The Prison of Matrimony:
Patriarchal Relationships in Edith Wharton’s Summer and The Custom of The Country
- Sharon Zelnick
Woman is shut up in a kitchen or in a boudoir, […] her horizon is limited. Her wings are clipped, and it is found deplorable that she cannot fly.- Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex (1949)
The above quote from the existentialist philosopher and social theorist Simone de Beauvoir encapsulates the sense of the historical marginalization of women. The marginalized position of women is echoed in Edith Wharton’s fiction. While Wharton was conservative, and thus, did not like de Beauvoir write in promotion of female equality, she did convey marriage to be a disempowering institution for women. Wharton illustrates in Summer (1917) and The Custom of the Country (1913) how the institution of marriage shackles women to their houses and husbands. Wharton’s deeply descriptive, symbolic, and metaphorical writing paints a picture of the negative aspects of marriage. To explore these negative aspects, I will compare two central marriages in these works: Charity Royall’s marriage to her guardian Lawyer Royall with Undine Spragg’s marriage to Raymond de Chelles. Though the details of the marriages and the narrative roles that their unions play in these works differ, they ultimately both highlight how Wharton portrays married life to be a negative cycle. By analyzing the intricacies of these marriages, and by drawing on feminist literary critics Judith Fryer, Sarah Grand, and Elizabeth Ammons, I seek to show how Wharton depicts marriage to be a patriarchal institution based on a type of transaction that imprisons women.
In both texts Wharton uses the image of a wedding ring to symbolize the imprisoning nature of marriage. In Summer this is seen when Wharton writes, “After another interval the lady on the bench stood up, and taking her hand put it in Mr. Royall's. It lay enclosed in his strong palm and she felt a ring that was too big for her being slipped on her thin finger. She understood then that she was married”(122). The juxtaposition of his strong palm to her thin finger is emblematic of their respective roles in their relationship. Mr. Royall is powerful and big while Charity is delicate and small. On a metaphorical level, the ring can be seen as a symbol of handcuffs or of a cage. This is clear through Wharton’s use of the word “enclosed” as it signifies that her marriage to Mr. Royall traps her. In the final part of this quote, the word “understood” signifies that this is a moment that Charity realizes her trapped state. Therefore, the ring can be seen as serving as a symbol of the eternal loss of freedom she feels when they get married as she will now be forever shackled to and by Mr. Royall.
The ring as a symbol of a cage or handcuffs is not limited to Summer. The wedding ring represents the same feeling of imprisonment in The Custom of the Country. This comes to light fully when Princess Estradina says to Undine, “a man comes along and claps a ring on your finger, and you never look through it to see what’s going on outside […] it’s a thousand pities you haven’t had a child. They’d all treat you differently if you had […] is it Raymond who keeps you shut up here?” (444). This quote highlights how the ring represents the idea that marriage is a type of confinement. By writing how a “man claps a ring” shows that he is in a position of power over the woman. Also, the fact that once it is on her finger she never “looks through it” signifies that she becomes trapped in his lens. The last line draws our attention to the fact that she is “shut up” just as de Beauvoir speaks about. Furthermore, this passage opens our eyes to the troubling aspects of Undine and Raymond’s marriage – it is one where she is stuck in his lens, judged for not having one of his children, and literally told to remain or be “shut up” inside the drawing room. From both descriptions in Summer and The Custom of the Country, the ring, if thought of as handcuffs, undoubtedly links the institution of marriage to an imprisoned state.