Lily Bart and Female Relationships in The House of Mirth
Resource
中外文學, 36(2), 181-220
Journal
中外文學
Journal Volume
36
Journal Issue
2
Pages
181-220
Date Issued
2007-06
Date
2007-06
Author(s)
Lin, S.Y.
Abstract
This essay tries to delineate Wharton's The House of Mirth as a “novel of the woman of thirty” and maintain that its female protagonist Lily Bart has been portrayed as one who is locked into fixed positions which are social, economic and products of the libido. Thus, she is incapable of making any change concerning her destined fate. Then, the essay attempts to illustrate one important factor having some bearing on Wharton's writings: the female homosocial culture in late 19th and early 20th century America, and to see how this culture affects the interaction between the heterosexual marriage plot and the homosocial female subplot of the novel. Due to the fact that critical essays concerning the female relationships—mother-daughter relations, female same-sex relations—have been relatively few, this essay focuses on the “female circle” around Lily Bart and makes a detailed textual analysis of her female relatives as well as friends.
Subjects
女性情誼
女性同性社交文化
女性文化
浪漫情誼
客體關係理論
female relationships
female homosocial culture
women's culture
romantic friendship
object-relations theory
Type
journal article
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