Analysis of Edith Wharton's Summer - Book Report/Review Example

Order 368852 Topic: Edith Whartons book summer True love goes on increasing; passion diminishes with time. In love and sex, each one sees a new horizon. Summer, apart from other issues highlighted, is the saga of a young womans discovery of sexual desire. The nineteen year old Charity Royall is totally innocent as for men; she has observed many people in the village break off into couples, but the youth of North Dormer hold no fascination for her. Then Harney, a young man from the city enters her life, she develops interest in him, spends time with him and her feelings about the male gender changes and new developments seize her. But this is a strange development. She does not wish to evolve as a woman willing to own the domestic responsibilities of a wife and mother. She craves sexual fulfillment. A woman coming of age, falling in love, dealing with consequences, choosing paths. Yes, her name is Charity and she existed about one century ago! The opening of the novel shows Charity is bored with all—individuals and the circumstances she is placed in. Mentally she has outgrown her small town, she wishes to break from its patterned lifestyle but the social restrictions bar her from moving further to realize her cherished dreams. To sum up the novel: A chance encounter between two individuals of the opposite sex, turns into a passionate affair at its center, and a wedding to follow at the end. Looks ordinary stuff, like any other sentimental novels, but Summer is something like the depicting the art of love. It is like is the gush of fresh water in the calm area of love and the turbulent area of passion. The limitations of her small town always bothers her, and on seeing a man from the city, she is enthralled. The young man is on a study mission to know about the local architecture, he enters the library to ask for books on that subject. She is flustered. The young man is stuck by her beauty. His questions about the books in the library reveal to Charity about her ignorance and she feels awkward for her poor knowledge relating to books. After their coincidental meeting in the library where Charity works part-time, Harney and Charity begin to see more and more of each other until their friendship evolves into a torrid affair. The romance of this seemingly mismatched couple "breaks, or stretches, many conventions of romantic love stories and in the process creates a new picture of female sexuality" (French,1987 xlii). This book was written in the year 1917, a little less than a centuries ago. W omens suffrage was the topic of the era. Woodrow Wilson advocated in January 1918 that it was urgently needed. Women wished to be as free as men. Her freedom is her birthright not a concession to be given by man. By trying to develop friendship with an unknown city guy, Charity is trying to break up the time-hardened soil of conservatism. The reward for such a woman are obvious--slander, ridicule and persecution. Rheta Childe Dorr, What Eight Million Women Want (1910) writes, “Women have ceased to exist as a subsidiary class in the community. They are no longer wholly dependent, economically, intellectually, and spiritually, on a ruling class of men. They look on life with the eyes of reasoning adults, where once they regarded it as trusting children. Women now form a new social group, separate, and to a degree homogeneous. Already they have evolved a group opinion and a group ideal.”(Woman Suffrage...) Crystal Eastman, Now We Can Begin (December, 1920) writes, “The problem of womens freedom is how to arrange the world so that women can be human beings, with a chance to exercise their infinitely varied gifts in infinitely ways, instead of being destined by the accident of their sex to one field of activity - housework and child-raising.. .. I can agree that women will never be great until they achieve a certain emotional freedom, a strong healthy egotism, and some unpersonal source of joy - that is this inner sense we cannot make women free by changing her economic status.”(Women Suffrage....)That was the era to which Charity belonged!Charity was a few steps ahead of the political and social demands of women. Her concern was explicitly with sexual passion which was the important component of her personality. She found it difficult to accept that her sexuality as a forbidden pleasure. Harney and Charity continue with deeper physical intimacy. Referring to their intimate relationship Wharton writes, : "With sudden vehemence he wound his arms about her, holding her head against his breast while she gave him back his kisses" (p.101) Soon Harney realizes that she is no match for his intellectual brilliance. “ As they are leaving, they come in contact with the drunken Mr. Royall, who, annoyed at finding them together, berates and shames Charity in front of the crowd.” (Degradation....) Royals outburst against his grown-up daughter is the indicator of the status of women of the era. Harney does not degrade Charity himself, but she suffers degradation in his eyes on account of this outburst. This shows how poor is the position of a girl-child, and at the precise moment when one wants more care and loving attitude from the man she loves. Harney does not understand her frame of mind, and wonders how the outburst has made her suddenly more sexually accessible to him. While discussing the sexual taboos and beliefs of the 1920s, it is pertinent to note the position in the social ladder as applicable to Harney and Charity. The contrast in their background is depicted from the initial stages of their encounter by Wharton. This indicates the historical difference that always existed between the rich and the poor; between the educated and the uneducated. Charity is aware of the inferiority complex in her as compared to Harney. Double-tragedy is part of her life.“She has no real family to speak of, aside from her guardian Mr. Royall, and she is keenly aware that her origins are ambiguous, her place in society mean, especially in comparison to the position of someone like the formidable Miss Balch. Charity knows that the Mountain is "a bad place, and a shame to have come from" and she feels "ashamed of her old sun-hat, and sick of North Dormer, and jealously aware of Annabel Balch of Springfield, opening her blue eyes somewhere far off on glories greater than the glories of Nettleton" (Wharton,p.6-7). Charity somehow, wishes to break the shackles of her life and therefore attempts something extraordinary, without caring, how the society around her will react to her sexual boldness. They say desperate situations need desperate remedies. The circumstances in which she was placed constantly bothered her. "When Charity, in response to Harneys message, had gone to meet him at the Creston pool her heart had been so full of mortification and anger that his first words might easily have estranged her. But it happened that he had found the right word, which was one of simple friendship" (Wharton p.87). Whether the society likes it or not, she was bent upon breaking rules and doing something taboo. “In drawing a correlation between Harneys need for degradation and Charitys need for forbiddenness, we must consider the standards of the society in which they lived and the ways in which they were educated by this society. In fact, Freud posits this cultural education concerning sexuality as the main catalyst for these tendencies in men and women. His sociosexual typology, dependent on Vienna, successfully maintains its validity when translated to Nettleton in that Wharton, in accord with Freud, perceives "the excessive self-denial that respectable middle-class society imposed on the sexual needs of ordinary humans" (Gay,p. 338) The sexual awakening of Charity is directly related to societys expectations and the standards set for the behavior of the female gender. She knows that the society will stifle her expectations of sexual desire. Yet she is excited, for breaking the rules gives her a sense of fulfillment. She is not willing to carry on with the so-called perfect discipline of expected of her by the society. She wishes to challenge the forbiddenness. “Charitys decision to reject the abortion option and have the baby is her first step in acknowledging and accepting her pregnancy, as well as her sexuality... She is no longer ashamed and discouraged; instead, she begins to understand the full potential of her own sexual maturity.... Through her decision to have the baby she becomes proud and affirms her sexuality, no longer relying on the secrecy linked to her need for forbiddenness, but experiencing the relief of acceptance and openness. Her outlook becomes positive as she strives to face her problems and the decisions she must make.”(Degradation....) Society can not dictate terms to a woman who has developed such a tough mental attitude. She feels that the society can not understand her and she in no way feels that the society should dictate terms to her. She is aware that she is the sole owner of social justice from her private point of view. She is not willing to feel powerless in her predicament. She has decided to challenge the society and face the consequences. Finally, she makes the most rational choice of marrying Mr. Royall. She has come to terms with her life and is not afraid to live the life of sexuality by challenging the environment of overwhelming social pressure of the society of her times in America. She is willing to live life with her own definition of honesty, and acceptance or non-acceptance of the standards of behavior by the society is of no consequence to her. She challenges the pressures of environment and heredity appropriately. The issues raised and dealt with by Wharton one century ago are relevant now and thousands of girls like Charity live in the society, enjoying absolute freedom on their life-choices. Such private exploits were not allowed by the societal standards of 1920s. The decision Charity makes finally, looks like surrender but it is the best under the circumstances that she is placed in. The element of true love is there, but the dominating aspect of the situation is that she feels a sense of being trapped. From one end, it is true love but Charity is unable to enjoy the fruits of it. She has limited options in her life, and she goes for the right option, as per the demands of the situation. People in such mountain villages simply exist—remain in the same condition, perhaps from the time God created the villages, without wanting to change or without knowing what it is to change. People have no hope of improving, or finding a way to transform themselves. Charity takes to the escape route available to her and forces changes on her, as relevant to her circumstances. She has intense desires for independence but has limited choices. Charity has every reason to hate the society in which she lives. Nothing good has happened to her in that society. In such grim circumstances, one will become cynical or resigned, or an outright rebel. Charity chose the second option and lived by it in letter and spirit. She derived inner happiness by challenging the social norms. Like an adventurous swimmer, she decided to swim against the tide and succeeded to an extent. Rather, she carried on with her fight, and did not accept defeat, at the onslaught of fateful designs of destiny at every turn of her life--born to a poor mother, raised by Mr. Royall as his own daughter,till his wife died of consumption When she grows as a lovely woman, Mr. Royall has other ideas about her, she is repulsed by his offer of marriage. It is evident that she is in desperate search to escape from the web of the circumstances. Harney enters her life at such a critical state of mind, love between them blossoms, burns, spills and subsequently is devastated. Charity though subdued, is not defeated, her indomitable spirit wins, though in the end she marries Royall. In the process, a weak Charity has emerged as a brave Charity, challenging successfully the social restrictions and taboos. She has tasted the freedom of the female gender to the fullest extent, unimaginable by the standards set by the society of the 1920s. It is not a happy ending for Charity, but a brave one over the snobbery, small town mentality and narrow-mindedness. One cant but applaud her courage. By now Charity knows—that the world can not run on happiness! ********** Works Cited: Degradation and forbidden love in Edith Whartons Summer ... -Retrieved on February 3,2010 Gay, Peter. Freud: A Life for Our Time. New York: Norton, 1988 French, Marilyn. Introduction. Summer By Edith Wharton. New York: Macmillan, 1987 Wharton, Edith. Summer; Digireads.com, January 1, 2005. Woman Suffrage - Carrie Chapman Catt Speech Before Congress 1917 – Retrieved on February 3,2010 Read More