Female Body in The House of Mirth from the perspective of “Gaze Theory”

Abstract

ABSTRACT In The House of Mirth, modern American female writer Edith Wharton depicts a young woman named Lily Bart, who is struggling in the upper class of old New York society, but is eventually abandoned by the upper class and dies. Lily’s body reflects the discipline and the reforming pressure of the modern society on people. From the perspective of the gaze theory, this article mainly analyzes how Wharton depicts the female body and how she uses it to reveal the tendency of a gaze and the discourse of social power at that time. The male gaze not only causes Lily’s own tragedy, but also intensifies the binary opposition between male and female. Thus, the male-centered system still needs to be questioned and challenged.