Elitist representation of women in Edith Wharton's Summer

Abstract

The present research work analyses why the protagonist, Charity Royall, in Edith Wharton's Summer doubly suffers as a lower class and as a female gender. Her guardian, Mr. Royall in the very beginning treats her as a daughter but at last he himself marries with her. Similarly, her sexual partner Lucious Harney also leaves her when he knows that she is pregnant. But Charity instead of taking any sort of revenge allows Harney to marry with another lady Annabel Blach and easily accepts the marriage purpose of Mr. Royal. Instead of being rebellious why Charity is presented as a tolerable and passive who loses her virginity and social prestige that deprives her from different socio-political opportunities. And the present research contends this dualism as the manifestation of the motif of capitalistic patriarchal society to keep the women in subservient position and play with women regarding them as submissive, passive and tolerable.