Browsing by Subject "Edith Wharton"

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    Infinite regress: the problem of womanhood in Edith Wharton's lesser-read works
    (2015-05-01) Smith, Alex; Schultz, Jane E.; Goldfarb, Nancy D.; Johnson, Karen Ramsay
    Wharton’s heroines are ordinary women who fight to secure material comfort and create selves that satisfy their emotional and sexual needs. These women often find that the two goals are mutually exclusive, since society strictly dictates appropriate behavior. This code of behavior stems from their relation to men: as objects to be won, as wives, and as mothers. In many instances, women are not even aware of their prescriptive roles and confuse their search for self with a search for security. Material comfort does not nurture Wharton’s heroines’ inner selves and they feel a metaphysical dissatisfaction, often seeking to find contentment through divorce or affairs. What they find in either case is that the cure to their ennui is not material, but mental. Wharton’s women seek a transcendent self—a self that is not dependent upon popular notions of respectability; a spiritual state that is independent from any attachment to social imperatives.
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    Wrapped Up in Books: The Inner Life of Newland Archer in The Age of Innocence
    (2007-04-19T19:48:32Z) Reeves, Nancee C.; Schultz, Jane E.; Eller, Jonathan R., 1952-
    Few in the world value books more than writers do. They have an understanding of literature that it is hard for a non-writer to grasp – an awareness of the importance of words and stories, and their place in society. Therefore, when a writer has one of his own characters read a book, it generally means something. To pass over such a detail, to ignore the clues carefully placed, is to deprive oneself of the full meaning of a work. Every action, item, and movement in a novel contributes to the end, to the purpose and meaning of the work. A character in a novel might toss a book aside, think nothing of having an empty library, or merely note a title in passing. But to the writer, and so also to the reader, these actions are of great significance. This paper looks at The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton and analysis the reading material of its hero, Newland Archer, in order to come to a better understanding of this character, Wharton’s narratives in general, and of Wharton herself. Newland Archer is a character who is in significant ways defined by the books he acquires and reads. Each book has been picked with such care it is possible to get a good idea of what type of person Archer is merely by looking at what he reads. It is therefore important to ask what his reading list says about him and why Wharton would have invested so much time in building this list. Wharton has made Archer’s library his autobiography.