A Gilded Cage in a Gilded Age: A Sociological View on Society in the 19th Century

In the second half of the 19^th century, society shifted from being agriculturally based to reaching the height of urbanization. With the rush toward cities and ports, and away from the country side, industrialized America began to shine in the eyes of its inhabitants. The Gilded Age was glittering on the surface but revealed itself to be corrupt underneath (Digital History). In relation to House of Mirth, we see this representation in many of the main characters, especially the protagonist Lily Bart. Though she is beautiful and intriguing on the outside, her personality reveals a number of immoral traits including her ability to control the actions and emotions of those around her to climb the social ladder to obtain wealth and higher social status. During this era in history, the study of sociology was on the rise. Sociology is the scientific study of society, including patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and culture which is why I plan on using two sociological theories to break apart the society in which the House of Mirth characters exist.

One of the main paradigms of sociology is the Conflict Theory that claims that society is in a state of perpetual conflict due to social change (Hunter, McClelland), such as the rush to cities which resulted in the disappearance in rural life. It is easy to caricature the Gilded Age as an era of corruption, conspicuous consumption, and unfettered capitalism (Digital History). These changes in tradition from the rural lifestyle to the industrialized one, is displayed in the way that individuals in society would publically present themselves. From the very beginning of House of Mirth, money is the center of attention. Women are still expected to marry to have economic stability, men were expected to earn the majority of the income, and economical success was the key to climbing the social ladder. These societal constraints seem to be a direct result of the conflict from social change in an industrial society, however, I wanted to view social constructs from a different theoretical perspective.

Symbolic interactionism is another key theoretical perspective in Sociology. This theory focuses on how humans are pragmatic “actors” who continually adjust their behavior based on how they interpret other “actors’” actions (Hunter, McClelland). Instead of basing the theoretical perspective on the image of society (Conflict Theory), the basis leans towards humans. To further explain, society does not affect how humans interact with each other, or present themselves, instead, humans construct their own social environment. This theoretical perspective almost foils the Conflict Theory as theorists no longer believe that the rush into industrialization impacted human socialness, instead humans impacted the rush into industrialization. Literature during the Gilded Age reflected these theoretical perspectives, whether you realized it or not. In fact, the emphasis on the social construction of society (symbolic interactionism) resulted in a heightened interest in the roles people displayed, i.e. the role of the married women, socialite, businessman, and so forth. We see an abundance in roles from the House of Mirth characters, Lily being the unwed women searching for monetary stability in a husband, Selden plays the role of the worldly and intellectual bachelor, and the Trenor’s as the incredibly successful family who is at the top of the social ladder. By giving each character a role, Wharton makes it easier for us to step into each characters’ perspective of their life duringthe booming gilded age in New York City. These roles beg the discussion of if and how societal constructs create a cage in which each character is imprisoned throughout the novel and how the uprising of a sociological mindset influenced American literature to reflect the distinct reality in the latter half of the nineteenth century.