Introduction
Naturalism in the House of Mirth is evident through its focus on the influence of environment, heredity and social conditions on human behaviour. The Novel portrays characters as products of their circumstance, emphasizing on how societal pressures and economic forces shape their destinies. The Novel serves as a poignant exploration of naturalistic themes of determinism and the human condition within the constraints of early 20th c American Society.
The Novel of Manner
The House of Mirth is a novel of manners; its language is one of curiosity and detailed observation “the Novels of manners usually deal with the social conventions of a particular class in a particular time and place. It describes in details the customers’ behaviours, habits and expectations of a certain social group at a specific setting. This kind of novels is satiric and always realistic in depiction” (Yeazell, 1992)
This type of novel first appeared with romanticism, mainly in England during the 19tt c there are 3 main elements that constitute the novel of manners, firstly a single women heroine is needed, second class designate the man the single protagonist will marry and third, the ending should include either the happiness of the heroine through marriage or the death of the heroine. All the three factors are applicable to Lily Bart: she is single women seeking marriage with a wealthy husband from the upper segments of society and her ending is marked by death from an over dose of sleeping pills which put the House of Mirth under the rubric of the most influential works of the novel of manners.
Exploring the Gilded Age Characteristics within the Novel
The House of Mirth vividly portrays Gilded Age characteristics through its exploration of wealth, class and materialism. The stark divide between the elite and the lower classes is evident in Lily Bart’s struggle to maintain her status, highlighting the era’s obsession with social standing and luxury. Gender dynamics reveal women’s limited options as financial security often hinges on marriage, while moral ambiguity permeates the narrative, with characters engaging in deceit to mitigate a competitive society. Ultimately, the novel critiques the superficiality and emotional isolation of high society, reflecting the era’s profound impact on individual lives and values.
Depicting Naturalism Features in the House of Mirth
In the House of Mirth, Edith Wharton said about Lily Brat that: “....inherited tendencies had combined with early training to make her the highly specialized product she was an organism so helpless out of its narrow range as the sea-anemone torn from rock” (301). Nearly everything that is basic to naturalism is contained in this short quotation: biological determinism, influence of society and dependence on the environment (Lily has been raised to be an ornament, coached to use her beauty and charm to gain material success and security). Every element in this sentence clearly places Wharton’s approach her character within naturalistic tradition.
Even Lily Bart describes her relation to society as “an intricate dance” where she must “calculate and contrive” her impulses and intentions to avoid falling “out of time” Lily’s elaborated dance is staged on the ruthless marriage market of late 19th c New York. Has Lily achieved this intricate dance? could she transgress the standards of her society to reach the standards of her society to reach the standards of her personality?
According to Donald Prizer (1984:11) a naturalistic character is one who is “conditioned and controlled by environment, heredity, instinct or chance”, therefore, Lily Bart is certainly naturalistic. She is poor, orphaned and a single woman who finds difficulty to succeed in a world ruled by wealth, family ties, standards and marriage. She is trained by her mother to use her beauty to get what she wants and she is taught that she needs wealth and marriage to gain a happy life. This training is reinforced by the upper class society that values money and luxury as priority. A class which she no more belongs to after the death of her parents. Lily in fact, feels herself trapped by the bods of her society’s absolute rules of conduct, which dictate the ways she must act. This controlling force, however, destroys her ability to see beyond the social matrix of her world.
The dilemma in Wharton’s novel is the conflict between individual and social group. Her tragic heroine Lily is a victim of the group pressure of conventions she is passionate, with imaginative spirit, hungry of emotional intellectual experience but lacked into a prison like society and suffering to death resigning herself to it. In Lily’s character, everything depends on showing people what they want to see and not the reality of who she is. Wharton show’s us a society in which the external self is much more important than the internal one.
All these factors show how strong the dilemma Lily suffers within herself and show how strong the clash between individual free will and outside presumes are. By the end Lily Bart caused her flow by her own virtue. Until her final weeks, she is constantly unable to choose between her immoral life of wealth and rebellious life of morality and intellect, the struggle that coast her life.
Conclusion
The House of Mirth exemplifies naturalistic themes by exploring how individuals like Lily Bart are shaped and constrained by the larger social, psychological and environmental forces that govern their lives. Wharton uses naturalism to critique the social structures of her time, portraying the destructive effects of a society that values wealth and status above personal happiness and integrity.
References for further reading
Documents of American Realism and Naturalism By Donald Pizer (1998)
Edith Wharton: A Woman of her Time by Louis Auchincloss (1971)