![]() ![]() They are little more than jealous gossips, ready to temporarily forget their strict sense of propriety if it means to tarnish someone else’s reputation. Wharton throws light upon the discordance between their behaviour and their values. Her portrayal of this privileged class emphasises its pettiness, giving us the impression that beneath their refined appearances and manners lies hatred, envy, and hypocrisy. Her commentary regarding the prevailing behaviours found within this group of people is insightful, satirical, and witty. Wharton demonstrates incredible social nuance in her almost anthropological-like study of New York’s elite society. “The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.”Īs many readers have already pointed out, there is little mirth to be found in The House of Mirth (and I thought that The Age of Innocence and Summer had despairing endings…what a misguided fool).Īs with the majority of her works, Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth is chiefly concerned with depicting the conflict between social and individual fulfilment, and it focuses on the experiences of American’s upper social class during the turn of the last century. ![]()
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