Date of Award

Spring 1991

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

English

Program/Concentration

English

Committee Director

Karl Knight

Committee Member

Dana Heller

Call Number for Print

Special Collections; LD4331.E64W35

Abstract

Whether due to her own mother's coldness, or to the fact that she herself did not have children, or to some other factor or combination of factors, Edith Wharton seemed unable to envision a warm, satisfying mother-daughter relationship. The mothers in her fiction are often detached and/or absent, and the daughters suffer from the faulty or nonexistent relationships with their mothers. The "motherless" daughters--Lily Bart, Mattie Silver, and Charity Royall--never achieve adulthood in any real sense. They lack autonomy and remain dependent on others. Other daughters--Nona Manford and Judith Wheater--must take over the parental role when their mothers fail to nurture them adequately. Only May Welland cares across as a nurturing mother who is genuinely concerned about the welfare of her children and who cares for them consistently. However, Wharton gave us only sketchy details about May as mother. Wharton's pessimistic view of life prevented her from portraying happiness in mother-daughter relationships in her fiction.

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In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

DOI

10.25777/n6nc-cz98

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