influence. When “poor Ellen Olenska” first returns to New York City, it is immediately clear that she is an outcast (6). Coming from Europe, she is the opposite of fashionable, contrasting with a typical New York women in numerous ways: how she dresses, where she lives, and how she behaves.
Continuing, another theme that led us through Lily’s adventure of growing up was her discovering how important storytelling was. She was going through gruesome horrid things, and when she read things like Shakespeare she realized how important it was because it helped her escape to a fantasy world for a little bit of time. Lastly, Lily learns the power of the female community. Lily grew up without a mother, so for a large chunk of her life she didn’t know the real power the female community held.
The House of Mirth, written in 1905 is an exemplary novel narrated through the eyes of an upper class woman. Through
The role of a woman in society has always fit into a perfect box. Women were expected to be the dutiful wife, loving mother and housekeeper for her family. Betty Friedan wrote The Feminine Mystique, in 1963 hoping to unveil the truth behind women’s thoughts about their role in society. Friedan exposed that things were not always, as they seemed for the average mother and homemaker in the 1950s and 1960s. Kate Chopin wrote The Awakening in the 1850’s which told the story of Edna Pontillier and her struggles as a housewife and finding her true identity.
Mary Wollstonecraft’s A vindication of the rights of women written in 1792 can be considered one of the first feminist documents, although the term appeared much later in history. In this essay, Wollstonecraft debates the role of women and their education. Having read different thinkers of the Enlightenment, as Milton, Lord Bacon, Rousseau, John Gregory and others, she finds their points of view interesting and at the same time contrary to values of the Enlightenment when they deal with women’s place. Mary Wollstonecraft uses the ideas of the Enlightenment to demand equal education for men and women. I will mention how ideals of the Enlightenment are used in favor of men but not of women and explain how Wollstonecraft support her “vindication” of the rights of women using those contradictions.
In a traditional culture at the time, the female image was inferior to men in many different aspects. Women have an inferior intelligence compared to men, inferior role in society, and inferior status. Later on, women were respected more as wives and mothers. Women remained in homes, raising children, and “rescuing men’s souls and leading them to the holy paradise” (). In his writing, Nathaniel Hawthorne creates a new female-image, one that focuses on remaining a pure reputation.
Although Lily is young, she feels that she has the right to make this statement because she has already experienced so much in her life. With that being said, people may judge Lily because of what she says or does but that is because not everyone knows about
As a text seemingly disparate from Edith Wharton’s other novels, scholarship surrounding Summer has tended to focus on gender and power constructions between Mr. Royall and Charity Royall. Recent scholarship, however, has focused on the social and cultural aspects of Summer. Elizabeth Ammons has taken a stark stance, problematizing Wharton’s portrayals of race by reifying normative racial constructions of the early twentieth century (68). Anne MacMaster notes the centrality of racial representations, though they appear to be marginal concerns to the plotline, in Wharton’s other work, The Age of Innocence.
Masculine and Feminine Roles in Steinbeck’s “Chrysanthemums” In the story “The Chrysanthemums”, by John Steinbeck, Elisa Allen lives an unsatisfactory life as she desires more than what is bestowed upon her. The reader learns Elisa’s husband is culpable for not seeing the beauty of his wife, leaving an open door for the antagonist, a traveler, to prey upon Elisa’s. Steinbeck uses Masculine and Feminine roles of the early 20th century, Internal Conflict, and an antagonist, to show Elisa’s struggle for Identity. Steinbeck illustrates Masculine and feminine roles of the 20th century in the “Chrysanthemums” to show Elisa’s struggle with identity.
Identity is often a cornerstone in a many important works of literature. The struggle of a protagonist to reconcile with their identity and the expectations or restrictions that accompany this struggle often mirrors real life endeavors and makes important critiques on social structure. The essay A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf makes an influential claim that a woman’s identity as lesser than a man’s in society prevents her from the opportunity to fill her role as a writer while the novel The Bell Jar written by Sylvia Plath describes a woman’s struggle to reconcile with her expectations as a woman in the 1950s. Both pieces make a statement about the impact of identity and its influence on the women faced with the consequences of these societal expectations.
Socially constructed identities are utilized to identify who we are and to oppress individuals, especially if they do not conform to those identities or are coming from an intersecting identity. Sometimes on the journey to establish identity and sense of self battles are faced in terms of oppression, acceptance, and silence. All of these variables, in accordance with intersectionality, can make it very difficult for someone to identify themselves or for others to identify them. When an individual comes from an intersecting identity, just like in Zami and Redefining Realness, they often are searching for acceptance and struggle with silence as the origin of their oppression is not as apparent if that intersectionality was not present or as potent.
However, Ellen’s ways of thinking locate her as an outcast, whose independence displays the underlying tensions surrounding progressing female roles. The reader gains insight into female experience through the lens of male characters, in the claim that Archer ‘meant her (thanks to his enlightening companionship) to develop a social tact and readiness of wit’ (Wharton, 6). Archer’s comprehension that May is a ‘product of the system’, who will fulfil her particular role through marriage illustrates the assumption of malleable female identity in the post-war era (Wharton, 7). Under this male gaze, Wharton details that etiquette demanded that women ‘should wait, immovable as an idol, while the men who wished to converse with her succeeded each other at her side’ (Wharton, 52). The monitoring female movement portrays an ingrained conventional coding in the psyche of society, which does not allow for female authority.