論文摘要
Elaine Showalter透過Edith Wharton的小說The House of Mirth，觀察二十世紀初的美國，她指出上流社會的男性，普遍輕視女性，視美麗女性為藝術品而非真實的人。小說The House of Mirth的女主角Lily Bart就是受到這樣的歧視。儘管身為上流社會名媛，她想要擺脫種種傳統社會的束縛，進而做自己。
但是一連串的挫敗與災難構成了她的一生。她興致高昂地在活人畫中扮演名畫中的仕女，但卻被男性觀眾視為她美好身材的展現而已，而非她所盼望的，自己的美學品味受到大家肯定欣賞。
她拒絕為了財富而結婚，但當時的美國社會，女性不結婚是毫無出路的。她不屑嫁給汲汲營營於賺錢的猶太巨賈，也不屑跟她圈內粗俗無品味的貴族做一生的交易。她的命運是找不到出口的。就在此刻，因為美貌而遭人陷害，她因此被逐出勢利眼的上流社會，從此只能在勞工階級做女工討生活，以自殺了結終生。
本論文將討論鍍金年代對女主角品味的塑造之影響，也將其品味與周遭市儈貴族的毫無品味做對照。本論文也將以經濟寄生現象來批判當時女性對男性的嚴重依賴，導致女性地位與尊嚴之低落。本論文也討論交換法則，因為在女主角的世界，人人皆以交換原則來互取所需，看似公平卻暗藏階級不公，另外，將討論炫耀性消費的觀念如何影響當時社會風氣與婚姻中的性別定位。

Lily Bart’s Lingering Awakening and Disintegration in Wharton’s House of Mirth.
Elaine Showalter observes the phenomenon in turn-of-the-century America that men usually saw an aristocratic woman as a work of art, as Lily Bart is regarded as an artistic object in the Tableaux Vivants in Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth. How do you move beyond woman as art to woman as artist? This is the question that I want to take on for my thesis.
The novel describes Lily Bart’s husband hunting in her circle as a beautiful socialite and details her eventual downfall as a disgraced outcast from her own social circle. To her, marriage to a wealthy man means the security of surviving in high society. However, meanwhile, she gradually awakens to her eager desire for creativity and female solidarity. Lily’s performance in the Tableau Vivant reveals men’s view of patrician women as portraits instead of genuine individuals.
My thesis begins with Elaine Showalter’s observation on Lily Bart as an art object. The ttractive socialite is fixed in a dilemma. On the one hand, she is pleased with men’s flattery on herself as an artistic object; on the other hand, she aspires to becoming an artist herself. Lily Bart reflects Edith Wharton’s thinking of high society as an enclosure that confines women as aesthetically pleasing objects but does not allow them the freedom to become themselves.

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