In chapter 12 of the first book in Edith Wharton’s House of Mirth we see the portrayal of a “tableaux vivants”. The scene which this occurs appears to be as part of a social gathering, a party of sorts. It appears to be an occurrence in which a group of living people portray a socially well-known work of art for the entertainment of others. Wharton tells us the Lily is in her element in such and she could not have chosen a better socialite phenomenon than the tableaux vivants to represent how both House of Mirth as well as New York socialite life works. The term literally translated from french means “living picture”. This works on numerous levels within the world Wharton has created. Knowing lily is thriving in this climate tells us that lily attempts to live her life as aesthetically as possible. Lily’s most comfortable when manipulating others into believing she is doing something other than herself. In a sense, she could be considered an actor in the social sense as well. On a larger scale level, it takes many people to accurately recreate a painting in most instances. Therefore, we can piece together that this rings true on a societal level as well. Each and every person has their aesthetic role to play. Now, if one were to look on an even grander scale, one could argue that this is a wonderful metaphor for the work of the novel itself for a novel is in certain senses a living picture. This phenomena reasserts to the reader that this is an entire world based upon appearances vs. reality. Now fast forward a hundred years; the tableaux vivants still exists. However, it is no longer a socialite activity but instead a daily part of billions of people’s days world-wide. It exists in the modern form of social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Tumblr. Each of these platforms are curated representations of appearance vs. reality in which the user attempts to create a living picture for others to see. In some cases, such as the mannequin challenge, this is quite literal. On the surface, these platforms are a means of entertainment to society just as the tableaux vivants were entertainment to Wharton’s society. Yet at the end of the day, these modern platforms echo the same thematic dissonance (appearance vs. reality) that Lily and Selden were terribly conflicted about over one-hundred years ago.
One Response to tableaux vivants in the modern age
Leave a Reply Click here to cancel reply.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Thanks for noting the centrality of this scene to the broader context of HoM. It made a useful starting point for our class conversation precisely about how we might read this scene as one that concentrates in a dynamic way so many of the broader tensions that mark the novel. Especially interesting is the contrast between Lily’s confident sense of control, Selden’s stunned reaction to her momentary perfection, and the corrosive qualities of the various reactions that begin to emerge from others. I also like the connection to Instagram–a venue for highly curated versions of oneself. That said, I wasn’t rally sure where this post was heading–is it dedicated to close reading? Is so, you don’t dig in quite deeply enough. Is it about how the tableaux vivants tradition was in evidence culturally at this time? That might make a great NovelWorlds post. A closer look at evidence connecting this scene to its contemporary iterations in social media would be a great AfterShocks post. But as it is, none of those areas are fleshed out in enough detail. In future posts, please also use paragraphs to help the reader navigate the flow of ideas, as well as links and images to make it more dynamic and compelling.