Date of Award

1-1-1986

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

English

Abstract

These three essays focus on the way in which Edith Wharton's reputation as a novelist of manners has limited the full appraisal of her fiction which her skill as a writer deserves.The first essay reviews Wharton's life and development as a "social historian," pointing out stylistic conventions which synthesize her use of culture into an evolution of character development in The Age of Innocence. These conventions, entitled "arch" in this study, include Wharton's use of syntax and diction. Through an analysis of relative proportions of syntactical elements and peculiarities of diction, shifts in style are noted and linked directly to characterization, making direct use of conventions of language tied to the social rituals of Old New York.The second essay notes a strong current of feminist issues in certain of Wharton's works, made more remarkable given the period, class, and orientation of her upbringing. This new interest--characterized by two sections focusing on the "dark" aspects of male-female relationships clarified through the understanding of fairy-tales and the idea of women as objects of barter in a materialistic society--is studied primarily through Summer, The House of Mirth, and The Custom of the Country.The last essay examines Wharton's ghost stories. The primary interest lies in the way she probes the psychology of character in the supernatural situation, transcending once again the critical limits superfluously attached to the Wharton fictions. The main approach to the ghost stories is through two themes: the fatal love triangle and the use of the "double" or "other."In all three essays, Wharton either uses her background as a "grande dame" of a very exclusive society in order to both satirize it and to show its value, or leaves that background as she probes a side of human experience of which she was thought to know little and care less. This reappraisal, with a concurrent rising critical interest in Edith Wharton, should advance the reader's appreciation of the variety and depth of a writer once thought to speak for cultural experiences far removed from those of the majority of her readers.

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