Back to results

University of New Orleans

Lily Bart and Isabel Archer: Women Free to Choose Lifestyles or Victims of Fate?

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

<p> <p>This thesis argues that Isabel Archer of Henry James’s novel The Portrait of a Lady and Lily Bart of Edith Wharton’s novel The House of Mirth were nineteenth-century characters struggling to assert their social and sexual independence in a male dominated society. Although Isabel inherits a fortune that allegedly enables her to have more autonomy than Lily, both characters are negatively affected by their inability to conceive of their lives outside of social convention.</p> </p>

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
M.A.
Level thesis:degree_level
Thesis
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
English
Year
2011

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Braden, Heidi Elizabeth
Contributors dc:contributor
  • Boyd-Rioux, Anne
  • Malmgren, Carl
  • Lackey, Kris

Subjects

dc:subject × 2

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Repository record dc:identifier
https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/453
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:scholarworks.uno.edu:td-1247

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
University of New Orleans
Base URL
scholarworks.uno.edu/do/oai/
Last updated
2026-07-24
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Braden, Heidi Elizabeth. Lily Bart and Isabel Archer: Women Free to Choose Lifestyles or Victims of Fate?. Thesis thesis, 2011. https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/453