A Study Of Women’s "The Other" Status In The House Of Mirth From The Perspective Of Existentialist Feminism

Edith Wharton,one of the most important novelists in the United States in the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries,was the first woman who won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature.The House of Mirth,published in 1905,makes her famous and helps establish her position as a novelist.According to previous studies,critics who have applied feminism to this novel have mainly focused on the heroine,but few on supporting roles.This thesis attempts to employ “the Other” theory of existential feminism,analyzing from the perspective of supporting characters in the novel and combining the novel text with the theory,to try to confirm the speculation that women in society were oppressed by male power for a long time.This thesis consists of five parts: introduction,literature review,theoretical framework,the main body,and conclusion.The introduction briefly introduces the author,the work synopsis and research significance and purpose.The main body of the thesis is composed of two chapters.The fourth chapter tries to explore how women’s “the Other”status is reflected via the analysis from three aspects: values of marriage,attitudes toward Lily and women’s loss of voice.The fifth chapter focuses on the reasons that lead to this status: the oppression from the patriarchal society,women’s economic dependence,and women’s acceptance and internalization of patriarchal values.Therefore,the thesis found out women are “the Other” in a male-dominated society.The paternal power suppresses and devastates women in many ways,the status between men and women is never equal,and women are materialized by men.Furthermore,the most terrible thing is not restrictions from the social and economic levels but the internalization of patriarchal values in the subtle influence of society,which explains why women become male affiliates and “the Other” in society.The research attempts to enrich domestic researches on the The House of Mirth.Hopefully,it could provide a new perspective and insight into the follow-up study of the work and could inspire others to think about the status quo of gender inequality in society.