Wharton, Edith (1862 - 1937) | Margaret P. Murray (Essay Date August 1989)
MARGARET P. MURRAY (ESSAY DATE AUGUST 1989)
SOURCE: Murray, Margaret P. "The Gothic Arsenal of Edith Wharton." Journal of Evolutionary Psychology 10, nos. 3-4 (August 1989): 315-21.
In the following essay, Murray illustrates how Wharton uses horror in the Gothic tradition to highlight women's experiences, particularly with regard to power and identity.
Throughout Edith Wharton's life, we find several recurring themes related to her own emotional problems were not resolved in her novels. One of these themes is her ambivalence towards her femininity. However, she was an adept student of literature as well as a gifted author, and her strong literary background allied with her talents as writer enabled her eventually to put to rest, one by one, her own ghosts, through a careful manipulation of a genre familiar to her as a scholar: The Gothic. Nothing could have suited Edith Wharton, the writer's, deepest...
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