Essays on House of Mirth

English Literature

Introduction Charlotte Brontë, Edith Wharton, and Willa Cather created heroines who deal with issues of love and marriage. For the most part, men play a central part in all of their lives. The narratives are told from a variety of perspectives in the three novels. The endings differ substantively as well. Jane Eyre was first published in 1847 as a kind of autobiography. Jane is plain looking but filled with good sense and bravery. She triumphs over her cruel guardian and an inflexible social class order. When Jane becomes the governess in Edward Rochester’s house, she falls in love with ...

Introduction/Thesis Statement

Edith Wharton’s ‘The House of Mirth’ closely examines relationships, desire for personal autonomy and material success outside the boundaries or rules of the social world. In The House of Mirth, Lily Bart, the protagonist, seeking a luxurious life in the high society is torn between wealth and marriage and is willing to go the mile to achieve her goal. In The Great Gatsby, Daisy is also after money and luxury, and uses Gatsby to achieve her ambitious pursuit. On closer observation, one cannot but think that the novel, ‘The Great Gatsby,’ and ‘The House of Mirth,’ was written ...

During the time when the careers of writers like Edith Wharton and Charlotte Perkins Gilman were flourishing, unemployment had also been growing and the working-class was getting larger and larger. Thus, the works of both Wharton and Charlotte often featured working-class characters. However, the question is: To what extent was their depiction of the working-class American society in their respective works and how were they different? In her works, Edith Wharton tends to purposely make the lifestyles of the American working classes seem like a fixation so that social inequality is seen as natural and normal. Apparently, she has ...