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University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations
Feminism, patriarchal society, independence, free will, marriage, money, sexuality, choice
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Lily Bart And Isabel Archer: Women Free To Choose Lifestyles Or Victims Of Fate?, Heidi Elizabeth Braden
Lily Bart And Isabel Archer: Women Free To Choose Lifestyles Or Victims Of Fate?, Heidi Elizabeth Braden
University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations
This thesis argues that Isabel Archer of Henry James’s novel The Portrait of a Lady and Lily Bart of Edith Wharton’s novel The House of Mirth were nineteenth-century characters struggling to assert their social and sexual independence in a male dominated society. Although Isabel inherits a fortune that allegedly enables her to have more autonomy than Lily, both characters are negatively affected by their inability to conceive of their lives outside of social convention.