Edith Wharton Must Have Known Fundies

[debrand]

I just finished Edith Wharton's novel, The Age of Innocence. A few of the passages remind me of the fundies we discuss. Do any of you have novels or movies that surprise you by making you think of the blogs we discuss

Here are a couple of excerpts from the book

He reviewed his friends' marriages-the supposedly happy ones-and saw none that answered, even remotely, to the passionate and tender comradeship which he pictured as his permanent relation with May Welland. He perceived that such a picture presupposed, on her part, the experience, the versatility, the freedom of judgement, which she had been carefully trained not to possess and. with a shiver of foreboding, he saw his marriage becoming what most of the other marriages about him were: a dull association of material and social interests held together by ignorance on one side and hypocrisy on the other.

and

"it would presently be his task to take the bandage from this young woman's eyes and bid her look forth on the world. But how many generations of the women who had gone to her making had descended bandaged to the family vault? He shivered a little, remembering some of the new ideas in his scientific books, and the much-cited instance of the Kentucky cave-fish, which had ceased to develop eyes because they had no use for them. What if, when he had bidden May Welland to open hers, they could only look out blankly at blankness?

[MamaJunebug]

I confess with embarrassment that I've never read any Wharton, but I will soon.

Did she know fundies? Or did the misogynistic attitude she writes about prevail throughout the culture?

[debrand]

I confess with embarrassment that I've never read any Wharton, but I will soon.

Did she know fundies? Or did the misogynistic attitude she writes about prevail throughout the culture?

She was writing about the wealthy culture in New York during the 1870's. None of the people are fundies but their thinking toward women and marriage sounds very fundish. The protagonist in the story is supposed to marry the perfect upper class wife, May. She is beautiful and soft spoken. Although not stupid, May doesn't have any imagination or desire to expand her horizons. Her future husband falls in love with her cousin but because of the morals of the time, they can never be together. Interestingly, the relationship between the cousin and young man is never consummated.

May is probably the type of woman that the Botkins aspire to become.

At one point, the newly married couple go to Europe but don't really interact with many Europeans. May just doesn't see the need to expand her horizons.

If you have a kindle, you can get the novel for free.

[MamaJunebug]

Thank you!!

[ThatSnark]

Also interestingly, she wrote of and in the time that the VF crowd particularly embraces-- the high Victorian period where women of a certain upper social class had very, very narrow parameters. This period of time did not last very long because real life and humanity intervened; it was well gone by the time of the first World War and the rising women's suffrage movement. The point being, even these sheltered upper-class women were unhappy enough to use their limited influence to bring about some change toward equality and having a voice. Fundies seem to have always turned the page before that part of history.