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“Larger” Nature by the “Meaner” Nature in Edith Wharton's Student Publications Student Scholarship Spring 2014 A “Disastrous Union”: The nE trapment of the “Larger” Nature by the “Meaner” Nature in Edith Wharton’s The ouH se of Mirth, Ethan Frome, The Custom of the Country, & The Age of Innocence Casey C. Kramer Gettysburg College Follow this and additional works at: https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/student_scholarship Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Share feedback about the accessibility of this item. Kramer, Casey C., "A “Disastrous Union”: The nE trapment of the “Larger” Nature by the “Meaner” Nature in Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth, Ethan Frome, The usC tom of the Country, & The Age of Innocence" (2014). Student Publications. 217. https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/student_scholarship/217 This is the author's version of the work. This publication appears in Gettysburg College's institutional repository by permission of the copyright owner for personal use, not for redistribution. Cupola permanent link: https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/student_scholarship/ 217 This open access student research paper is brought to you by The uC pola: Scholarship at Gettysburg College. It has been accepted for inclusion by an authorized administrator of The uC pola. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A “Disastrous Union”: The nE trapment of the “Larger” Nature by the “Meaner” Nature in Edith Wharton’s The ouH se of Mirth, Ethan Frome, The uC stom of the Country, & The Age of Innocence Abstract Blake Nevius identifies a governing theme in Edith Wharton’s fiction, there is a “larger nature . trapped by circumstances ironically of its own devising into consanguinity with a meaner nature . There is no accounting for such disastrous unions except as a result of the generous but misguided impulses of the larger nature” (9-10). I will explore this “disastrous union” between the “larger” and “meaner” natures in four Wharton novels: The House of Mirth, Ethan Frome, The Custom of the Country, and The Age of Innocence. By “larger” nature, I will mean characters who are magnanimous, thoughtful, and self-sacrificing. With “meaner” nature, I will refer to characters who are ambitious, manipulative, selfish, and conventional. The am jority of Wharton’s’ novels focus on the upper class in New York high society; Ethan Frome, which takes place in rural New England, is the only exception. In most cases, the females exhibit characteristics of the meaner nature, while men are examples of the larger nature. With each novel in this selection, Wharton presents a distinct illustration of the larger and meaner natures. Both the constant and evolving qualities of these “larger” and “meaner” characters will reveal Wharton’s evolving perception of the “disastrous union.” Keywords Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, The Age of Innocence, Larger Nature, Meaner Nature Disciplines English Language and Literature Comments English Honors Thesis This student research paper is available at The uC pola: Scholarship at Gettysburg College: https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/ student_scholarship/217 A “Disastrous Union”: The Entrapment of the “Larger” Nature by the “Meaner” Nature in Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth, Ethan Frome, The Custom of the Country, & The Age of Innocence Casey Kramer ‘14 Advised by Professor Robert Garnett Kramer 2 Abstract Blake Nevius identifies a governing theme in Edith Wharton’s fiction, there is a “larger nature . trapped by circumstances ironically of its own devising into consanguinity with a meaner nature . There is no accounting for such disastrous unions except as a result of the generous but misguided impulses of the larger nature” (9-10). I will explore this “disastrous union” between the “larger” and “meaner” natures in four Wharton novels: The House of Mirth, Ethan Frome, The Custom of the Country, and The Age of Innocence. By “larger” nature, I will mean characters who are magnanimous, thoughtful, and self-sacrificing. With “meaner” nature, I will refer to characters who are ambitious, manipulative, selfish, and conventional. The majority of Wharton’s’ novels focus on the upper class in New York high society; Ethan Frome, which takes place in rural New England, is the only exception. In most cases, the females exhibit characteristics of the meaner nature, while men are examples of the larger nature. With each novel in this selection, Wharton presents a distinct illustration of the larger and meaner natures. Both the constant and evolving qualities of these “larger” and “meaner” characters will reveal Wharton’s evolving perception of the “disastrous union.” Kramer 3 I. Introduction “Critics agree that she was too well bred, too narrow in her social outlook, too chillingly rational in her treatment of experience . .” ~ Blake Nevius, Edith Wharton: A Study of Her Fiction As a novelist, Edith Wharton portrayed the world around her exactly as she perceived it. At times, the result is unnerving social realism, as the characters who prove the most capable of survival are often the most unappealing ones. Blake Nevius identifies Wharton’s harsh realism among the factors that prevent her work from taking its rightful place in literary history: “Critics agree that she was too well bred, too narrow in her social outlook, too chillingly rational in her treatment of experience to convince us always of the authenticity of her sympathies or to maintain a real hold on the affections of the reading public” (3-4). Indeed, much of her work unforgivingly critiques the upper class world that she was raised in. Born into New York high society, Wharton most often deals with the place and people that she knows best—the wealthy upper class living in the city. Yet, this should not be seen as a limitation; to the contrary, Wharton’s novels show the dynamics in New York high society in a way that only an insider could. Nonetheless, the novelist does not limit her perspective solely to New York; she explores characters in settings as distinctive as rural New England. Thus, even more significant than her vision of high society is Wharton’s insight into human nature generally. Within and beyond the boundaries of New York, Wharton creates characters who display qualities ranging from self-sacrificing to self-serving. The ends that Wharton’s characters meet indicate her dark view of human relationships and social survival in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: the most selfish are the most successful. Kramer 4 At the core of Wharton’s novels, there is a series of repeated themes. One theme that Nevius identifies is the enduring conflict between two types of characters in Wharton novels: “The larger nature . trapped by circumstances ironically of its own devising into consanguinity with a meaner nature . There is no accounting for such disastrous unions except as a result of the generous but misguided impulses of the larger nature; there is no justifying their waste of human resources” (9-10). This intimate struggle between the larger and meaner natures defines many of Wharton’s most well known novels. Wharton exposes this truth in her fiction: once trapped by the meaner nature, the larger nature is often suppressed, if it can even survive. In order to discuss this conflict in more detail, defining the terms “larger” and “meaner” will be necessary. By “larger” nature I will mean characters who are magnanimous, thoughtful, and self-sacrificing; these are characters who possess a higher spiritual quality and who are capable of an aesthetic appreciation of the world around them. By “meaner” I will mean characters who are ambitious, materialistic, manipulative, conventional, and self-serving; these are characters who will sacrifice others to secure their personal security and success. Both terms may mean different things when applied to different characters, but the core characteristics of larger and meaner natures are consistent. Four of Wharton’s most accomplished novels—The House of Mirth (1905), Ethan Frome (1911), The Custom of the Country (1913), and The Age of Innocence (1920)—are central to a discussion of her idea of larger and meaner natures. In these novels, the larger and meaner natures are portrayed in different ways, but in each there is at least one example of both. The earliest novel of the four, The House of Mirth, provides a glimpse into the larger and meaner natures as they co-exist within a single character: Lily Bart. Lily demonstrates characteristics of the meaner and larger natures; she begins the novel as a manipulative social Kramer 5 climber, but gradually reveals her magnanimity. In spite of her displays of generosity at the end of the novel, Lily must confront meaner natures of individuals and society. The devastating results for the young woman prove the susceptibility of the larger nature to the meaner nature; thus, the larger nature becomes associated with a degree of weakness in Wharton’s earliest novel considered here. In Ethan Frome, Wharton provides her readers with very clear-cut examples of a larger and a meaner nature: Ethan and Zeena Frome. Ethan is the embodiment of the larger nature; he is a simple man, but a generous caretaker who sacrifices his passion for responsibility. Zeena, by contrast, is amongst Wharton’s villains; she is a strong-willed and callous woman who focuses on her security and enjoys the misery of the people closest to her. Ethan’s inability to escape the powerful Zeena in this novel is proof of the strength of the meaner nature to defeat the larger nature. The Custom of the Country features another infamous Wharton woman: Undine Spragg. Undine is characterized by her restless ambition, materialism, and willingness to exploit anyone to secure her personal success. Among those exploited is her second husband, Ralph Marvell. Ralph fits Nevius’ larger nature perfectly; he is a generous and thoughtful character who remains trapped by the meaner spirit “ironically of [his] own devising” (10).
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