About Edith Wharton: 'Souls Belated'

Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: bestanden, University of Leipzig (Institut für Amerikanistik), course: The 19th century in American female fiction, language: English, abstract: enforcements and become an independent human being. In which way she tries to 'free' herself from the entrapment called marriage, which developments her way to her personal liberty goes through and if she eventually succeeds will be discussed in this term paper. In the first part of this term paper, I want to report briefly about the second half of the nineteenth century in America and the role of women, especially female writers. Afterward there will be a short look at the author's vita, because the way Wharton lived tells us much about her understanding of different themes. Then I want to analyze Wharton's short story 'Souls Belated' which contains a lot of themes and symbols, from which the most interesting will be described and interpreted. In a final conclusion I will try find an answer to the essential topic of Wharton's story: Does the protagonist succeed in escaping the social conventions due to her divorce or does she fail? And is it possible at all to 'free' oneself of the social imprisonment of the time described, particularly as a woman? This term paper focuses on the thesis, that 'Souls Belated' is mirroring the social conditions of Edith Wharton's 19th century New York Society and the institution of marriage as a kind of cage for women.

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