Michaela’s Comments (group member since May 25, 2008)

Michaela’s comments from the Edith Wharton group.

For the End of January we will be discussing "The Buccaneers". Those of you who have read this book I wonder if you could give the group a quick synopsis without (or with, if posted clearly at the beginning)...spoilers. I am really excited to hear what you all make of WHarton's last and unfinished novel.

Yay! Tell us more about the references to Wharton. Can you write a few in here?

He was barely there... he's a ghost or idea in the story - as much of a "theme" as the mountain - and I think much of him is made from Charity's idea of city men and his particular details were only to enhance that. Charity doesn't see the things she doesn't like - his Character (moral) isn't strong enough to stand up to Charity's very high expectations.

She thinks he's different than everybody else in Dormer, but Charity's the special one. He can't even make up his mind what he wants, while she knows what drives them both.

What do people think about her moment at his window, when she sees him and knows she could go in, she knows what he would do, but she chooses to back away from the window. What does this say about Charity's feelings towards him and towards their relationship?

I reread this book again and wonder if Charity is not a little more sympathetic to Mr. Royall than I first imagined. I saw her disgust at his sexual advances to be right and natural, but I believe I was unwilling to see how much she was open to his influence, if he could get it together to woo her. There are so many references to her pride in him when he looked and acted well, and she seems more disappointed in him than disgusted most of the time. This, I believe is the only way we can imagine her married to him at the end...

Or, maybe the horror of the situation was supposed to be that strong, that the circumstances that make her marry this man that are so horrible, we are unable to justify it by her feelings. She was a woman, like many, left without options, and pregnant.

What do people think? Is it justifying a horrible situation to say that Charity married Mr. Royall on feelings, if not sexual, at least affectionate?

Does Charity owe him sex? Do you think that Charity has the means to resist the sexual predator that Royall becomes when he's drunk? Who's stronger?

Let's talk about Harney visiting there. Do you think he's immeadiately drawn to Charity, or thinks her odd, or is incensed by her lack of care of the books? Why does Harney care about books?

Does anyone want to talk about Ethan Frome and his relationship with his wife and with Mattie?

Why do you think one should show pity, or not show pity, for Mr. Royall's situation?

OK slow pokes, what about being a man from the Big City? He has the power of knowledge and travel.

What do people here enjoy about the Age of Innocence? I always considered it, for one, a classic cheating novel. All the emotions that lead the staid Newland Archer into a kind of moral nightmare, from which he tries to escape with honesty, and find's society doesn't allow that level of honesty (it can handle his cheating better).

I enjoyed the ideas of womanhood shown in Madame Olenska verses May Welland.

Taken from the site: http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/ba...

"Wharton's novella 'The Marne' (1918) criticized America's slowness to help France. Her last visits to the U.S. were in 1913 and 1923."

Summer was written a year before "The Marne" in 1917. This is definately the right time period. I think if the relationship between Mr. Royall and Charity was allegorical of the relationship of America and France, it was not metaphorical. Meaning you would not drawn side-by-side parellals, but a general idea of the thing which both Mr. Royall and America could have as a quality.

I think Mr. Royall is no hero (like America?), maybe under this allegory his failures to be what Charity (France?) needs him to be. What do you think?

Seasons and Imagery in Summer:

http://www.womenwriters.net/domesticg...

It's funny because I always thought Charity wanted to get away to the city, she is always talking about "getting away".

Then Harney also made her interesting to herself by speaking respectfully of people on the mountain. HE talked about them as their own "little kingdom" that "looked down" on other people, and "didn't give a damn" about other people.

So, she outs herself to Harney - she tells him she's from the mountain. She's using being "from the mountain" to excite his admiration. I feel like that unlocks her in a really important way, unlocks power she didn;t know she had. I think she uses Harney in this way.

The story remarks since Harney showed up and showed interest in the Mountain and the old houses of Dormer, Charity has suddenly become "interesting to herself". Although she still hates the mountain, she is, as if waking from a sleep, beginning to ask questions about her own past and herself in the world. Let's talk about Harney's influence on Charity. WHat's his charm?

Yeah, I feel like it might have also respresented her blosseming freedom. Who can love without the world opening up, possibilities. The books mean freedom, the town, the world. Books are the gateway to bigger things, as is love, people who have traveled outside of Dormer - like Harney.

I think Charity might have sensed how much Mr. Royall expected from her - and how much he wished to use his influence to control her. Gratitude is hard to feel when someone has absolute power over you. He wanted her to be his daughter, his wife, his housecleaner, his helpmate. Everytime someone tells Charity she should be grateful to Mr. Royall it also insinuated that she owed him whatever he asks of her. I feel her lack of gratitude, or maybe better said lack of "feeling" gave her the ability to control this really insidious situation.

The mother's background story was very interesting in it's relation to the rest of the book. I think she (the mother) grabs Lily's face at some point and exclaims something like "this face! This face will save us all". Sounds like a pyschotic stage mom.

"The House of Mirth"!
Something about the interaction between Lily Bart and Lawrence Seldon makes my heart contract and I have always had the strongest reaction to this book, however beautiful and tactile "The Age of Innocence" might be. Lily for me is the female paradox, it is demanded that she be ornamental, but she is punished for not being more. Seldon is the only witness - he has peeks through her mask and suspects an equal is beneath. Seldon's very limp and confused attempts to help Lily step out of her little prison, creates a wonderful, pathetic tension. Oh God Seldon, just get it together! Lily's only way to get free without his help, well you see at the end. I just adore this book.

"She was awakened by a rattling at her door and jumped out of bed. She
heard Mr. Royall's voice, low and peremptory, and opened the door,
fearing an accident. No other thought had occurred to her; but when
she saw him in the doorway, a ray from the autumn moon falling on his
discomposed face, she understood.

For a moment they looked at each other in silence; then, as he put his
foot across the threshold, she stretched out her arm and stopped him.

"You go right back from here," she said, in a shrill voice that startled
her; "you ain't going to have that key tonight."

"Charity, let me in. I don't want the key. I'm a lonesome man," he
began, in the deep voice that sometimes moved her."

What are your impressions of this midnight visit?

"He and she, face to face in that
sad house, had sounded the depths of isolation; and though she felt
no particular affection for him, and not the slightest gratitude, she
pitied him because she was conscious that he was superior to the people
about him, and that she was the only being between him and solitude."

What is the quality of Mr. Royall and Charity's relationship?