The House of Mirth, written by Edith Wharton, was published in 1905 and tells the story of Lily Bart, a woman belonging to the New York’s high society. In Wharton’s novel Lily is raised to marry a man who is well-off both economically and socially. Lily begins to socially decline slowly because she is unable to allow herself to accept what society is to decline because she cannot allow herself to accept what society deems satisfactory. The purpose of this essay is to decide if Wharton’s novel is a feminist text. Annette Kolodny wrote that “feminist literature is any material written by a woman. It was born of the need to express injustice and a need for change. It addresses relevant political issues, current attitudes toward women in society…show more content… From a very young age Lily’s mother raised her to believe that she needed to get married, and to make sure that she married a man that had money and power. This makes it seem like the women are to focus solely on finding husband, making it their job. Selden indicates this very on in the novel when he says to Lily, "Isn't marriage your vocation? Isn't it what you're all brought up for? Why not take the plunge and have it over?” (Wharton, Chapter 1). This is one of many gender misconceptions in the novel. Selden believes that all women want to get married, and that Lily should just choose someone and be done with it. This is easy for hime to say because men, on the other hand, are able to avoid this struggle. The society that they live in does not restrict them, and gives them the power. Lily points this out to him. "Ah, there's the difference—a girl must, a man may if he chooses“ (Wharton, Chapter 1). Even still Selden does not feel sentiment towards her claim, but she is right. If men want to focus on a career that is what they do, and there is no pressure to marry right away. Judith Fetterly writes this about the novel’s society, “the novel becomes the story of a young woman's destruction by a social system that maintains that upper-class women are meant to be ornamental, even while it forces them to prostitute themselves on the marriage…show more content… Woman are seen as objects of beauty and are supposed to be wives. Lily’s mother views her beauty as a “weapon” (Wharton Chapter 13), supporting the idea that women are objects. They were something that the husband could trust to look nice and flaunt their money by spending it. Fetterly argues that with attitudes like these, “a woman like Lily has to accept her status as a piece of property available for purchase by the highest bidder.” Lily can not bring herself to do this. She still resists getting married, not because she is seeking someone better, but really because she is wanting to be something more than just a wife. Fetterly says that “She can not project herself as a wife, she cannot imagine life after the plunge because she can not finally face the price she would have to pay for it: acceptance of a system which makes of her an object and treats her as a possession.” Wharton uses these different examples in the story to provide the reader with insight to the inequality between
