Edith Wharton

The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton illustrates a portrait of life in a wealthy 1920 New York society. No member of this society is truly and completely free, and each person gives up a large portion of their personal freedom to comply with their standards. By portraying the members of this community as constrained and restricted, Wharton forces the reader to contemplate the extent of the freedom that individuals should sacrifice in order to benefit the greater good. Wharton develops her…

Jealousy over Fame Edith Wharton’s short story, Roman Fever, shows many illustrates the many ways in which relationships can go wrong. The theme I gain from reading the Roman Fever, is about a lover’s triangle between women fighting for love. Readers see some major problems occurring in the story like lust, fornication, jealousy, lies and bitterness as Wharton compares the past of main character’s Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley. According to the Bible, in the book of 1 Corinthians 7.2-5,…

Will women ever be granted full equality? Given how much time American society has had to resolve this topic, it seems almost ludicrous that this question must be asked. But it must be asked. Though over a century has passed since the Modernist period, the struggle for gender equality is still a very real, ongoing battle. Progress has been made, however. This progress can be largely attributed to the women who subtly or explicitly endeavored to change the social constructs that defined the…

his life. He stayed silent and submissive in the times that changed his life for the worse because he felt pressured to remain quiet by the expectations and rules he had set for himself and by the watching community. In the novel Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton, the themes of social and familial…

INTRODUCTION. The Age of Innocence is one of the most famous novels of Edith Warton since it won the Pulitzer in 1921. It is placed in 1870 old New York. It explores its society, its conventionalisms and its rigid system in which everything has an order and a purpose. We are introduced to a love triangle which will show us a society that fears scandals more than feelings. Trough the three main characters, Edith Wharton portrays a society she knows well, and that eventually would have to flee.…

The true values of man are revealed when one faces the prospect of losing something precious in order to keep what truly matters, as people’s sacrifices reveal their true beliefs. In The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton demonstrates that people make such sacrifices for what they really value, when Newland Archer ends his affair with the Countess Olenska, whom he loves, to live socially accepted with his wife, May Welland. Archer gives up the relationship that he longs for, displaying that his…

Isolation is a very destructive thing, it can leave people depressed and with poor social skills. Many authors express isolation in their stories to show a certain point. Authors like Edora Welty, Emily Dickinson, and Edith Wharton are well known authors and very talented in the way they write. They show isolation in some of their stories. A Worn Path, The Soul selects her own Society, and Ethan Frome are just some of the writing they wrote expressing the struggle of isolation. In the short…

and though people may die it generally is not at the hands of Father Nature. This foundation having been laid let the reader now examine the deviation in the depiction of the natural world and human nature between Stephen Crane's The Open Boat and Edith Wharton's April Showers. Stephen Crane joined the congregation of the dead 150 days before his twenty-ninth birthday. He…

The first character that is formally introduced in Edith Wharton’s “The Other Two” is twelve-year-old Lily Haskett. Initially, her role in the main setting of the plot seems secondary. Upon further investigation, however, Lily proves to be an integral part of the story. She manages to indirectly control much of the plot: she is part of the reason that Waythorn invites himself into their lives, since Mrs.Waythorn’s “affection for the child had perhaps been her decisive charm in Waythorn's eyes”;…

Newland Archer, a high-class man living in late-1800s New York, is engaged to the wealthy aristocrat May Welland. Just after a previous affair with a woman, Newland is trying to get by in life. Dealing with all of the ups and downs of New York, Newland also tries to get by all of the drama and high class “rules” of living. Soon May’s cousin Ellen Olenska, who was married to the Polish Count Olenski, shows up to town after marriage problems. The townspeople’s thoughts of her are debatable and her…