Social Order Versus Personal Fulfillment
In the regal, and superficial high-class New York world presented in The Age of Innocence there is one particular, unchallenged rule of social order. This rule of complete social grace has been, instead of branded in stone, been impounded deeply in the minds of every generation raised under the canopy of money and fashion. The desire for etiquette is so overwhelming that it manages to suppress the simple human yearnings for personal fulfillment, otherwise enjoyed by those not imprisoned by clothes or cash. This conflict between society and human emotion is extremely prevalent.
From the beginning of the tale, the description of old New York and its inhabitants seems rigid. The people are bent on their customs and beliefs. From the promptness of the Beaufort Ball, the inflexibility of decorum (including dress, meals, and room presentation), and all relationships, personal or business. The severity of the conformity makes the presence of radicals such as Ellen, Mrs. Mingott, and even Newland, fodder for subversive scandal and gossip.
But these radicals are merely people who are unyielding to the harness of the rich. They have attempted to achieve their own satisfaction, however unsavory to the rest of the order. Ellen and Newland's personal feelings for each other are passionate, burning, and intensely primitive. The impact an unmasked relationship would have is extremely far-reaching. It would be devastating to Newland's wife, May. The waves would also be felt internationally by Ellen's husband in Poland. Newland and Ellen would be ostracized by the entire upper-rank, ruining not only their own lives, but others' as well.
The complex set of rules and regulations that accompany living in such a society is analogous to a house of cards. If one card is disturbed, the entire thing may crash down. The effect of diversion is foreshadowed by the treachery of Julius Beaufort. He debauches the whole system and gains the scorn of all the other elitists. Further scandal is achieved by Mrs. Regina Beaufort when she abandons her husband in time of crisis and attempts to get the backing of her maiden family. The rules are broken and the aftermath felt far and wide. Similar catastrophe would follow if Newland and Ellen decide to fulfill their personal desire. They do realize the consequences and therefore remain reticent about their affair, and eventually gave up all hope and stay within the confines of
The points of view in “A&P” and “A Rose for Emily” show the fascination that people have with those in the upper class. Updike writes in the first person point of view. The narrator is Sammy, a cashier at the grocery store. Queenie, who walks around the A&P in only a bathing suit, fascinates him. Updike writes, “She had on a kind of dirty-pink… bathing suit with a little nubble all over it and, what got me, the straps were down.” (Updike, 2). He describes the girls in great detail throughout the story, obviously studying them. This first-person point of view shows the thoughts of Sammy, who is a member of the middle class. His fascination with Queenie is exemplary of the average person’s fascination with the rich. Sammy analyzes Queenie so much that he feels a particular connection to her, thinki...
...e primary place people gathered for warmth, community, and conversation”. (Zabin, 26) The taverns in the poorer parts of the city were known as “Disorderly houses”. (Zabin, 26) These taverns usually had gambling, excessive drinking or interracial mixing. If New York officials found out that someone was running a disorderly house, the owner would be punished, whether it is by fine or whipping. (Zabin, 26) At the “disorderly houses”, authorities and the elite New Yorkers feared “plots of theft and rebellion would be hatched”. (Zabin, 26) Neighbors of the disorderly houses would accuse some taverns of being disorderly houses. During this time most of the elite new Yorkers were not okay with whites of any class interacting with blacks and slaves. For the taverns to allow the slaves to enter and be among white people at this time was condemned by the elite.
This essay focuses on two theories of Erving Goffman and Michel Foucault on how society is ordered; it will attempt to show how these two theorists approached understanding society and how it is ordered, as well as look for any similarities or differences between the two theories. When looking at how social order is constructed, it is not only important to study the role of the individual, but also the role of the state or government. The part they play in the order and rules of every day interactions. Social order refers to unspoken rules of conduct in everyday life, or stable social situation in which connections are maintained without change or if change occurs it is in predictable way. (Taylor, 2009, p.173). in addition these case studies; Buchanan report (1963), Monderman thesis (1980) will be linked to Goffman’s and Foucault’s theories, to help us to understand how order is attained and maintained by individuals, authorities and institutions, in certain places, and in different contexts as well as how social order is constructed at different historical moments. This essay concentrates on Goffman’s and Foucault’s theories, claims, and concepts, by comparing and contrasting their ideas on social order and who makes the order, the evidence that they draw upon, and the different levels of social life each theorist chooses to focus upon. Both Goffman and Foucault are concerned with the wider questions of how society is produced and reproduced, but specifically how social order is made and remade. At the same time, both also seek broader ways of understanding singular issues in interaction. Goffman focused on the individual, interactional order, and performances, while in contrast Foucault focuses on discourses, power, knowle...
Throughout the tale of The Great Gatsby the reader is treated to a vivid description of Gatsby's parties and his prolific residence. It would appear that Gatsby had everything a person could want. Loads of money and friends and surrounded by the finer things of life. However, the book takes a turn towards its e...
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (1925), the upper class and Daisy were portrayed as being “a fast crowd, all of them young and rich and wild, but [Daisy] came out with a perfect reputation” (77). Despite this attribution, the upper class is characterized as living in an artificial, ignorant world of illusions and a distorted reality, with an appearance that contrasts their hollow interior. Fitzgerald emphasizes through their false appearances and feigned identities the true corruption of New York’s high society. Although those in Nick Carraway’s world were portrayed on the outside as young, rich, wild, and beautiful, on the inside, they were all just “hollow” and empty–always demonstrating the image of a perfect life yet damaged on the inside.
In John Updike’s “A&P”, the revolution of the young people of the current age against authority is explored and explained. “A&P” reveals the shift from conservative and deferential to avant-garde and disrespectful. Through the observation of the behavior of the characters in the story, one can receive a clear picture of the evolution of the sexual revolution that has come in this age. Sammy is the first character that is introduced, he is the protagonist and narrator of the story. Stoksie and Lengel are next, Stoksie is a fellow store clerk with Sammy as well as a good friend and Lengel is the manager of the store. Finally, Queenie is introduced. “A&P” begins with Sammy noticing these three girls that come into the store in nothing but their bathing suits. Sammy then proceeds to analyze each of the girls bodies, finally coming to rest on the leader of the group, his favorite, who he affectionately names to himself, “Queenie”. Although Sammy and Stoksie joke back and forth about the girls sexiness, he is privately revolted by the butchers bluntly ogling the girls as they search for whatever they wish to purchase. Throughout this recounting of the experience, one begins to wonder, when did girls become pieces of meat to be observed and handled by men? They used to be cherished and protected as they should be. The sexual revolution of the past and current decades have changed all of that.
Newland Archer seemed like the typical wealthy New York bachelor. He took part in all of the proper etiquette that was expected of him. He made a limited number of visits to Europe, dined with the finest people, dated the prettiest girl and attended the newest operas. Underneath this exterior lived the heart of an adventurer, a radical. Inside Newland knew that the life he was required to lead was boring; he knew that the view his society had of women was oppressive. Newland rarely let these opinions out into the open, hiding them from the scrutinizing eyes of old New York.
The world in which Lily grows up in is one where money is the standard by which everyone is judged. In a setting like this, “money stands for all kinds of things- its purchasing quality isn’t limited to diamonds and motor cars” (Wharton 66). Therefore, even small things such as the way a person dresses or the places someone frequents become of high importance as they are representative of how much money a person possesses. This materialistic tendency ...
In ‘The Great Gatsby’ Fitzgerald criticises the increase of consumerism in the 1920s and the abandonment of the original American Dream , highlighting that the increased focus on wealth and the social class associated with it has negative effects on relationships and the poorest sections of society. The concept of wealth being used as a measure of success and worth is also explored by Plath in ‘The Bell Jar’. Similarly, she draws attention to the superficial nature of this material American Dream which has extended into the 1960s, but highlights that gender determines people’s worth in society as well as class.
Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth presents an interesting study of the social construction of subjectivity. The Victorian society which Wharton's characters inhabit is defined by a rigid structure of morals and manners in which one's identity is determined by apparent conformity with or transgression of social norms. What is conspicuous about this brand of social identification is its decidedly linguistic nature. In this context, behaviors themselves are rendered as text, and the incessant social appraisal in which the characters of the novel participate is a process of deciphering this script of behavior. People's actions here are read, as it were, according to the unique social grammar of this society. The novel's treatment of this conception of social reading is brought to the fore through its devaluing of written texts in favor of legible behaviors.
Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth is an affront to the false social values of fashionable New York society. The heroine is Lily Bart, a woman who is destroyed by the very society that produces her. Lily is well-born but poor. The story traces the decline of Lily as she moves through a series of living residences, from houses to hotel lodgings. Lily lives in a New York society where appearances are all. Women have a decorative function in such an environment, and even her name, Lily, suggests she is a flower of femininity, i.e. an object of decoration as well as of desirability to the male element. We see this is very true once Lily's bloom fades, as it were, a time when she is cast aside by her peers no longer being useful as something to admire on the surface. The theme of the novel in this aspect is that identity based on mere appearance is not enough to sustain the human soul physically or metaphysically. Once she is no longer able to keep the "eye" of her peers, Lily finds herself with no identity and dies. This analysis will discuss the theme of the objectification of women in a male dominated society inherent throughout the novel.
Social order is made and remade through people’s behaviours, interactions and choices and is neither static nor fixed. This essay will provide examples of the ways in which social order is made and remade and how this happens on both a formal and informal level, although when disorder occurs, it is clear to see the level of work that goes into the making and remaking of social order (Blakeley, 2014, p85).
‘The Great Gatsby’ is social satire commentary of America which reveals its collapse from a nation of infinite hope and opportunity to a place of moral destitution and corruption during the Jazz Age. It concentrates on people of a certain class, time and place, the individual attitudes of those people and their inner desires which cause conflict to the conventional values, defined by the society they live in. Gatsby is unwilling to combine his desires with the moral values of society and instead made his money in underhanded schemes, illegal activities, and by hurting many people to achieve the illusion of his perfect dream.
Before the major upheaval occurs Jane Austin gives us a glimpse of what social life, the class distinction, was like through the perspective of Ann Elliot. Ann is the second out of three daughters to Sir Walter Elliot, the proud head of the family (Austen, 2). The Elliots are an old landowning family that seems well known in the upper echelons of British society. The most important piece of background we are presented with as central to the plot of the story is that eight years prior to the setting Ann was engaged to a man she loved, Frederick Wentworth. They were soon engaged, but her family along with mother-like figure, Lady Russell, soon persuaded Ann that the match was unsuitable because Frederick Wentworth was essentially unworthy without any money or prestige (Austen, 30). This piece of background echoes exclusivity among the upper classes of Britain. In that time it would seem unacceptable for a girl like Ann with a family like hers to marry or even associate with someone not of ...
...y a set of expectations and values that are established on mannerisms and conduct challenged by Elizabeth. From this novel, it is evident that the author wrote it with awareness of the class issues that affect different societies. Her annotations on the fixed social structure are important in giving a solution to the current social issues; that even the class distinctions and restrictions can be negotiated when an individual turns down bogus first impression s.