Write an essay on one of the following novels;

 

The Turn of the Screw

1.) Explore the nineteenth-century fascination with ghosts and spiritualism in relation to The Turn of the Screw.

2.) Examine The Turn of the Screw as an exploration of Victorian codes governing sexual attitudes and behavior, and the effect of these codes on the individual and cultural imagination.

3.) James promoted the development of “well-made” fiction, which he contrasted to the “loose, baggy monsters” that serialization of three-volume Victorian novels often produced. Examine James’s principles of fiction-writing (delineated in his essay “The Art of Fiction”) in relation to his accomplishments in The Turn of the Screw.

4.) Analyze The Turn of the Screw as a study of class and class-based values in Victorian culture.

5.) Examine the social and historical role of the nineteenth-century governess in The Turn of the Screw. What does James suggest about the effects of gender constraints on the female psyche?

Washington Square

1.) Examine James’s treatment of the nineteenth-century patriarchal family in Washington Square.
2.) Critics have placed both Washington Square and The Age of Innocence in the Bildungsroman tradition. A German term defined as “a novel of education” or “novel of formation,” the Bildungsroman describes the “development of the protagonist’s mind and character, in the passage from childhood through varied experiences—and usually through a spiritual crisis—into maturity and the recognition of his or her identity and role in the world” (M. H. Abrams, A Glossary of Literary Terms). Discuss the “education” of Catherine Sloper in Washington Square and of Newland Archer in The Age of Innocence, examining the familial and/or social influences that impinge upon their formation of character.
3.) Cynthia Ozick contends that in Washington Square, “Every line, every paragraph, every chapter is a fleet-footed light brigade, an engine of irony.” Examine James’s use of irony in the novel.
4.) Examine the setting and historical contexts for Washington Square. How does James’s novel reflect the changing American social landscape in the latter decades of the nineteenth century?
The Spoils of Poynton
1.) Examine James’s portrayal of shifting class roles and the nineteenth-century rise of the nouveau riche in The Spoils of Poynton.
2.) A persistent theme in James’s fiction is the conflict between aesthetic and ethical values. Examine this issue in relation to The Spoils of Poynton.
3.) Analyze James’s portrayal of consumerism and the rise of commodity culture in The Spoils of Poynton.
4.) Analyze Fleda Vetch’s ethical dilemma in The Spoils of Poynton. What is the nature of this dilemma, and how does Fleda respond to it? Does she emerge as an admirable or a misguided character?

The Age of Innocence

1.) Examine Wharton’s portrayal of gender roles in late nineteenth-century American society. Is Wharton finally optimistic or pessimistic about American culture’s ability to accommodate changing conceptions of women’s “place”?

2.) Analyze Wharton’s use of irony in The Age of Innocence. How does her portrayal of Old New York throw an ironic light on the culture’s concepts of “innocence,” “morality,” and “tradition”?

3.) Examine Wharton’s portrayal of the institutions of courtship and marriage in American upper-class society.

4.) Examine The Age of Innocence as a “novel of manners.” Does Wharton’s narrative transcend the limitations of this genre?

The House of Mirth

1.) The House of Mirth’s Lily Bart has been called an “artist without an art form,” whose “vivid plastic sense,” as the narrator observes, “was nurtured on no higher food than dress-making and upholstery.” Examine the role of the female artist in The House of Mirth, focusing on the author’s exploration of the individual limitations as well as the social and gender constraints that hinder the protagonist’s creative ambitions or inclinations.

2.) Examine the role of the “leisure-class” woman in The House of Mirth, relating Wharton’s portrayals in the novel to Thorstein Veblen’s critique of leisure-class nineteenth-century society in Theory of the Leisure Class.

3.) Edith Wharton wrote, “A frivolous society can gain dramatic significance only through what its frivolity destroys. Its tragic implications lie in its power of debasing people and ideas.” Examine Wharton’s view in relation to The House of Mirth.

4.) Examine the significance of friendships between women in The House of Mirth. Why does “sisterhood” prove impossible in Lily’s social circle? How does Lily’s bond with Gerty Farish differ from her friendships with women such as Judy Trenor, Bertha Dorset, and Carry Fisher? What does Wharton suggest about the reasons for the persistent failure of female friendships in the novel?