Societal Soil: An Analysis
of Naturalism in The House of Mirth
by Jessica Nickerson
Challenging the strict deterministic confines of literary naturalism, which
hold that "the human being is merely one phenomenon in a universe of material
phenomena" (Gerard 418), Edith Wharton creates in The House of Mirth
a novel which irrefutably presents the human creature as being subject
to a naturalistic fate but which conveys a looming sense of hope that one
may triumph over environment and circumstance if one possesses a certain
strength of will or a simple faith in human possibility.
Because of Wharton's slight deviation from naturalistic conventions, a
literary debate exists among critics as to the validity of viewing The
House of Mirth as a novel which embodies naturalism. Some arguments
contend that naturalism does not play a vital role in the novel because
of the fact that such a significant internal conflict belies itself within
the divided being of Lily Bart and because Wharton focuses so intensely
on this conflict, a discord which seems opposed to the naturalistic idea
of inevitability (Gerard, 4 1 0). Indeed, Wharton's works are not as critically
concerned with naturalistic themes as are the works of London, Drieser,
or Zola.
However, it is clear that undertones of naturalism, and stronger overtones
in many situations, are present throughout The House of Mirth. Wharton
creates characters who are victims of their environment, controlled by
animal-like instinct. Evidence of this is found from the very first page,
when Lawrence Selden succumbs to an "impulse of curiosity" (6), to the
very last page, when Selden realizes that Lily had "reached out to him
in every struggle against the influence of her surroundings (255-56). By
creating a protagonist whose every characteristic and action is determined
by environmental conditioning, and who becomes the victim of circumstance,
"swept like a stray, uprooted growth down the current of the years" (248),
Wharton undeniably creates a naturalistic theme within The House of
Mirth.
Making this theme uniquely hers, however, is Wharton's creation of two
characters who are "exceptions to the seemingly ubiquitous law of social
determinism" (Gerard 410). These characters, Nettie Struther and Lawrence
Selden, one triumphing over her environment through sheer will, the other
transcending it through faith in human possibility, create a small tear
in the formidable fabric of strict naturalism, thus engendering a hope
for the triumph of the human spirit.
Edith Wharton develops Lady Bart as a character who is a product of her
environment, preyed upon by circumstance and fate. Lily's name, referring
to a highly ornamental flower, immediately creates the image of a delicate
creature who is grown in the rich soils of society and who, if uprooted
from this societal soil, would wither and perish. Lily, as any living organism,
is not simply a static figure in her environment. Instead, she is a true
naturalistic character, responsive and subject to the conditions of her
surroundings. For example, when Lily and Selden meet at Bellomont, "Lily's
beauty expanded like a flower in sunlight" (108) and, "her face turned
toward him with the soft motion of a flower" (109). Thus, although it can
be argued that Lily is not a naturalistic character because of Wharton's
emphasis on her internal conflict, an evident truth lies within the statement
that "(Lily) is as completely and typically the product of her environment
... as the protagonist of any recognized naturalistic novel" (Pizer 241).
Lily is not only the product of her environment, but she is also its victim.
A house plant which has been accustomed to daily hydration from the watering
can and to an artificial, temperature-controlled environment is not likely
to survive if transplanted to the harsh reality of the outside world. In
the same manner, Lily, who was raised to detest dinginess and aspire toward
the solitary goal of monetary gain, much like a plant is genetically programmed
to grow away from darkness and toward sunlight, is unable to survive outside
of her social environment. She is its creation, and because she is interminably
chained to it, its victim. As Selden observes, "She was so evidently the
victim of the civilization which had produced her, that the links of her
bracelet seemed likemanacles chaining her to her fate" (8). This entrapment
is so apparent that Lily herself recognizes it. She says, "Why, the beginning
[of her downfall] was in my cradle... in the way I was brought up and the
things I was taught to care for... I'll say it was in my blood" (176).
Lily's umbilical attachment to her environment combines with chance and
circumstance, two important conventions of naturalism, to create her downfall
and death. Throughout the novel, Lily is caught in unforeseen situations
which later put her in a precarious position. Perhaps the most detrimental
of these circumstances of fate involves Lawrence Selden. In desperation,
Lily decides to turn to Selden's love as her only hope. However, "the chance
circumstance of his having seen her leave Gus Trenor's house the night
before causes him to leave town, leaving her stranded and alone" (Gerard
416). This single happening of chance causes Lily to depart on a cruise
with the Dorsets, a cruise which engenders a chain of events which causes
Lily to be rejected by her social Set. Desperate from having been thus
extirpated from her native society, Selden's prolonged absence drains the
final sap from Lily's veins, causing her to turn to the fatal chloral.
Thus, the naturalistic themes of environmental entrapment and subjection
to fate and circumstance play upon the ill-fated character of Lily Bart.
As Donald Pizer proposed, "Lily may be manacled to her fate, but Others
apparently similarly chained break free" (247). These "others", Lawrence
Selden and Nettie Struther, transcend their deterministic environments
and prove that human will and emotion can prevail regardless of fate or
circumstance. These two characters are not exceptions to the conventions
of naturalism and determinism. Instead, they expand upon those conventions.
Selden provides an example of a character who, able to arnphibiously survive
both inside and outside of society, does not fall prey to society's demands.
Although "he was, as much as Lily, the victim of his environment" (120),
Selden never forgets the skill of freeing himself from that environment.
He has "points of contact outside of the great guilt cage," and although
Lily and the rest of society are trapped "like flies in a bottle," Selden
"never forgets the way out" (45). At least partly liberated from the effects
of his environment, Selden possesses a belief in the possibility of a socially-discouraged
love between himself and Lily, a belief which "functions... as a testament
to man's capacity to posit a spiritual dimension to experience" (Pizer
247) and thus refutes the naturalistic idea that experience and circumstance
unreciprocally act upon humans.
The case of Nettie Struther reveals to both Lily and the novel's reader
that one's apparent destiny is not necessarily ones ultimate fate. To Lily,
Nettie is known as "one of the superfluous fragments of life destined to
be swept prematurely into that social refuse heap" (243). A member of the
lower class, plagued by health problems, and deserted by her husband, Nettie
seems a prime candidate to suffer from an utterly miserable and naturalistic
life. However, when Lily and Nettie meet by chance one evening, Lily finds
that "Nettie's frail envelope was now alive with hope and energy: whatever
fate the future cast for her, she would not be cast into the refuse heap
without a struggle" (243). Nettie triumphs over her assigned lot of a miserable
life and now has a warm home, a loving husband, and gurgling baby. Nettie
has not only triumphed over fate and circumstances, but she has also, in
a literary sense, created a loophole within the strict deterministic conventions
of naturalism adhered to by Edith Wharton's contemporaries.
By creating a protagonist who is subject to an utterly naturalistic fate
and juxtaposing her with two characters who are subject to, but who overcome,
the same type of fate, Wharton asserts that organisms which are hardy enough
to flourish outside of their societal soil do indeed exist. "By this, Wharton
does not deny the central premise of naturalism that human life is largely
conditioned" (Pizer 247). She rather adds to this premiise, suggesting
that the human creature also gains strength and derives meaning from its
hope, desire, and faith, thus engendering the triumph of the human spirit.
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