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When Individual and Society Collide: Darwinian Glimpses in the Fiction of Edith Wharton and Henry James

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Identifier	Thesis 1858
Author	Verge, Clementina Pope
Title	When Individual and Society Collide: Darwinian Glimpses in the Fiction of Edith Wharton and Henry James
Publisher	Central Connecticut State University
Date	2005
Resource Type	Master's Thesis
Notes	Upon its publication in 1859, Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species revolutionized the worlds of science, religion and literature. Many nineteenth-century authors immersed themselves in transposing scientific ideas onto their literary creations. Edith Wharton and her friend Henry James are no exception. This thesis traces the effect of Origin on Wharton's and James's writings by focusing on three key elements of Darwin's theory: adaptation, determinism, and natural versus sexual selection. Recognizing these Darwinian basics helps us grasp the way social and natural impulses converge and diverge in the authors' fiction. Wharton believed that individuals exist only in relation to an intricate and demanding social structure that tolerates little variance from convention. Her novels often chronicle the struggle between communities that become powerful adversaries to individuals who transgress social norms. Wharton's narratives demonstrate that without deviation, however, social systems uninterested in personal fulfillment devour the individual. Wharton credited Darwin with helping her find ways to explain such social occurrences. James is of course a realist writer who on the surface appears to have no connection to Darwinism. As his biographer Leon Edel relates, James was not as concerned with "the scientific strains of his century" as he was with "the realm of psychological truth" (166). Not much commentary has been published linking James to Darwinian theories. James, however, had not only read Darwin but had met him in 1869, ten years after Origin was released (Edel 166). It is arguable, even likely therefore that the scientist may have indirectly influenced the author whose many novels deal with the struggle between individuals and their environment. This thesis briefly captures the social and historical contexts of Wharton and James, and the scope of their writing. The introduction alludes to the major critics of Darwin's relationship to literature, including Gillian Beer and George Levine. The first chapter analyzes Darwinian adaptation in Wharton's The House of Mirth and James's Daisy Miller – A Study (1878). Both novels feature leading ladies who suffer societal and ultimately physical deaths due to their inability to adapt to their environments. The second chapter discusses determinism in Wharton's Ethan Frome (1911) and Summer (1917). The third chapter examines natural selection versus sexual selection in Wharton's The Age of Innocence (1920) and James's The Portrait of a Lady (1917). Following these three chapters, the conclusion recapitulates the Darwinian similarities present both in Jamesian and Wharton novels, but it distinguishes Wharton as the author who most connected to Darwin's ideas. While traces of scientific thought are present in James's novels, of the two authors, who are often studied together, James proves to have remained faithful to realism and "the art of fiction" whereas Wharton more eagerly embraced concepts of naturalism and determinism.
Subject	Wharton, Edith, 1862-1937 -- Criticism and interpretation James, Henry, 1843-1916 -- Criticism and interpretation Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882 -- Influence Social Darwinism in literature
Department	Department of English
Advisor	Jones, Jason B., 1971-
Type	Text
Digital Format	application/pdf
Language	eng
OCLC number	713735040
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When Individual and Society Collide: Darwinian Glimpses in the Fiction of Edith Wharton and Henry James

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