Naturalistic Elements in Edith Whartons The Age of Innocence文献综述

 2022-09-01 22:09:19

Literature Review

Edith Wharton, born and bred in the upper class of the Old New York in 1862, becomes one of the most renowned women novelists in America. Wharton refuses to follow the suite when encountering the fashion and etiquette imposed by the upper class for girls at that time. Instead, she yearns for more education than she has received and reads from her fatherrsquo;s libraries. Gradually, Wharton begins to write and record the state of the Old New York who obstinately guard their decreasing property and unbending customs and the rising of the Nouveaux Riches.

Whartonrsquo;s novel The Age of Innocence won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction which highly clamors for its literary value. The novel is set in upper-class society in the Old New York in 1870s, a period when America is undergoing major social reforms including industrialization, incredible economic growth and immigration tide. The story unfolded through the perspective of the leading male character, the gentleman lawyer Newland Archer. He is delightfully waiting for his wedding with his betrothed May Welland, a typically beautiful lady who strictly abides by the customs in the upper class, yet he is soon attracted by Mayrsquo;s American-born, European-bred cousin Countess Olenska, who insists on the divorce with her unfaithful French husband for the pursuit of freedom. Ellenrsquo;s exotic tastes and behaviors render her an eyesore among the tribe of the “Old New York”. Though struggling, Archer eventually succumbs in the traditions to spend his life with May and loses the courage to meet Ellen decades later even after the death of May. Surprisingly, after escaping from the upper class, Ellen leads a peaceful life ever after. In fact, those past fifty years also witness the ups and downs of the Nouveaux Riche Julius Beaufort, who initially intrudes the upper class with his great fortune yet eventually gets banished because of financial dishonesty.

Scholars home and abroad have studied The Age of Innocence from different perspectives with varying degrees of achievement. Professor Samantha de Vera, in her article criticizes the hypocrisy of the upper class (2014). And Iranian scholars Hossein Pirnajmddin and Fatemeh Shahpoori Arani, in their published thesis focus on the cultural studies of American society at the end of the nineteenth century (2011).

Domestically, the novel has been studied under the scope of feminism and ethics. By referring to Ellen Olenska as a representative, a number of articles argue that her struggle for emancipation from her miserable marriage could be interpreted as the awakening of female consciousness. Meanwhile, dozens of theses employ ethical literary criticism to analyze conjugal relations and the relation between the old and the new social forces presented in the novel.

By contrast, researches discussing the novel within the theory of naturalism are relatively less carried out. Interestingly, naturalism is a significant topic which cannot be skipped when studying about this great woman novelist. Edith Wharton admits in her autobiography “her reading of Darwin at the age of twenty-two as the most important intellectual experience of her life” and recognizes Social Darwinists like Hippolyte Taine and Herbert Spencer as the formative influence of her youth (qtd. in Ohler, 2006: xv). From her recount of early experience, it can be concluded that to some extent those Darwinists have played an integral part in her mental and academic development. As a matter of fact, Social Darwinism is one of the most important theoretical bases of naturalism. According to A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory, theoretically based on Social Darwinism, Comtersquo;s positivism and Tainersquo;s determinism philosophy, naturalism emphasizes that heredity and environment are the two determining forces in human beingrsquo;s fate. Therefore, naturalism in Edith Whartonrsquo;s The Age of Innocence is worth poring over.

Donald Pizer, a leading scholar in the study of naturalism, articulates that Newland Archer who bears the misconception that he is entitled to mold his life ends up having to acknowledge that life is substantially shaped by social environment, one of the two elements that naturalism underscores. Paul J. Ohler reveals in his book Edith Whartonrsquo;s “Evolutionary Conception”: Darwinism Allegory in Her Major Novels, that Newland Archerrsquo;s attraction to Ellen Olenska “betrays an instinctive sexual response that causes his heart to beat suffocatingly” (Ohler, 2006: xviii). The instinctive impulse belongs to heredity, which proves to be the other element emphasized by naturalism.

Moreover, in China, there are several Masterrsquo;s theses and journal articles pertaining to the analysis of The Age of Innocence in light of naturalism. To cite examples, the thesis A Tentative Exploration of Naturalism in Edith Whartonrsquo;s The House of Mirth and The Age of Innocence, written by Liu Ling, probes into social, economic environment, hereditary factors and other uncontrollable forces that altogether shape the tragic ending for Lily Bart in The House of Mirth, Newland Archer, Ellen Olenska and May Welland in The Age of Innocence. The thesis An Analysis of Naturalistic Elements in The Age of Innocence, produced by Ma Yue from Liao Ning University, studies the fates of the three major characters and analyzes the hidden causes. In the meantime, the author puts forward an original idea that Whartonrsquo;s understanding and reflection of naturalism in The Age of Innocence are optimistic.

In fact, in terms of Naturalistic interpretation of The Age of Innocence, those theses and domestic journals tend to select the three major characters, analyze them separately and leave behind the crucial figure Julius Beaufort who represents the newly emerging class Nouveaux Riche and symbolizes the inevitable social reform. Therefore, in my thesis, I intend to include Julius Beaufort and divide those characters into three groups, or rather, as three competing species according to Social Darwinism, namely the Old New York elites, the Nouveaux Riches and the free-will pursuer, and carefully study them. Whatrsquo;s more, by examining the life of Ellen Olanska, I espouse the contention that different from other Naturalists like Theodore Dreiser and Stephen Crane who strictly follow the pessimistic determinism in their literary creation, Wharton presents “optimistic” naturalism. Also, the prosperous future of the Old New York and the declining of the Nouveau Riche Julius Beaufortrsquo;s social recognition manifest Whartonrsquo;s lingering pity for the Old New York elites. Thus, these two aspects function to illustrate Whartonrsquo;s own response towards naturalism in The Age of Innocence.

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