The Myth of Gender Essentialism in Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth and Henry James's Daisy Miller

Ahead of their time, Edith Wharton (1862-1937) and Henry James (1843-1916) were critical of the dichotomy of the feminine and the masculine as incorporating certain essential qualities. Both articulated the modern view that gender is social rather than natural. In Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth(1905) and Henry James's Daisy Miller(1878), the two heroines, Lily and Daisy, are wavering between an angelic docile compliance to the social moral codes and an equal internal insubordination to these codes. This oscillation in the heroines' mindset arises from the nature of their societies which, ironically, seem to be repulsive and tempting at the same time. For whereas these societies prove to be superficial, hypocritical, and abusive on the one hand, they also prove to be enchantingly elitist, embracing exclusively the wealthy and the classy. However, as soon as Lily and Daisy choose to adopt the qualities of the masculine gender and rebel against the conventions of their societies, they are rejected by their male lovers who ironically show u femininesentiment of submission and fear of dynamicity. The heroines' rebellion is aborted because even while rebelling against their masculine-biased society, the two heroines let themselves be bounded by the masculine definition of femininity. The existence of essential qualities of gender is, thus, presented by the two authors as a myth. Wharton and James both underline that Gender is a social construction that waits for conscious subjects to redefine it.