House of Mirth - The Nature of Nature Essay -- House Mirth Essays

syndicate of Mirth - The constitution of Nature Nature, whether in the form of the arctic tundra of the North Pole or the busy street-life of Manhattan, was viewed by Naturalist writers as a phenomena which necessarily challenged singular survival a phenomena, moreover, which operated on Darwins maxim of the survival of the fittest. This contrasted sharply with the wild-eyed view, which worshipped Nature for its beauty, beneficence and self-liberating powers. In Edith Whartons The House of Mirth, Lily Bart attempts to belong within the urbane drawing-room society she inhabits. Although Selden uses Romantic nature imagery to get Lily, throughout the novel such Romantic imagery and its accompanying meanings atomic number 18 continually subverted. By simply invoking different understandings and views of Nature, Wharton demonstrates that not only is Lilys readiness to adapt to various environments isnt necessarily salutary, but also that flower imagery, employ in a n ironic fashion, captures perfectly Lilys need for climates of luxury. It is Whartons image of a hot-house, however, which in conclusion captures the ambiguous nature of what, to Wharton, truly is Nature. Lily, although a city-dweller, is set forth by Selden as one who is intimately connected with a benevolent, life-giving Nature. He exclaims, The bearing revealed the long slope of her slender sides, which gave a kind of wild-wood grace to her outline- as though she were a captured dryad subdued to the conventions of the drawing-room (13). Seldens notion of Lilys sylvan license and her interconnectedness to all things natural is echoed later in the novel, when Lily is either described as, or compared to, a rose, (167) an ... ...entury Literature 44.4 (1998) 409-27. Howard, Maureen. On The House of Mirth. Raritan 15 (1996) 23 pp. 28 Oct. 2002 <http//proxy.govst.edu2069/WebZ/FTFETCH>. Howe, Irving. Edith Wharton, a Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Clif fs Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1962. Lindberg, Gary H. Edith Wharton and the Novel of Manners. Charlottesville University Press of Virginia, 1975. Lyde, Marilyn Jones. Edith Wharton, chemical formula and Morality in the Work of a Novelist. Norman University of Oklahoma Press, 1959. Miller, Mandy. Edith Wharton Page. 19 Nov. 2002 <http//www.Kutztown.edu/faculty/Reagan.Wharton.html>. Pizer, Donald. The Naturalism of Edith Whartons The House of Mirth. Twentieth Century Literature 41.2 (1995) 241-8. Wharton, Edith. The House of Mirth. (1905) New York Signet,. 1998.