Economic hauntings: wealth and class in Edith Wharton's ghost stories.

Economic hauntings: wealth and class in Edith Wharton's ghost stories. In the last decade or so, Edith Wharton's ghost stories havefinally begun to attract the critical attention they deserve. Althoughthe stories are diverse in their approach, scholars tend to emphasizethemes of repressed sexuality, and/or how the stories dramatize dram��a��tize?v. dram��a��tized, dram��a��tiz��ing, dram��a��tiz��esv.tr.1. To adapt (a literary work) for dramatic presentation, as in a theater or on television or radio.2. genderstruggles, in particular the struggles of women to overcome thetraditional roles that threaten to imprison im��pris��on?tr.v. im��pris��oned, im��pris��on��ing, im��pris��onsTo put in or as if in prison; confine.[Middle English emprisonen, from Old French emprisoner : en- them. (1) While sexual andgender politics undoubtedly inhabit the haunted space of Wharton'sstories, a remarkable number of the ghost stories also exhibit anxietyover money and class. (2) In some of the ghost narration, this anxietyis plainly visible, reflecting Wharton's sharp critique of thecorrupt nouveau riches and the decaying aristocracy. In other tales,however, less noticed ghosts expose the depth of Wharton's anxietyover class power and inherited wealth Noun 1. inherited wealth - wealth that is inherited rather than earnedwealth, wealthiness - the state of being rich and affluent; having a plentiful supply of material goods and money; "great wealth is not a sign of great intelligence" . For example, stories such as"Mr. Jones" and "All Souls'" reveal theexploited labor and rebellion of the servant classes along with astriking unease regarding inherited property, raising uncomfortablequestions about the legitimacy of the class system on which Whartondepended for her own wealth. Wharton, of course, was not alone in her anxiety over money andclass. The period in which she wrote the ghost stories (1904-37) marksparticularly anxious moments in the American public's ambivalentrelationship with wealth. On the one hand, average Americans believedthey too could achieve great wealth and strove to emulate the rich.However, media stories exposing the corrupt fortunes of the"Captains of Industry" and the extravagant consumption by thewealthy fueled resentment in a public concerned about the increasing gapbetween the rich and poor. Frequent labor unrest labor unrestn (US) → conflictividad f laboral, Populist reforms, thespecter of Socialism, the 1929 economic crash, and subsequent Depressionall contributed to the wealthy classes' fear that they were underattack. A close examination of the ghost stories reveals Wharton'sparticipation in and response to America's anxious debate overwealth and class during the rapidly changing economic landscape of theearly twentieth century. Given the tremendous economic changes she witnessed during herlifetime, Wharton's anxiety about wealth and class is notsurprising. What is surprising, however, is the depth of anxiety andcritique in the ghost stories regarding money, especially by an authorwho "never apologized for her wealth, using her earnings andinheritances to build elaborate homes and gardens in the United States United States,officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. and France, to take extensive and often exotic trips, and to create warmenvironments for friends ..." (Singley 2003, 7). Wharton certainlywas not an economic revolutionary. As Barbara White writes ofWharton's worldview world��view?n. In both senses also called Weltanschauung.1. The overall perspective from which one sees and interprets the world.2. A collection of beliefs about life and the universe held by an individual or a group. , "To some extent she was always sociallyand politically conservative in that she never showed any inclination torenounce her class and race privileges and never could imagine anyinstitutions to replace the ones she criticized in her writings"(1991, 85). Nonetheless, Wharton's ghost stories in particularexhibit a deeper sense of economic crisis than has been recognized. My reading of the ghost stories follows the critical view ofWharton as both an insider and outsider of upper-class society, aposition that resulted in her own complex brand of social criticism.Benjamin Carson's reading of gender and class in The House of Mirthdiscusses this insider/outsider position. Drawing on Teresa deLauretis's concept of "doubled vision," Carson writes,"While Wharton was undoubtedly of the 'ruling class,' shewas not unaware of the constructedness of Woman and of gender (andgender roles). She was not so blinded by--she was not so'inside'--myopic aristocratic ideology that she could not seethe charade charade(shərād`), verbal, written, or acted representation of a word, its syllables, or a number of words. The object is to guess the idea being conveyed. Winthrop M. women were expected to act out" (2003, 695, 698).Singley also notes this double vision: "A member of theupper-class, Wharton was very aware of the differences that money andposition could make, and she, no less than others, enjoyed itsprivileges. But as a self-supporting artist and intellectual who foundher own class system confining, Wharton was uniquely situated to offer acritique of class" (1992, 281). (3) Analysis of the ghost storiesreveals this "double vision," which allowed Wharton to exploreeconomic issues in ways that were at times unexpectedly radical. Before discussing Wharton's specific ghost stories, it ishelpful to examine the anxious economic cultural climate ofturn-of-the-century America. Many Americans were fascinated with theextreme fortunes of Carnegie, Morgan, Rockefeller, and Vanderbilt, andsought new opportunities to make money for themselves. As Simon Bronnerpoints out, "the preoccupation of the age was with wealth: newwealth, consuming wealth, widespread wealth. Americans wondered what tomake of this recent good fortune, what to do with it, how to show it,and what it meant for the future. They embraced it, but worried aboutit" (1989b, 50). This anxiety increased with the growing disparityof incomes between the classes, and scandals exposing fortunes madethrough illegal means were eroding the belief that wealth was based onethical, individual effort (Fluck 2003, 57). Moreover, critics raisedconcerns about millionaires' influence in government, and somefeared America was becoming a plutocracy antithetical an��ti��thet��i��cal? also an��ti��thet��icadj.1. Of, relating to, or marked by antithesis.2. Being in diametrical opposition. See Synonyms at opposite. to democraticideals (57-58). By the turn of the century, a wide range of critics,from Thorstein Veblen Noun 1. Thorstein Veblen - United States economist who wrote about conspicuous consumption (1857-1929)Thorstein Bunde Veblen, Veblen in The Theory of the Leisure Class to GustavusMyers in History of the Great American Fortunes, were paintingunflattering portraits of the older aristocracy and new upper classes.In 1902, muckraking critic W. J. Ghent sardonically describes the nextstage of America's society as a "benevolent feudalism feudalism(fy`dəlĭzəm), form of political and social organization typical of Western Europe from the dissolution of Charlemagne's empire to the rise of the absolute monarchies. ,"in which more and more power will be concentrated in the hands of a few"barons" (1949, 92-93). (4) The defenders of capitalism did not remain silent in the face ofthese attacks. They believed passionately that the leaders of commercestrengthened democracy. One of these supporters, Andrew Carnegie,celebrated big business and fortunes as signs of America'sinevitable progress. In his famous 1889 North American Review Founded in Boston in 1815, The North American Review (NAR) was the first literary magazine in the United States, and was published continually until 1940, when publication was suspended due to World War II. essay"Wealth," Carnegie writes that "we cannot evade" thelaw of capitalism, and while the law may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race, because it insures the survival of the fittest in every department. We accept and welcome, therefore, as conditions to which we must accommodate ourselves, great inequality of environment; the concentration of business, industrial and commercial, in the hands of a few; and the law of competition between these, as being not only beneficial, but essential to the future progress of the race. (Carnegie 1962, 16-17) Influenced heavily by the works of Charles Darwin and HerbertSpencer, Carnegie's arguments (which soon became known as theGospel of Wealth) reflect his society's obsession with SocialDarwinism social DarwinismTheory that persons, groups, and “races” are subject to the same laws of natural selection as Charles Darwin had proposed for plants and animals in nature. , the belief that the "most fit" in society are"naturally" in positions of power. (5) Carnegie was careful toemphasize, however, that with wealth and power comes greatresponsibility. In the following passage, he describes "the duty ofthe man of wealth" who is "animated by Christ'sspirit": To set an example of modest, unostentatious living, shunning display or extravagance; to provide moderately for the legitimate wants of those dependent upon him; and after doing so, to consider all surplus revenues which come to him simply as trust funds, which he is called upon to administer, and strictly bound as a matter of duty to administer in the manner which, in his judgment, is best calculated to produce the most beneficial results for the community--the man of wealth thus becoming the mere trustee and agent for his poorer brethren, bringing to their service his superior wisdom, experience, and ability to administer, doing for them better than they would or could do for themselves. (Carnegie 1962, 25) Ministers, such as William Lawrence William Lawrence is the name of several notable people: William Beach Lawrence (1800-1881), Rhode Island politician and jurist William Lawrence (35th Congress), US Representative from the 17th district of Ohio (this is not the William Lawrence who served from the 4th , blend this religious traditionof good stewardship with evolutionary principles to support the gospelof wealth. In 1901, Lawrence writes, "[T]o seek for and earn wealthis a sign of a natural, vigorous, and strong character.... The race isto the strong" (1949, 70). At the same time, Lawrence says, therich man uses his wealth "in the wisest way, for the relief of thepoor, the upbuilding of social standards, and the upholding ofrighteousness among the people.... If ever Christ's words have beenobeyed to the letter, they are obeyed to-day by those who are living outHis precepts of the stewardship of wealth" (72). (6) Despite these defenses of wealth and capitalism, criticism of theupper classes was mounting, and the attacks were not only from themuckrakers. In 1911 Frederick Townsend Martin, a member of the leisureclass, blasts the extravagant waste of the "idle rich" in hisenormously popular book The Passing of the Idle Rich. Martin is carefulto defend capitalism and repeats the social Darwinist belief that wealthbelongs in "the hands best qualified by nature to hold them"(1975, 90). But the dominant emotions of his book are that anxiety andfear regarding the economic inequalities in America. Martin writes,"Somewhere there is something wrong. I speak as a rich man.... Wecan no longer blind ourselves with idle phrases or drug our conscienceswith the outworn out��worn?v.Past participle of outwear.adj.No longer acceptable, usable, or practical: an outworn penal code; outworn clothes. boast that the workingman of America is to-day thehighest paid artisan of the world" (92-93). He goes on to warn,"We in America are moving fast toward social revolution. Conflictsbetween labour and capital are assuming the proportions of civil war....To-day the class spirit in America is thoroughly aroused, and it isalmost with terror that I ... raise my feeble voice in warning to theother members of my class" (96-97). Pressure to address economic inequalities in the early twentiethcentury was also coming from the Progressive party, Congress, and theWhite House. Picking up where Theodore Roosevelt left off, WoodrowWilson's first speeches to Congress in 1913 included the warning,"We must abolish anything that bears even the semblance ofprivilege or any kind of artificial advantage" (qtd. in Phillips2002, 47). After several failed attempts, an amendment to impose agraduated income tax was ratified in 1913. (7) Also in 1913, theSeventeenth Amendment, aimed at limiting the power of wealth ingovernment, was passed. For the first time, the people would elect theirU.S. senators directly rather than allow their state legislatures to doso. In the context of this turbulent debate over wealth and privilege,the economic anxiety in Wharton's "Afterward" (1909) isevident. In the story, Americans Mary and Ned Boyne buy their dream homein rural England, only to be haunted by Ned's former unethicalbusiness practices. Ned was hoping to escape his past, but the narrator NARRATOR. A pleader who draws narrs serviens narrator, a sergeant at law. Fleta, 1. 2, c. 37. Obsolete. describes how the couple "could not get far enough from the world,or plunge deep enough into the past" (1997, 60). Ned soon discoversthat past ghosts will not rest. The haunting begins with the appearanceof a mysterious man, whom Ned and Mary jokingly claim as theirhome's legendary ghost. One day the man pays them a visit, and Nedis never heard from again. Through her husband's lawyer, Marylearns how Ned made his fortune at the expense of Robert Elwell, themysterious stranger. As a result of losing all his money, Elwell killshimself, and his ghost comes back for Ned, presumably pre��sum��a��ble?adj.That can be presumed or taken for granted; reasonable as a supposition: presumable causes of the disaster. murdering him. Onone level, Wharton's critique in "Afterward" echoes thepublic's growing concern with the power of greed and lack ofbusiness ethics business ethics,the study and evaluation of decision making by businesses according to moral concepts and judgments. Ethical questions range from practical, narrowly defined issues, such as a company's obligation to be honest with its customers, to broader social in America. However, Wharton not only joins theProgressive outcry against the period's corruption but alsoattempts to distinguish the moral aristocracy from those who gain wealththrough unscrupulous means. Her problem is not with great wealth butwith how wealth is acquired. Through the details of Ned'swrongdoing, the story's subtext sub��text?n.1. The implicit meaning or theme of a literary text.2. The underlying personality of a dramatic character as implied or indicated by a script or text and interpreted by an actor in performance. functions as a defense of the OldMoney class, a plea to the reader not to judge all the wealthy by thesensational cases making the news. In "Afterward" the sordid facts of Elwell's lawsuitagainst Ned in the Blue Star Mine deal are laid out in the newspaper, aswere the scandals in Wharton's day. The lawyer explains to Mary howNed not only engaged in speculation; he also took advantage of Elwell,cheating him out of his rightful share of the profits. Using the SocialDarwinist language of the time, the lawyer attempts to explain awayNed's unethical behavior: "'Bob Elwell wasn't smartenough, that's all; if he had been, he might have turned round andserved [Ned] Boyne the same way. It's the kind of thing thathappens every day in business. I guess it's what scientists callthe survival of the fittest--see?'" (Wharton 1997, 86). Whenconfronted by the lawyer's facts, Mary can no longer remain naive,and she feels physically ill as she faces the awful reality ofNed's predatory conduct: "'But then-you accuse my husbandof doing something dishonorable dis��hon��or��a��ble?adj.1. Characterized by or causing dishonor or discredit.2. Lacking integrity; unprincipled.dis��hon ?'" (86). (8) The lawyer'sresponse is telling: "'Oh, no, I don't.' ... 'Idon't say it wasn't straight, and yet I don't say it wasstraight. It was business'" (86-87). It is this ethical gray area that Wharton deplored. Despite heracknowledgement of Old New York's many weaknesses, Wharton heldstrongly to the belief that the gentlemen of previous generations werehonest in their business affairs. In her autobiography A BackwardGlance, Wharton writes of the world in which she grew up: "Theirlives, as one looks back, certainly seem lacking in relief; but Ibelieve their value lay in upholding two standards of importance in anycommunity, that of education and good manners Noun 1. good manners - a courteous mannercourtesypersonal manner, manner - a way of acting or behavingniceness, politeness - a courteous manner that respects accepted social usageurbanity - polished courtesy; elegance of manner , and of scrupulous scru��pu��lous?adj.1. Conscientious and exact; painstaking. See Synonyms at meticulous.2. Having scruples; principled. probity PROBITY. Justice, honesty. A man of probity is one who loves justice and honesty, and who dislikes the contrary. Wolff, Dr. de la Nat. Sec. 772. in business and private affairs" (1998, 21). She goes on to writeof the "horror excited by any irregularity A defect, failure, or mistake in a legal proceeding or lawsuit; a departure from a prescribed rule or regulation.An irregularity is not an unlawful act, however, in certain instances, it is sufficiently serious to render a lawsuit invalid. in [business]affairs" and explains, "The first duty of such a class was tomaintain a strict standard of uprightness in affairs; and the gentlemenof my father's day did maintain it, whether in law, in banking,shipping or wholesale commercial enterprises" (21). By the time"Afterward" was published, such gentlemanly notions of fairplay were considered naive and old-fashioned. But in describingNed's dishonesty as belonging to the nouveau riche nou��veau riche?n. pl. nou��veaux richesOne who has recently become rich, especially one who flaunts newly acquired wealth.[French : nouveau, new + riche, rich. entrepreneurclass--Ned is an engineer who takes his wife to "the soul-deadeningugliness of a Middle Western town" (60)--, Wharton is defending herclass from the attacks on all the rich. (9) For Wharton, then,Ned's disappearance and death at the hands of Elwell is an act ofjustice, condemning dishonesty while still maintaining the goodness anddignity of the old aristocracy. The ghost story ghost storyn.A story having supernatural or frightening elements, especially a story featuring ghosts or spirits of the dead.ghost storyn → cuento de fantasmas"The Triumph of Night" (1914) is an evenmore forceful attack on the greed fostered by capitalism. The talerelates the misadventures of George Faxon, a young man who becomestrapped in a New Hampshire New Hampshire,one of the New England states of the NE United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts (S), Vermont, with the Connecticut R. forming the boundary (W), the Canadian province of Quebec (NW), and Maine and a short strip of the Atlantic Ocean (E). snowstorm en route to a new job. He acceptsrefuge from Frank Rainer, the nephew of the famously rich JohnLavington, and soon finds himself in a nightmare from which he suffers atotal mental breakdown. During his brief stay, Faxon is horrified hor��ri��fy?tr.v. hor��ri��fied, hor��ri��fy��ing, hor��ri��fies1. To cause to feel horror. See Synonyms at dismay.2. To cause unpleasant surprise to; shock. to seewhat appears to be Lavington's double staring hatefully at hisnephew Rainer. Faxon is the only one who can see the apparition apparition,spiritualistic manifestation of a person or object in which a form not actually present is seen with such intensity that belief in its reality is created. , andwhen the ghost appears again during dinner, Faxon bolts from the housein terror. Rainer follows Faxon, collapses, and dies. Although it isuncertain whether Lavington murdered his nephew (Rainer suffered fromtuberculosis, so the blood around his neck could be from the illness),it is clear that Lavington wanted Rainer dead. The story picks up monthslater on the Malay Peninsula Malay Peninsula(məlā`, mā`lā), southern extremity (c.70,000 sq mi/181,300 sq km) of the continent of Asia, lying between the Andaman Sea of the Indian Ocean and the Strait of Malacca on the west and the Gulf of Thailand and the , where Faxon is trying to recover from hisordeal. From the newspapers, he learns of Lavington's businessfailure due to corruption and then reads how Lavington miraculously"saves" the company by contributing millions of his ownmoney-money that he just happens to receive as the legal heir ofRainer's fortune. As with Ned Boyne in "Afterward," John Lavingtonrepresents the nouveau riche class, and, once again, Wharton is carefulto use details that distinguish him from the aristocracy. With his loveof exotic flowers and priceless paintings, as well as his reputation forgenerous hospitality and philanthropy, Lavington appears to possess thesocial graces and refinement of the best Old New York New York, state, United StatesNew York,Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of families. However,despite his "sensitive passion" for beauty (1997, 125), wesoon learn that Lavington is very much like his home, "oddly coldand unwelcoming" (124). Wharton exposes him as an imposteraristocrat in several ways. For example, he reveals his vulgar roots bybreaking one of the cardinal rules of Old New York; according to according toprep.1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians.2. In keeping with: according to instructions.3. Wharton's mother, one "Never talk[s] about money, and think[s]about it as little as possible" (1998, 57). Lavington not onlythinks and talks about Wall Street; his obsession with money alsomanifests itself when his ghostly double reveals Lavington'smurderous intent. Lavington will stop at nothing to save his Opal CementCompany (a type of business that also indicates his wealth is not fromone of Old New York's accepted professions). The damning newspaperheadline about Lavington's financial scandal reads, "GiganticExposure of Corruption Shakes Wall Street to Its Foundations"(1997, 145). The fact that Lavington not only gets away with murder, butalso is able to reconstruct his company, is a measure of how debased de��base?tr.v. de��based, de��bas��ing, de��bas��esTo lower in character, quality, or value; degrade. See Synonyms at adulterate, corrupt, degrade.[de- + base2. thevalues of business had become since Wharton's father's day. Unlike "Afterward," however, "The Triumph ofNight" conveys a more ambivalent critique of capitalism Capitalism has been critiqued from many angles in its history. MarketsThe "free market"Though many associate the free market concept with capitalism, there are some critics —notably mutualists and some other anarchists – who believe that a , raisinganxious questions of social dislocation. While Wharton's disdainfor Lavington's greed and corruption is clear, she also recognizeshis survival skills. However horrible Lavington's tactics and lackof values, his type is the ruling class of American capitalism. FrankRainer's character, in contrast, can be read as a throwback throwbacksee atavism. to theaesthetically admirable but dying aristocratic breed. Here, then, isanother layer to the anxiety of the Old Money classes. In one sense, thearistocracy could take comfort in the Social Darwinist beliefs thatwealth equaled superior fitness and a natural ability to rule society.But the dark side of Social Darwinism for the old elite classes was thethreat of a new, more fit class climbing the ladder of success; the newcaptains of industry already had largely replaced the old aristocracy inpositions of economic, political, and even social power. (10) To make matters worse for the upper classes, critics attacked theSocial Darwinist idea that the wealthy were ever the most fit insociety. In 1899 Veblen argues that, because of the need to maintainstatus, the "characteristic feature of leisure-class life is aconspicuous exemption from all useful employment" (1979, 40). (11)Veblen continues, "In persons of delicate sensibility ... the senseof the shamefulness of manual labour may become so strong that, at acritical juncture, it will even set aside the instinct ofself-preservation" (42), a notion that hardly squared with thearistocratic imagination of being at the top of the food chain. (12) Inan effort to feel productive and useful, the leisure class engages inwhat Veblen satirically calls "social duties" and"quasi-artistic or quasi-scholarly accomplishments" (94),which in his mind clearly contribute nothing to evolutionary progress Three billion years ago, life on Earth consisted of single-celled organisms, but now there is a tremendous variety of complex multi-celled creatures. It may seem obvious that there is progress in evolution, but the topic has inspired much controversy. .Furthermore, Veblen argues that because the rich do not have to strugglefor existence they are antithetical to any change in society (198-200). To a certain degree, Wharton agrees with Veblen's harshassessment of the elite classes. One of her chief complaints about OldNew York was its lack of energy, its "blind dread ofinnovation" (1998, 22). With characteristic ambivalence, she bothadmires the aristocratic lifestyle and deplores its inertia. She asks,"What had become of the spirit of the pioneers and therevolutionaries?" (55). In "The Triumph of Night,"Lavington's comment that boredom is the cause of Rainer'sillness echoes Wharton's indictment of aristocratic ennui. LikeRalph Marvell's family, Rainer in no way contributes to the growthof the American economy; he lacks fitness to lead the United States inits quest for Verb 1. quest for - go in search of or hunt for; "pursue a hobby"quest after, go after, pursuelook for, search, seek - try to locate or discover, or try to establish the existence of; "The police are searching for clues"; "They are searching for the global economic power. In fact, Rainer is already moredead than alive throughout the story, as symbolized by the descriptionof his "so long, so colorless, so wasted . . ." hands (1997,123). Through the demise of Rainer and the triumph of Lavington, Whartonsuggests that despite its ghostly "powers of darkness" (145)the new brand of capitalism is an inevitable and necessary means ofsurvival in modern America. (13) Wharton's later ghost tales reveal a more profound sense ofclass anxiety. Perhaps the turbulent world events in Wharton'smiddle to late years help to explain the stories' heightenedtension. Shari Benstock writes: Like many of her social class, Wharton was more frightened of Communism following the Bolshevik revolution in 1917, with its enforced appropriation of personal property, than of fascism. In the last years of her life, during the period that France was governed by the socialist party of Leon Blum, Wharton worried that her literary earnings and possibly her real estate might be taken from her. These fears never became reality, but they did have dilatory effects on her psychological state. (Benstock 2003, 46) Adding to Wharton's and her class's fears were thecontinued concerns in the United States about the concentration ofwealth. In his book The Wealth and Income of the People of the UnitedStates (1915), Willard I. King reported that the richest two percent ofthe population controlled sixty percent of the nation's wealth,leaving only thirty five percent of the wealth for the middle class (whomade up thirty-three percent of the population), and five percent of thewealth for the nation's poor (who made up sixty-five percent of thepopulation) (qtd. in Myers 1939, 245). Partly to address this disparityof wealth and partly to raise revenue for the United States' entryinto World War I, Congress passed an estate tax affecting theinheritances of large fortunes. Public outcry over profiteering duringthe war led Congress to raise estate and income taxes in 1918. In a number of the later tales, Wharton explores these classtensions through the servant-employer relationship. Throughout her life,Wharton was surrounded by servants. By all accounts, it appears thatWharton treated her servants well and formed close attachments to themuntil the end of her life. (14) However, several of the ghost storiesreveal apprehension about the servant-employer dynamic. As Inness pointsout, Wharton's portrayal of servants in her fiction is complex:"If, on one hand, she sometimes capitulates to currentstereotypical notions about the behavior of servants, on the other hand,she also shows that servants are often abused in their relationshipswith masters and mistresses and deserve a voice" (1999, 340). Inaddition, Wharton shows worry about the viability of the class systemitself (1999, 348). Although Julie Olin-Ammentorp points outWharton's "classism class��ism?n.Bias based on social or economic class.classist adj. & n. " in that she accepted withoutquestion her privileged position as mistress of many servants (1988,242), the servant stories also express awareness and uneasiness aboutthe employer's power, no matter how benevolent the employer may be. This unease is evident when Wharton's fictional servants,despite appearances of correct behavior and loyalty, display resentmenttoward their employers that sometimes erupts into open rebellion. Forexample, in an early ghost story, "The Lady's Maid'sBell" (1904), the apparent loyalty of Emma Saxon and Alice Hartleyis overshadowed by the smoldering smol��deralso smoul��der ?intr.v. smol��dered, smol��der��ing, smol��ders1. To burn with little smoke and no flame.2. animosity of the other servants in thehousehold. At the end of the story, the mistress Mrs. Brympton dies, andher husband departs after the funeral After the Funeral is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in 1953 under the title of Funerals are Fatal , leaving the servants inpossession of the home (1997). In "A Bottle of Perrier"(1926), after enduring years of oppressive servitude servitudeIn property law, a right by which property owned by one person is subject to a specified use or enjoyment by another. Servitudes allow people to create stable long-term arrangements for a wide variety of purposes, including shared land uses; maintaining the , Gosling kills hismaster, Almodham (1968). In "The Looking Glass" (1935),Wharton depicts a servant, Mrs. Atlee, who moves up the economic ladderby taking advantage of her wealthy employer (1997). At first, Mrs.Attlee appears to be a kind, loyal servant who indulges Mrs.Clingsland's vanity by facilitating communication with a deadlover. But a closer look reveals what White calls Mrs. Attlee's"masterpieces of ambivalence" (1991, 97). Mrs. Attlee's ambivalent feelings towards Mrs. Clingslandreveal an important aspect of the servant-employer relationship in thenineteenth and early twentieth centuries. (15) On the one hand, Mrs.Attlee appears to feel genuine pity and affection for her employer.However, many of Wharton's ghost stories reveal the anger servantsfelt as a result of being economically exploited. Many times throughoutthe story, Mrs. Attlee lets slip her resentment toward Mrs. Clingslandand the wealthy class in general. At the beginning of the story, shesays to her granddaughter, "'You'd be surprised, youknow, my dear, to find how discouraged the grand people get, in thosebig houses with all the help, and the silver dinner plates, and a bellalways handy if the fire wants poking, or the pet dog asks for a drink...'" (1997, 254). Then Mrs. Atlee expresses her ambivalencetoward her employer, saying, "[Mrs. Clingsland] was the patient Iliked best. There was nothing she wouldn't do for you, if ever fora minute you could get her to stop thinking of herself ..." (260).Later Mrs. Attlee sends another curiously mixed message about heremployer: "You musn't think of her, though, as an unkindwoman. She was friendly to her husband, and friendly to her children;but they meant less and less to her. What she wanted was a looking glassto stare into" (262). Having worked hard day after day in these"grand people's" homes, Mrs. Attlee takes advantage ofthe economic opportunity that becomes available to her. Although shetries to justify her deception, saying, "What I was after was tomake her believe in herself again, so that she'd be in a kindliermind towards others" (266), her primary goal is money. Forevergrateful to her "loyal" servant for communicating Harry'smessages of love, Mrs. Clingsland gives Mrs. Attlee enough money to buya home and keep her comfortable financially in her old age. Although Cora Attlee deviously uses her employer's needinessfor her own financial gain, the reader does not sense a warning aboutthe untrustworthy nature of servants or any real fear of theirrebellion. Instead, even more directly than in "The Triumph ofNight," Wharton expresses fear about the aristocracy's lack ofpurpose and fitness. Our sympathies are firmly with Mrs. Attlee; Mrs.Clingsland is depicted as so silly and vain readers cannot help but feelshe deserves to be duped and that Mrs. Attlee deserves every pennyreceived from her long years of that service. Similarly, Mr. and Mrs.Brympton in "The Lady's Maid's Bell" and Almodham in"A Bottle of Perrier" are so morally corrupt that it seemsonly right the servants take over the homes. Inness's insightfulperception of Wharton's class anxiety in "The Lady'sMaid's Bell" also applies to "A Bottle of Perrier"and "The Looking Glass": "Wharton shows her fear thatperhaps the hardy servant class will survive, while the old aristocracywill wither away. Although Wharton seems concerned that this could beher fate, too, she still acknowledges ... that the lower classes mightalso deserve to survive because they are more able to act than theirsuperiors" (1999, 343). The real ghosts in these stories, then, areWharton's fears that the upper classes, with their corrupt moralityand silly pursuits, have themselves (and rightfully so) become trivialand dispensable dis��pen��sa��bleadj.Capable of being dispensed, administered, or distributed. Used of a drug. . Not all servant takeovers in the ghost stories, however, occur inhouseholds of unfit employers. Unlike the Brymptons, Almodham, and Mrs.Clingsland, Lady Jane in "Mr. Jones" and Sara Clayburn in"All Souls'" are practical, independent women who appearto be benevolent and quite capable of running their households;nevertheless, they too experience crises of authority that threaten todisplace them from the home. "Mr. Jones" and "AllSouls'" in particular expose Wharton's more deep-seatedfears and anxieties regarding wealth and class. One such anxiety is overthe right to inherit property and great fortunes, especially given thefact that Old New York wealth was not as honestly acquired as Whartonwould have liked to believe. Another fear that seeps through in thesestories is the recognition that, no matter how benevolent the employer,the servant-master dynamic involves exploitation and inevitably breedsrebellion, thus challenging the legitimacy of the class system itself. In "Mr. Jones" (1928) Jane Lynke, heir to the Bellsestate, uncovers the tragic story of her ancestor, Lady JulianaThudeney, whose buried life is summed up by the cryptic inscription onher husband's tomb, "Also His Wife" (Wharton 1997, 190).Through old letters, Jane learns that Juliana was married for her money,and then, apparently because of an illness that left her deaf and dumb DEAF AND DUMB. No definition is requisite, as the words are sufficiently known. A person deaf and dumb is doli capax but with such persons who have not been educated, and who cannot communicate, their ideas in writing, a difficulty sometimes arises on the trial. ,kept isolated in the home guarded by the butler, Mr. Jones. AlthoughJuliana's story is finally heard through the letters, at the end ofthe story Mr. Jones's ghost is still very much in charge,threatening Jane's status as the new homeowner. Most critics focuson the feminist themes in this story and Jane's opportunity tobreak the legacy of women's oppression at Bells. In these readings,Mr. Jones represents the oppressive patriarchal code. (16) While Janecertainly faces the oppressive legacy of male control in her inheritanceof the Bells estate, critics overlook the full significance of Mr.Jones's status as a servant. (17) The fact that Mr. Jones is now incharge, and, moreover, ruling from beyond the grave, indicates that adramatic power shift has occurred at Bells. Instead of being theultimate faithful servant, continuing his duties as warden, Mr. Jones isnow Master Jones, usurping power from the Lynkes of Thudeney who haveowned Bells for six hundred years. And the secrets Mr. Jones guardsinclude much more than the sins of women's oppression. Alsohaunting Jane once she moves into the ancient home are the ghosts of hereconomic inheritance. This anxiety in "Mr. Jones" over accumulating and passingon property consumed American society as well. In the 1920s, contentiousdebates concerning inherited wealth continued, and Congress periodicallylowered and raised estate taxes. (18) Throughout the story there arereferences to Jane not knowing the history of her family's wealth.We are told vague details of Jane's branch of the family, "towhich an earldom and considerable possessions had accrued" and ofhow "a succession of deaths, and the whim of an old man she hadnever known, now made her heir to all this beauty" (Wharton 1997,189). While exploring the family chapel, she imagines voices from thetombs of her ancestors: "Some hailed her with vocal memories,others whispered out of the remote and the unknown" (189-90). Shethinks to herself, "it was a shame to know so little about her ownfamily" (190). Jane only knows that her ancestors "hadgathered substance simply by holding on to what they had, and slowlyaccumulating privileges and acres" (190). In Jane'sreflections about her ancestors, we can feel the heavy weight of thepast, as well as her anxieties over ownership and continuing the nextchapter in this lineage. (19) She thinks, "If those marble lips inthe chapel could speak! If she could hear some of their comments on theold house which had spread its silent shelter over their sins andsorrows, their follies and submissions!" (194). In addition to thesins against poor Lady Thudeney and against the "unchronicled livesof the great-aunts and great-grandmothers" (194), the house ishaunted by "sins" of inheritance and economic power. The storywhispers uncomfortable questions that were being debated in a much moreforceful manner in American society: How did Jane's ancestorsacquire their wealth? Did the upper classes (including Jane) deserve toacquire their property by doing nothing to earn it? Did they deserve togrow wealthier by simply hanging on to their assets and throughdepending on the labor of their servants? Interestingly, in her autobiography Wharton is similarly vagueabout the roots of her own family's wealth. She gives a briefexplanation that America and her ancestors have their roots in a solidmiddle class who concentrated their efforts on "making money andacquiring property" (1998, 9). A product of her time, she mostlikely did not question the means by which her great-grandfather Stevensmade his fortune as an East-India merchant; she casually notes the slavequarters on her grandfather Jones's property without questioningthe implications of such ownership. (20) Acknowledged or not, fortunesbuilt on imperialism and slavery are part of Wharton's legacy, justas Jane's inheritance of Bells carries with it the legacy of pasteconomic exploitation. Despite Wharton's reticence ret��i��cence?n.1. The state or quality of being reticent; reserve.2. The state or quality of being reluctant; unwillingness.3. An instance of being reticent.Noun 1. about theseissues in her own life, concerns over inherited property and power haunt"Mr. Jones," reflecting not only her anxieties regarding OldNew York's means of making and passing on money but also theAmerican culture's growing apprehension about inherited wealth. When "Mr. Jones" is read in terms of its economic andclass anxiety, then, the servant Mr. Jones becomes a much more complex,explosive figure. More than a loyal servant, protecting the patriarchalstatus quo [Latin, The existing state of things at any given date.] Status quo ante bellum means the state of things before the war. The status quo to be preserved by a preliminary injunction is the last actual, peaceable, uncontested status which preceded the pending controversy. even after death, he is a renegade servant who has taken overthe Bells estate and is unwilling to give up his power to anyone. (21)Although terrifying for the upper classes, Mr. Jones's triumph hasthe potential to bring about positive change, to effect a victory forthe servant classes, who have been laboring for centuries at Bells. Butinstead Mr. Jones illustrates perfectly that power corrupts. Rather thanreplacing the status quo at Bells with a new, liberating model ofrelationships, Mr. Jones replicates the old hierarchical system of powerwith essentially the same pecking order pecking orderBasic pattern of social organization within a flock of poultry in which each bird pecks another lower in the scale without fear of retaliation and submits to pecking by one of higher rank. For groups of mammals (e.g. , except he is now at the top. Heonce served an oppressive master; now he is the oppressor OPPRESSOR. One who having public authority uses it unlawfully to tyrannize over another; as, if he keep him in prison until he shall do something which he is not lawfully bound to do. 2. To charge a magistrate with being an oppressor, is therefore actionable. . Like theservant Gosling in "A Bottle of Perrier," Mr. Jones haslearned the methods of oppression from his master. (22) What Singleyargues of "A Bottle of Perrier," however, is also true of"Mr. Jones": "[a]lthough Wharton is not radicallyrevising class . . . she is nonetheless challenging some of its basicpresumptions" (1992, 281). In her depictions of Mr. Jones'sand Gosling's appropriation of power, Wharton reveals an intriguingmixture of fear and critique: fear of the servants' inevitable anddeep resentment, which has the potential of erupting into revolution,even murder; and critique of the dehumanizing effects of the very classsystem that breeds this resentment in the first place and perpetuatesthe cycle of corrupt rule. As the new owner of the estate, Jane is the target of Mr.Jones's class rage. Having ruled Bells for over a century, Mr.Jones is not about to have his authority challenged, especially by awoman. Perhaps more difficult than fighting Mr. Jones, however, isJane's task of acknowledging the implications of her role as thenew mistress of Bells. Significantly, Jane has the title Lady Jane, and,no matter how benevolent she tries to be, she represents and continuesthe legacy of oppressive economic power. Even if she triumphs over Mr.Jones, there is no indication that Jane will implement any real changeat the estate. Despite the ghostly whispers of the past, it is unlikelyshe will recognize her inherited role of privilege, wealth, and power.Instead, as seen in her condescending manner toward her servants, Mrs.Clemm and Georgiana, Jane has already been seduced by the role ofmistress. Wharton offers no comforting resolution to these thornyissues. Instead, she leaves open the unsettling un��set��tle?v. un��set��tled, un��set��tling, un��set��tlesv.tr.1. To displace from a settled condition; disrupt.2. To make uneasy; disturb.v.intr. possibility that Jane,like Mr. Jones, has the capability of wielding and abusing power andsuggests that, in addition to overcoming the legacy of patriarchy, womenmust confront their own complicity in and perpetuation of oppressiverelationships. "All Souls'" (1937), Wharton's last ghost tale,is another story that includes servant rebellion and a mistress of anestate who must confront her role in perpetuating an oppressive classdynamic. Written six months before Wharton's death, "AllSouls'" perhaps dramatizes some of the same feelings of lossand abandonment she experienced at the end of her life. In addition tomany of her close friends dying, Wharton experienced the loss of trustedservants. Dyman notes in particular Wharton's painful loss of twopersonal maids in 1933 (1996, 122). The story also reflects the anxiouseconomic climate of the 1930s. The economic euphoria brought about bythe soaring markets vanished with the crash of 1929. Although manywealthy families were devastated by the crash and ensuing Depression,particularly those with newly-made fortunes, public sentiment turnedagainst the rich. In 1932, speeches at the American Federation of Laborconvention echoed the public's anger over high unemployment andpoverty rates, warning that there was "no justification for amillionaire while there is poverty in the land; a mansion will have nomoral right to exist while a hovel HOVEL. A place used by husbandmen to set their ploughs, carts, and other farming utensils, out of the rain and sun. Law Latin Dict. A shed; a cottage; a mean house. is to be found; boulevards cannot bejustified while slums remain" (qtd. in Myers 1939, 311). AsPhillips writes, "during the disenchanted dis��en��chant?tr.v. dis��en��chant��ed, dis��en��chant��ing, dis��en��chantsTo free from illusion or false belief; undeceive.[Obsolete French desenchanter, from Old French, 1930s, a citizenrydigging out from the debris of broken promises and shattered assumptionswould rally round a president ready to point a finger of blame. The1920s admiration for wealth would become 1930s' disgust"(2002, 68). President Roosevelt's New Deal reforms intensified theanxieties of the rich. And in his famous 1935 address to Congress,Roosevelt directly attacks inherited wealth: The transmission from generation to generation of vast fortunes by will, inheritance, or gift is not consistent with the ideals and sentiments of the American people.... Great accumulations of wealth cannot be justified on the basis of personal and family security. In the last analysis such accumulations amount to the perpetuation of a great and undesirable concentration of control in a relatively few individuals over the employment and welfare of many, many others.... Such inherited economic power is as inconsistent with the ideals of this generation as inherited political power was inconsistent with the ideals of the generation which established our Government. (qtd. in Myers 1939, 362-63) Although Roosevelt's proposals for increased inheritance andgift taxes turned out to be largely rhetorical, the wealthy classes wereunnerved--all the more so since Roosevelt was considered one of theirown. (23) "All Souls'" also reflects new class anxietiesregarding domestic servants and over domestic workers' growingagitation during this time period. Employers had long been nervous aboutthe perceived shortage of white, native-born servants, (24) andWharton's unease over "foreign" servants can be seen inher description of the alarming female visitor's "half-foreignvoice" (297) and in the surreal, foreign voice coming from theradio (290). But in the 1930s, the servant problem took on added urgencyas domestic workers became more vocal about their discontent. Palmerwrites, "Beset by lowered wages and higher demand during the 1930s,domestics lost ground in relation to other workers, who were gainingcoverage under New Deal initiative in hours, wages, retirement andunemployment insurance, and protections for trade union organizing"(1989, 71). Domestic workers wanted to be included in these reforms, andmany servants wrote directly to the Roosevelts asking for help inimproving their work conditions and pay (71). The following letter (inwhich the original punctuation and spelling are preserved) from "AWorking Girl" in Indianapolis is representative of the many appealsmade to the Roosevelt administration There have been two Presidents of the United States with the surname "Roosevelt": Theodore Roosevelt Administration, the 26th President of the United States, 1901 - 1909. and his younger distant cousin Franklin D. in the 1930s: Mrs. Franklin Roosevelt Dear madam I have heard of your great work among the poor and decided to write you asking isn't there any thing to be done about private family work where girls and women do the work of 4 people and earn half the pay of one. For instance I work for some people they pay $5 a week. I do all of the cooking, laundry, cleaning and stay with the child some night work every day from 8:30 untill 7 oclock except Thursday and Sunday. On those days work from 8:30 untill 1:30 or 2 oclock. Isn't there some kind of a law that could help this dire situation among the working girl. (qtd. in Palmer, 1989, 74-75) Despite only very limited success, domestic workers throughout the1930s and 40s, joining various women's groups and labor unions,continued to agitate vocally for reforms that would regulateservants' working conditions, hours, pay, and retirement security.(25) In light of this atmosphere of servant discontent and reformstargeting the wealthy, "All Souls'" can be read as ananxious response to the hostile environment See: operational environment. for the rich. Initially,Sara seems invulnerable in��vul��ner��a��ble?adj.1. Immune to attack; impregnable.2. Impossible to damage, injure, or wound.[French invuln��rable, from Old French, from Latin to any challenge to her position of wealth andprivilege. And, like Lady Jane, she is strong and independent, fullycapable of living on her own and managing the affairs of the Whitegatesestate. After her husband dies, she defiantly stakes her claim to thefamily home: "What, turn my back on the old house--tear up all thefamily roots, and go and hang myself up in a bird-cage flat in one ofthose new skyscrapers in Lexington Avenue, with a bunch of chickweed chickweed:see pink. chickweedEither of two species of small-leaved weeds, in the pink family. Common chickweed, or stitchwort (Stellaria media), is native to Europe but widely naturalized. It usually grows to 18 in. anda cuttlefish cuttlefish,common name applied to cephalopod mollusks that have 10 tentacles, or arms, 8 of which have muscular suction cups on their inner surface and 2 that are longer and can shoot out for grasping prey, and a reduced internal shell enbedded in the enveloping to replace my good Connecticut mutton mutton,flesh of mature sheep prepared as food (as opposed to the flesh of young sheep, which is known as lamb). Mutton is deep red with firm, white fat. In Middle Eastern countries it is a staple meat, but in the West, with the exception of Great Britain, Australia, ? No thank, you. HereI belong ..." (Wharton 1997, 276). But one All Souls' eveeverything changes for Sara. After speaking briefly to aforeign-sounding stranger who claims she is visiting one of theservants, Sara slips on a patch of ice and fractures her ankle. Confinedto her bed, she discovers that the electricity and telephone are notworking, presumably due to a snowstorm. With growing panic, she forcesherself to explore the house and realizes she is entirely alone. Sarawakes up Monday morning in a feverish feverish/fe��ver��ish/ (fe��ver-ish) febrile. fe��ver��ishadj.1. Having a fever.2. Relating to or resembling a fever.3. Causing or tending to cause a fever. state to find her personal maidAgnes bustling around the room as if everything is normal. Shesteadfastly denies Sara's claims of being left alone or theelectricity being out. Despite this unsettling mystery, Sara lets thematter slide, and gradually life at Whitegates returns to the usualroutine. On All Souls' eve the next year, however, she encountersthe same strange woman who is there once again to visit a servant. Saratries to keep her out, ordering her to leave the premises. When thestranger laughs and then disappears, Sara is so terrified ter��ri��fy?tr.v. ter��ri��fied, ter��ri��fy��ing, ter��ri��fies1. To fill with terror; make deeply afraid. See Synonyms at frighten.2. To menace or threaten; intimidate. that she fleesher home, never to return. One of the most striking aspects of this tale is Sara'stransformation from a "muscular, resolute figure of a woman"(Wharton 1997, 276), to the trembling, passive figure she becomes by thetime she reaches her cousin's flat in New York. The cousin remarks,"I had never seen her as unquestioning and submissive sub��mis��sive?adj.Inclined or willing to submit.sub��missive��ly adv.sub��mis , and thatalarmed me even more than her pallor pallor/pal��lor/ (pal��er) paleness, as of the skin. pal��lorn.Paleness, as of the skin. . She was not the woman to letherself be undressed and put to bed like a baby; but she submittedwithout a word, as though aware that she had reached the end of hertether" (296). Some critics read Sara's breakdown as areflection of her unconscious or suppressed conflicts with gender roles.For example, Dyman argues that Sara's initial"'authoritative' behavior suggests that she oversteps theboundaries of what is properly feminine. Yet she has little choice in asociety that dictates that a woman who assumes independence sacrificesfemininity" (1996, 157). At the same time, according to Dyman,Sara's injury and weekend of solitude trigger "the regressive re��gres��siveadj.1. Having a tendency to return or to revert.2. Characterized by regression.re��gres part of her personality which she fears," the traditional femininequalities of "dependency and submission [which] typify theinherited condition of women" (158). Smith takes a similarapproach, proposing that Sara's "psychic deformations"result from her "inheritance of an authoritarian male position inrelation to the house and servants" (1980, 151). Although Dyman and Smith point out Sara's authoritarian styleof management, they fail to note her complete comfort with the role ofmistress. Instead of suffering gender conflict, or, to use Smith'swords "psychic deformations," from assuming ownership ofWhitegates, Sara reveals profound class anxiety during her harrowingweekend, an intense fear of losing her wealth and privileged position insociety. As Smith writes, "[Sara's] terror of something goingwrong in this regime acknowledges the irrationality and instability ofher financial and class-determined position beneath the rationality orcommon sense of her acceptance of it" (1980, 151). The challenge toSara's class position occurs when she is confronted with herservants' rebellion and deception. As with Lady Jane, Sara'smain challenge is not to adopt the traditionally male role ofownership--she has done this already with ease. But instead she mustrecognize her complicity in an oppressive class system, specifically herpowerful and ultimately exploitative role of mistress. Because of Sara's entrenched position at Whitegates,recognition of her privileged status, particularly in the relationshipwith her servants, will not come easily. The first step in Sara'sawareness is a physical injury that forces her to become trulyvulnerable for perhaps the first time in her life. And her sense ofvulnerability and confusion is heightened by the absence of her faithfulservants. Annette Zilversmit argues that Sara's crisis reflects her"long denied isolation and loneliness," a life devoid of"genuine love and human connection" (1987, 301, 303). Incontrast to Zilversmit's view, although Sara is lonely andtraumatized by her nightmarish weekend, the story offers no evidencethat her marriage was unhappy or that she failed to have meaningfulrelationships. Sara's life as a whole, at least what readers knowof it, serves as a positive example that mature, single women do haverich lives, full of energy and autonomy. One area of her life, however,has been an illusion--her relationship to the servants. Over the years,Sara has comforted herself with the belief that her servants are herclose friends and family. This is why the servants' absence duringher time of greatest need is so devastating. (26) Although ostensibly os��ten��si��ble?adj.Represented or appearing as such; ostensive: His ostensible purpose was charity, but his real goal was popularity. fond of her personal maid Agnes, Saraultimately considers her a piece of property "inherited from hermother-in-law" (Wharton 1997, 279). She really knows nothing at allabout Agnes; all of her assumptions about the "dour old Scottishmaid" are false (279). Agnes, who according to Sara supposedly"never set foot out of the house after dark, who despised themovies as much as the wireless, and could never be persuaded that alittle innocent amusement was a necessary element in life" (285),obviously does leave the house and clearly has a life of her own. AsInness notes, Sara's perception of Agnes is part of a "longtradition of upper-class reliance on servants ... that is based on theemployers never looking too closely into the real lives of those whoserve them" (1999, 345). So great is Sara's sense ofsuperiority over her employees that she refuses to use theservants' back stairs stairs in the back part of a house; private stairs. Also used adjectively. See Back stairs, Backstairs, and Backstair, in the Vocabulary.See also: Back even when doing so would lessen the distanceof walking on her injured ankle (286). In addition, Sara is completelyoblivious of the resentment Agnes must feel as a result of her lowlyeconomic position. As she looks for clues to her maid's absence, wesee the meager contents of Agnes's wardrobe, largely made up ofSara's castoffs: That was where Agnes kept her dresses; and the dresses were there, neatly hanging in a row. On the shelf above were Agnes's few and unfashionable hats, rearrangements of her mistress' old ones. Mrs. Clayburn, who knew them all, looked at the shelf, and saw that one was missing. And so was also the warm winter coat she had given to Agnes the previous winter. (Wharton 1997, 285) More than economic exploitation, Sara's second-hand gifts toAgnes illustrate the psychological exploitation inherent in what Rollinscalls the "maternal ism dynamic" of the servant-employerrelationship. Rollins writes, "The maternalism dynamic is based onthe assumption of a superordinate-subordinate relationship. Whilematernalism may protect and nurture, it also degrades and insults"by treating the servant like a dependent child (1985, 186). Furthermore,in giving used items to the servant, the mistress emphasizes the unequalnature of the relationship by "transmitting to the servant theemployer's perception of the servant as needy, unable to provideadequately for herself, and willing to accept others' devalued de��val��ue? also de��val��u��atev. de��val��ued also de��valu��at��ed, de��val��u��ing also de��val��u��at��ing, de��val��ues also de��val��u��atesv.tr.1. To lessen or cancel the value of. goods" (193). It is not surprising, then, that, like Mrs. Attlee in "TheLooking Glass," Agnes expresses ambivalence toward her employer,genuinely caring for Mrs. Clayburn but at the same time resenting theinequality on which their relationship is based. This resentment isevident when Agnes flatly denies the reality of Sara's solitaryweekend. As the following exchange illustrates, she finally has theupper hand over her mistress and takes full satisfaction, even pleasure,in her deception: "The electricity cut off?" Agnes' surprise was masterly. "Why, when was it cut off?" She pressed her finger on the bell beside the bed, and the call tinkled through the quiet room. "I tried that bell before I left you last night, madam, because if there'd been anything wrong with it I'd have come and slept in the dressing room sooner than leave you here alone." Mrs. Clayburn lay speechless, staring up at her. "Last night? But last night I was all alone in the house." Agnes' firm features did not alter. She folded her hands resignedly across her trim apron. "Perhaps the pain's made you a little confused, madam." She looked at the doctor, who nodded. (Wharton 1997, 292-93) To borrow White's term, Agnes's and the otherservants' absence and their subsequent denial of any abnormaloccurrences on All Souls' eve reflect the "revenge of thedispossessed" (1991, 99), revealing their subversive activitieswhich belie be��lie?tr.v. be��lied, be��ly��ing, be��lies1. To picture falsely; misrepresent: "He spoke roughly in order to belie his air of gentility"James Joyce. decades of outward obedience. And it is significant that theservants choose All Souls' eve for their rebellion. The narratorexplains that "All Souls' eve is when the dead can walk--andwhen, by the same token, other spirits, piteous pit��e��ous?adj.1. Demanding or arousing pity: a piteous appeal for help.See Synonyms at pathetic.2. Archaic Pitying; compassionate. or malevolent, are alsofreed from their restrictions which secure the earth to the living onthe other days of the year" (Wharton 1997, 299). According to thenarrator, a "fetch" or witch took advantage of this date tolure Agnes and the other servants to a "Coven cov��en?n.An assembly of 13 witches.[Perhaps from Middle English covent, assembly, convent; see convent. ," at which"mysterious rites" were performed (300). Many critics arguethat the coven, whether or not it literally exists, reflects Sara'srepressed sexual desires. For example, Smith writes that Sara's"'illicit' desires are projected onto the servants butkept offstage and by this absence are intensified in suggestiveness,becoming an unspeakable witches' coven" (1980, 150). (27) Obviously the narrator's description of the "irresistiblefascination," "desire," and "uncontrollablelonging" associated with the coven does connote con��note?tr.v. con��not��ed, con��not��ing, con��notes1. To suggest or imply in addition to literal meaning: "The term 'liberal arts' connotes a certain elevation above utilitarian concerns"illicit sexuality(Wharton 1997, 300). But if the interpretive focus moves away from thecoven, the revolutionary power of All Souls' eve becomes visible.In fact, Gianfranca Balestra provides fascinating evidence that Whartonoriginally wrote the story, initially titled "Week-End,"without the coven ending. In response to her agent's request for anexplanation of the ending, Wharton revised the story and sent him thefollowing note: "I enclose herewith here��with?adv.1. Along with this.2. By this means; hereby.herewithAdverbFormal together with this: a new ending of'Week-End,' for the use of the magazine morons. Would it helpthem if I called the story 'All Souls" as I had originallythought of doing? I leave this to you" (qtd. in Balestra 1996, 21).As Balestra observes, Wharton's revisions allow otherinterpretations than the sexual significance of the coven (14). (28)When the narrator's coven explanation recedes, the transformingpower of All Souls' eve emerges; instead of a forbidden gatheringof witches, All Souls' eve can be seen as a time the servantsgather to celebrate their autonomy and solidarity. In this view, AllSouls' Eve becomes a Carnival in a Bakhtinian sense, a time whennot only the "dead can walk" but also the servants (the"other spirits") "are also freed from ...restrictions" (Wharton 1997, 299). (29) For one night out of theyear, the servants are liberated from their lowly economic and socialstatus. As with Mr. Jones's takeover at Bells, then, the classupheaval at Whitegates has the potential for social change. And, whilethreatening to Sara's comfortable, orderly world, this change ispotentially positive for her as well. On All Souls' eve, boundariesbetween classes are suspended for Sara too, allowing her to step free ofsocial hierarchies. (30) She has the opportunity to recognize hereconomic and psychological dependence on the servants. As she wandersfrom room to room in her cold, deserted house, Sara notices tasks leftundone by her usually capable servants, and the hidden means of hercomfort become, for a moment, visible: "in that well-ordered housein winter the central heating central heatingNouna system for heating a building by means of radiators or air vents connected to a central source of heatcentrally heated adjNoun 1. ... was never allowed to go out, and byeight in the morning a mellow warmth pervaded the rooms. The icy chillof the pipes startled her" (Wharton 1997, 284). In the drawingroom, the shutters and curtains have been left open, the ashes are stillin the fireplace, and "[e]ven her empty coffee cup stood on a tablenear the arm chair" (288). Along with this momentary unveiling of the means of Sara'swealth, readers are led to question the history of the Clayburnfamily's wealth. Like Jane in "Mr. Jones," Sara is partof a long tradition of landowners, and when her husband dies Saraassumes the role of mistress and unquestioningly accepts the"inherit[ance] from her mother-in-law two or three old standbys[servants] who seemed as much a part of the family tradition as the roofthey lived under" (Wharton 1997, 277). The narrator cousin goes outof her way to extol ex��tolalso ex��toll ?tr.v. ex��tolled also ex��tolled, ex��tol��ling also ex��toll��ing, ex��tols also ex��tollsTo praise highly; exalt. See Synonyms at praise. the virtues of the Clayburn family: their "goodColonial stock," success as farmers, power in state politics, andhow they "were always spoken of as a 'good influence' inthe county" (276, 277). However, Monica Elbert argues, "Thoughthe Clayburns have been considered a 'good influence' on thecountryside, it is also obvious that they have exploited the land andperhaps usurped power USURPED POWER, insurance. By an article of the printed proposals which are considered as making a part of the contract of insurance it is provided, that "No loss of damage by fire, happening by any invasion, foreign enemy, or any military or usurped power whatsoever will be made good by " (1995, 63). Although Elbert's judgmentof the family may be too harsh (perhaps the Clayburns have been goodstewards of the land, wise political leaders, and benevolent employers),the overly glowing review of the family raises the same questions ofclass privilege and power as in "Mr. Jones": By what means didthe Clayburns acquire and keep their wealth? What peoples and habitatswere displaced to clear the land for farming? What would the threegenerations of servants say about their employers? Sara'sterrifying experience has the power to jolt her into awareness of herprivileged status; her terrifying encounter with the all-consumingsilence of the mansion and with her servants' deception"offered the potential of viewing anew" (Elbert 1995, 53),allowing her to let go of Whitegates's legacy of power andexploitation. This awakening does not happen, however. Instead of approachingAgnes with openness about that strange weekend and perhaps learning howthe servants truly feel and live, Sara does nothing. The narratorremarks that the servants "were all exactly as they had been beforethat unexplained episode: efficient, devoted, respectful andrespectable" and Sara "evidently preferred to put the wholematter out of her mind, as far as she could" (Wharton 1997, 295).The opportunity for Sara's transformation is lost, and she neverrealizes that her relationships with the servants are based "on thehierarchy of dominance and submission" (Dyman 1996, 164). But sheis unable to remain in her comfortable life because exactly one yearlater the same strange woman appears at Whitegates. Here Sara hasanother chance to investigate the mystery that could unveil her trueeconomic and social relationships with her servants. But again she istoo afraid to face what would mean a complete restructuring of her life.Sara runs away to her cousin's apartment in the city, leaving theservants in control of the family estate. (31) Despite this pessimistic ending, "All Souls" also makesit clear "that the old power relationships between maid A between maid (nickname tweeny, also called hall girl particularly in the United States) is a female junior servant in a large household with many staff. The position is largely defunct in the 21st century, as few households can afford great retinues of servants with andmistress can no longer be maintained, and a new social order is in themaking" (Inness 1999, 348). Moreover, the Clayburn family'slegacy of inherited wealth is broken, paving the way for wealthredistribution. These fictional tremors of economic and social changewere echoed in Roosevelt's New Deal reforms. While muckrakers hadhopes these reforms would eventually abolish inherited wealth, the upperclasses, including Wharton, found the possibility this new economicorder terrifying. Myers's epilogue ep��i��loguealso ep��i��log ?n.1. a. A short poem or speech spoken directly to the audience following the conclusion of a play.b. The performer who delivers such a short poem or speech.2. to his book The Ending ofHereditary American Fortunes voices the progressive spirit of the late1930s, expressing the elite's worst nightmare: Why not definitely abolish [hereditary wealth] as a statutory right? And at the same time completely recast laws so as to prohibit trusts for heirs and all other devices allowing transmission of large fortunes? Determination of what is wealth and what is not is anything but insuperable. The differentiations between wealth and moderate means are already defined in our income-tax and inheritance laws. Abolition of hereditary fortunes will not complete that fuller economic equality toward which the spirit of the age is here progressing, but it commends itself an important and bounden step, and it now stands as first on the calendar of Unfinished Business. (Myers 1939, 381) Sara's flight from Whitegates reflects the terror that this"unfinished business" will be completed, leaving society in astate of anarchy and chaos. When the ghost stories are read as a whole, Wharton's visionof the aristocracy's future and class relations appears ratherbleak, reflecting the American people's ambivalent relationshipwith wealth. Many tales end with murder as a result of greed or revengeof economic wrongs, and several stories reveal servant resentment,sometimes rage, to the point of dispossessing the upper class of theirhomes. Elbert sums up the familiar conflict found in Wharton'swork: "On the one hand, she loathes the old order and wants thestructures torn down; on the other, she is terrified of disorder andchaos" (1995, 52). In the ghost stories, Wharton attacks theideology of capitalism and even attempts to tear down to demolish violently; to pull or pluck down.- Shak.See also: Tear the lingeringstructures of aristocracy through reversing class hierarchies; at thesame time she is unable to imagine an alternative system, leaving aneerie void. A brief return to Carson's analysis of The House of Mirth,however, helps readers to see how "Mr. Jones" and "AllSouls'" in particular offer a less gloomy reading of theirambiguous endings. Carson reads Lily's death as evidence not onlyof the pervasive power of aristocratic ideology but also of herinability to accept society's role of woman for herself because"the concealed machinery of her world has been revealed"(2003, 71). In a similar way, Wharton's ghost stories reveal thepower and tenacity of aristocratic and capitalistic cap��i��tal��is��tic?adj.1. Of or relating to capitalism or capitalists.2. Favoring or practicing capitalism: a capitalistic country. ideologies but alsoexpose their "concealed machinery," showing ideology isvulnerable to critique. Lady Jane and Sara Clayburn (like Lily andWharton herself) have limited awareness of their class privilege, butafter their haunting crises they will never be able to return to thestatus quo. Despite Wharton's entrenched elite status, her complexinsider/outsider relationship with this elite culture resultedin--however paradoxical and anxious--insightful social criticism; hertales open a ghostly space in the ideology of class, making socialchange a possibility. Notes (1) R. W. B. Lewis states that Wharton's ghost stories"[secrete secrete/se��crete/ (se-kret��) to elaborate and release a secretion. se��cretev.To generate and separate a substance from cells or bodily fluids. ] a sizable proportion of the erotic" (1975, 644).Allan Gardner Smith discusses the suppressed sexual content and genderconflicts within the tales (1980). Candace Waid argues that"Wharton explores in these narratives a repressed story about womenwho become unquiet ghosts because they cannot have a voice" (1991,177). See also Kathy Fedorko's Gender and the Gothic in the Fictionof Edith Wharton (1995) and Jenni Dyman's Lurking Feminism: TheGhost Stories of Edith Wharton (1996). (2) Other critics also have discussed the tensions of money andclass in Wharton's ghost stories. Monica Elbert notes the"dilemmas of a capitalistic economy in many of Wharton's ghoststories" (1995, 52). Sherrie Inness explores Wharton's use ofdomestic servants in her article "'Loyal Saints or DeviousRascals'" (1999). Barbara A. White identifies the "strongeconomic overtones" of the ghost stories (1991, 76), and CandaceWaid labels these tales "business gothic" (qtd. in White 1991,76). (3) In his reading of The House of Mirth, Gavin Jones also arguesthat Wharton was able to transcend the "elitist e��lit��ismor ����lit��ism ?n.1. The belief that certain persons or members of certain classes or groups deserve favored treatment by virtue of their perceived superiority, as in intellect, social status, or financial resources. ethos of herleisure-class background" in order to critique traditionalideologies of gender and class (2003, 155). (4) I have mentioned only a few of the many critics who attackedthe growing concentration of wealth during this period. Some of the morefamous critics include Ida Tarbell, Upton Sinclair, Lincoln Steffens Noun 1. Lincoln Steffens - United States journalist whose exposes in 1906 started an era of muckraking journalism (1866-1936)Joseph Lincoln Steffens, Steffens ,and Edward Bellamy Edward Bellamy (March 26 1850 – May 22 1898) was an American author and socialist, most famous for his utopian novel, Looking Backward, set in the year 2000. Early lifeEdward Bellamy was born in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts. . Michael Barton provides an interesting discussion ofone type of such criticism in his essay, "The Victorian Jeremiad jer��e��mi��ad?n.A literary work or speech expressing a bitter lament or a righteous prophecy of doom.[French j��r��miade, after J��r��mie, Jeremiah, author of The Lamentations :Critics of Accumulation and Display" (1989). (5) Social Darwinist arguments defending the Gospel of Wealth arenumerous in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. See WilliamGraham William Graham may refer to:In politics and government: William Graham (militia leader), a American Revolution militia leader at the Battle of King's Mountain William Graham (representative) (1782-1858), a representative from Indiana Sumner's 1902 essay "The Concentration of Wealth: ItsEconomic Justification" for a representative example (1949, 81-85).For detailed histories of the influence of Social Darwinism in theUnited States, see Richard Hofstadter's Social Darwinism inAmerican Thought (1959); Robert C. Bannister's Social Darwinism:Science and Myth in Anglo-American Social Thought (1979); and Carl N.Degler's In Search of Human Nature: The Decline and Revival ofDarwinism in American Social Thought (1991). (6) Drawing on Max Weber's work, Fluck discusses thehistorical links between Protestant beliefs and the perceptions ofwealth as virtuous in American Culture (2003, 55-57). Another minister,Russell H. Conwell, enthusiastically supported the gospel of wealth inhis famous sermon Acres of Diamonds, published in 1888. One passagestates, "Money is power. Every good man and woman ought to strivefor power, to do good with it when obtained. Tens of thousands of menand women get rich honestly. But they are often accused by an envious,lazy crowd of unsuccessful persons of being dishonest and oppressive. Isay, Get rich, get rich! But get money honestly, or it will be awithering curse" (qtd. in Gabriel 1949, 60). (7) In The Ending of Hereditary Fortunes, Gustavus Myers provides afascinating account of the heated debate over the income tax amendment.He quotes from Senator Borah's speech, warning of the consequencesif the income tax amendment were defeated: You can defeat this Amendment.... But when you shall have accomplished your purpose and the people shall have ascertained how far their rights have been manipulated away, it will go far toward exciting to renewed force and strength[en] the feeling of wrath and class hatred which is already too strong in this country .... they will not listen to you when you are called upon to plead with them against radical changes in our form of government which will be submitted to this country within the next fifty years. (qtd. in Myers 1939, 178) Kevin Phillips There are several people called Kevin Phillips Kevin Phillips, American political commentator and writer Kevin Phillips, England and West Bromwich Albion football player Kevin Phillips, British hockey player who plays for the Hull Stingrays also gives a good overview in Wealth and Democracy:A Political History of the American Rich (2002) of how the Progressiveplatform adopted many of the reforms advocated by the earlier Populistmovement Populist MovementCoalition of U.S. agrarian reformers in the Midwest and South in the 1890s. The movement developed from farmers' alliances formed in the 1880s in reaction to falling crop prices and poor credit facilities. . (8) It is important to note that Ned's cheating is not theonly wrongdoing exposed in the story. Earlier, Mary reflects "howlittle she knew of the material foundation on which her happiness wasbuilt" (Wharton 1997, 70). But this ignorance does not equalinnocence. In living off the fruits of unclean money, Wharton indictsMary as a guilty partner in her husband's scheme. As Jenni Dymannotes, Mary is the prototype of the "well-to-do American wife,detached from her husband's world of business, who basks in thesunny warmth of an artificial environment that shields her from thecomplexities and unpleasantness of the human condition, but also assuresher entrapment entrapment,in law, the instigation of a crime in the attempt to obtain cause for a criminal prosecution. Situations in which a government operative merely provides the occasion for the commission of a criminal act (e.g. as a submissive, dependent, immature woman" (1996,40). It is a fitting punishment, then, that Mary is the one who leadsElwell's avenging ghost directly to her husband. (9) Martin, the upper-class author of The Passing of the Idle Rich,expresses this frustration of being under attack and the desire forclass legitimacy: "Let him [the reader] imagine himself a member ofa class judged and condemned according to a distorted popular conceptionbased upon a semi-knowledge of the acts, habits, morals and ethics ofthe very worst of the class; nay, even of men and women who, while apingto the best of their poor ability the fashions, the habits, and thecustoms of that class; ignore every one of its best traditions, forgetevery one of its laws, and break every one of its commandments"(1975, 5-6). (10) Frederick Martin Frederick Martin (born October 12, 1861, Dartford, Kent, England; died December 13, 1921, Dartford, Kent, England) was a Kent left arm spinner who was that county's chief bowler in the early years of the County Championship. sums up this anxiety of his class beingreplaced: "That grim truth is that we as a class are condemned todeath. We have outlived our time.... Instead of being the roof and crownof things, the wealthy class in America to-day has sunk to the level ofthe parasite. The time has come when the producing classes are about tobring it to judgment. In fact, to-day we stand indicted INDICTED, practice. When a man is accused by a bill of indictment preferred by a grand jury, he is said to be indicted. before the courtof civilization. We are charged openly with being parasites; and themass of evidence against us is so overwhelming that there is no doubtwhatever about the verdict of history, if indeed it must come to averdict" (1975, 220). (11) Another important critic of conservative Social Darwinistbeliefs was the sociologist Charles Ellwood. He argues that instead ofbeing "biologically fit," many wealthy people are "suchsimply through artificial advantageous circumstances ... [and] are oftenamong the less fit ... elements of society" (qtd. in Degler 1991,14). (12) The following passage demonstrating this lack ofself-preservation instinct is an example of Veblen's humorous yetincisive attack on the leisure class: "A better illustration ... isafforded by a certain king of France, who is said to have lost his lifethrough an excess of moral stamina in the observance of good form. Inthe absence of the functionary whose office it was to shift hismaster's seat, the king sat uncomplaining before the fire andsuffered his royal person to be toasted beyond recovery. But in so doinghe saved his Most Christian Majesty from menial MENIAL. This term is applied to servants who live under their master's roof Vide stat. 2 H. IV., c. 21. contamination"(1979, 43). (13) Interestingly, critics at this time also were discrediting thenotion that competition and the "captains of industry" werethe ideals of evolutionary progress. In his book Dynamic Socialism(1883), Lester Ward stated that unregulated competition harms thesurvival of the fittest and argued for a "rational economics,"in which social progress is measured by not only increasing thehappiness of people but also alleviating the misery of society (qtd. inHofstadter 1959, 74-75). Hofstadter also discusses Nationalists such asEdward Bellamy and Laurence Gronlund Laurence Gronlund (July 13, 1846 - October 15, 1899) was an American lawyer and socialist. LifeBorn in Copenhagen, Denmark, he graduated from the University of Copenhagen's Faculty of Law in 1865, and moved to the United States in 1867. who pointed out that capitalism wasonly an evolutionary stepping stone to a cooperative society cooperative societyNouna commercial enterprise owned and run by customers or workers, in which the profits are shared among the members ; the"rise of trusts ... was a proof of the superiority of combinationover competition" (1959, 113-115). (14) For a discussion of Wharton's relationship with herservants, see Dyman (1996, 121-22). (15) For detailed histories of the servant-employer relationship inthe United States, see David M. Katzman's Seven Days a Week: Womenand Domestic Service in Industrializing America (1981), JudithRollins's Between Women: Domestics and Their Employers (1985), andPhyllis Palmer's Domesticity DomesticitySee also Wifeliness.Crocker, Bettyleading brand of baking products; byword for one expert in homemaking skills. [Trademarks: Crowley Trade, 56]Dick Van Dyke Show, The and Dirt: Housewives and DomesticServants in the United States, 1920-1945 (1989). (16) Dyman writes that Mr. Jones's ghostly presence"affects her [Jane] because it embodies repressed tradition thathas an unconscious hold on her in spite of her independent status"(1996, 129). Fedorko too views Jane as struggling with "herinternalized patriarchal dominance [that] has the power to keep hersilent and constrained if she allows it to" (1995, 121), and seesMr. Jones as representing "pathological, patriarchal control"(123). Sandra Gilbert Dr. Sandra M. Gilbert (born 1936), Professor Emerita of English at the University of California, Davis, is an influential literary critic and poet who has published widely in the fields of feminist literary criticism, feminist theory, and psychoanalytic criticism. also reads Mr. Jones this way, describing him asthe "faithful servant of patriarchal authority" (1988-89,162). (17) Smith touches on the significance of Mr. Jones being aservant, but he also sees him as a faithful servant, protecting thepatriarchal tradition: "The investigation of an authoritarian maletradition gains greatly from the fact that a servant maintains thatauthority over a wife, though he is much lower in the social scale, andthe personification personification,figure of speech in which inanimate objects or abstract ideas are endowed with human qualities, e.g., allegorical morality plays where characters include Good Deeds, Beauty, and Death. of this tradition in Mr. Jone's ghostlyimmortality dramatizes its persistence" (1980, 156). (18) See Myers for a detailed discussion of the debates overincome, estate, and gift tax legislation in the 1920s (1939, 276-284). (19) Dyman (1996, 126) and Fedorko (1995, 119) too note theimportance of the past in "Mr. Jones"; however, they emphasizethe legacy of traditional women's roles, whereas I seek to broadenthe weight of the past to include questions of how wealth is acquiredand passed on through the generations as well as the legacy of theservant-master relationship. (20) In A Backward Glance, Wharton writes: "A little lowerdown the Sound ... stood my grandfather Jones's pretty countryhouse with classic pilasters and balustraded roof. A print in mypossession shows a low-studded log-cabin adjoining it under the elms,described as the aboriginal Jones habitation HABITATION, civil law. It was the right of a person to live in the house of another without prejudice to the property. 2. It differed from a usufruct in this, that the usufructuary might have applied the house to any purpose, as, a store or manufactory; whereas ; but it was more probablythe slaves' quarter" (1998, 17-18). In reference to thispassage Stuart Hutchinson remarks, "Though she [Wharton] has beenlinked to Hawthorne because of ingredients in Ethan Frome, herconsciousness about the deeds of her ancestors, as about all things, wasradically different from his" (2000, 442). Although I agree withHutchinson that Wharton does not examine issues of past misdeeds in anydepth, my argument is that her works, such as "Mr. Jones," doreflect anxieties, over "the deeds of her ancestors." (21) My view of Mr. Jones's significance to the story differsconsiderably from Margaret McDowell's view. She writes, "Thestory fails because Mr. Jones's motives for suppressing the familyhistory are trivial, his implication in the destinies of the family doesnot run deep, and little of significance results from his relationshipto the present owner and her friends" (1970, 144). (22) Gosling's disdain for the Arabs, servants beneath him instatus, is clear in the following passage: Gosling was in the act of receiving from the hands of a gliding Arab a fragrant dish of kuskus. Under his breath he hissed to the native: "You damned aborigine, you, can't you even 'old a dish steady? Ugh!" The Arab vanished before the imprecation, and Gosling, with a calm deliberate hand, set the dish before Medford. "All alike, they are." (Wharton 1968, 518-19) Dyman (1996, 120) and Singley (1992, 281) also discussGosling's role as an oppressor. (23) Aldrich discusses the pressures leading to Roosevelt'scontroversial tax proposal. In particular, Senator Huey Long Huey Pierce Long, Jr. (August 30, 1893 – September 10, 1935), nicknamed The Kingfish, was an American politician from the U.S. state of Louisiana. A Democrat, he was noted for his radical populist policies. ofLouisiana CODE, OF LOUISIANA. In 1822, Peter Derbigny, Edward Livingston, and Moreau Lislet, were selected by the legislature to revise and amend the civil code, and to add to it such laws still in force as were not included therein. led the "Share Our Wealth" (SOW) campaign. Aldrichwrites, "By April 1935 ... there were SOW clubs in every state,with 4.7 million members. More ominously, even so'responsible' a political leader as Senator George Norris, thegreat Progressive Republican, was calling for some sort ofredistribution of hereditary wealth" (1996, 231-32). Aldrich alsooffers a fascinating discussion of how the elite viewed Roosevelt as a"traitor to his class" (229-64). (24) Katzman explains that after 1890, the percentage of immigrantdomestic workers actually dropped in the United States, with an evensteeper decline after 1920 (1981, 65-66). Katzman writes, "Whatheightened the sense of service as an exclusively foreign-born domainoutside of the South was the concentration of immigrant servants inlarge urban centers in the industrial Northeast" (65). (25) For a detailed discussion of the fight for these reforms, seePalmer's Chapter Six: "Negotiating the Law of Service"(1989, 111-35). (26) In her later essay, "'All Souls":Wharton's Last Haunted House A haunted house is defined as building that is believed to be a center for supernatural occurrences or paranormal phenomena.[1] A haunted house may contain ghosts, poltergeists, or even malevolent entities. ," Zilversmit writes,"Disguised in the control of mistress and maid, [Sara] hadapproximated the only intimacy she may have ever known, an intimacy thatshadows a mother-daughter relationship.... Such unacknowledgedarrangements have provided the illusion of absent family and missingattachments" (1992, 320). Although I agree with Zilversmit'spoint that Sara's relationship with her servants lack trueintimacy, I question the assumption that she has lacked any meaningfulrelationships in her life. (27) Zilversmit also argues that the coven reflects Sara'srepressed desires: "The threat of loss thus becomes even moredevastating, her loneliness becomes more intense, and her unacknowledgedneeds and fears turn perverse when suddenly lived out by supposedsubordinates who, now in their old age, seek closeness they too havelacked. Her female deserters, her potential lovers, thus must beunnatural women, witches" (1992, 320). Dyman has a similar view,writing that "the fetch ... unlocks repressed erotic feelings anddesires" and that Sara "feels jealous of whatever conspiracyand fulfillment her missing servants may have engaged in" (1996,159). White interprets Sara's repression in terms of child sexualabuse Child sexual abuse is an umbrella term describing criminal and civil offenses in which an adult engages in sexual activity with a minor or exploits a minor for the purpose of sexual gratification. (1991, 101-06). (28) Although we both agree that too much critical emphasis isplaced on the coven, Balestra's focus is different than mine.Balestra writes, "The new ending ... turns a modern exploration ofsilence and undecidability into a rather old-fashioned tale ofwitchcraft" (1996, 21-22). (29) As M. Keith Booker writes: Bahktin's carnival is a time of festive and exuberant celebration when normal social boundaries collapse and groups from different social classes and backgrounds meet and mingle freely in a mood of irreverence that runs directly counter to the cold, sterile, and humorless world of official medieval Catholicism. The carnival is a time when normal rules and hierarchies are suspended, when boundaries are transgressed, and when the energies of life erupt without regard for conventional decorum. (Booker 1996, 106) It is important to qualify the liberating potential of AllSouls' eve. As Booker points out, the medieval carnival is alimited "metaphor for revolution because the carnival was in factan officially sanctioned event whose very purpose was to releasepotentially subversive energies in politically harmless ways and thusprevent revolution" (107). This is also the limitation of AllSouls' eve: despite its revolutionary potential, it occurs onlyonce a year, after which the servants return to their proper, safe placein the social hierarchy Social hierarchyA fundamental aspect of social organization that is established by fighting or display behavior and results in a ranking of the animals in a group. . (30) Discussing another interesting way in which All Souls'challenges barriers, between the material and spiritual realms, Elberttoo notes the transforming power of this date for Sara: "Indeed,All Souls' is the evening upon which the veil between life anddeath is the thinnest, when the realms between body and spirit are nottotally distinct, and Wharton is provocative in allowing Sara'stransformation to occur on this very evening. Bereft of the luxuries ofmodern communication (the material), Sara is forced to contend with herown voice, or spirit, by herself" (1995, 58). (31) Zilversmit also discusses Sara's flight to New York as alost opportunity to connect authentically with her servants (1992,324-25). Whereas Zilversmit emphasizes Sara's repressed sexualdesires, I see Sara's self-deception more as concerning herprivileged status in the servant-employer relationship. 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He received his Ph.D. . 1959. Social Darwinism in American Thought.Revised Edition. New York: George Braziller, Inc. Hutchinson, Stuart. 2000. "Sex, Race, and Class in EdithWharton." Texas Studies in Literature and Language 42.4: 431-44. Inness, Sherrie A. 1999. "'Loyal Saints or DeviousRascals': Domestic Servants in Edith Wharton's Stories'The Lady's Maid's Bell' and 'AllSouls'.'" Studies in Short Fiction 36: 337-49. Jones, Gavin. 2003. "Poverty, Gender, and Literary Criticism:Reassessing Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth." ComparativeAmerican Studies 1.2: 153-177. Katzman, David M. 1981. Seven Days a Week: Women and DomesticService in Industrializing America. Urbana, Illinois: University ofIllinois Press The University of Illinois Press (UIP), is a major American university press and part of the University of Illinois. OverviewAccording to the UIP's website: . Kennedy, Gail, ed. 1949. Democracy and the Gospel of Wealth.Boston: D. C. Heath and Company. Lawrence, William. 1949. 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Domesticity and Dirt: Housewives andDomestic Servants in the United States, 1920-1945. Philadelphia: TempleUniversity Press. Phillips, Kevin. 2002. Wealth and Democracy: A Political History ofthe American Rich. New York: Broadway Books. Rollins, Judith. 1985. Between Women: Domestics and TheirEmployers. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Singley, Carol J. 1992. "Gothic Borrowings and Innovations inEdith Wharton's 'A Bottle of Perrier.'" In EdithWharton: New Critical Essays, ed. Alfred Bendixen and AnnetteZilversmit. New York, Garland. ______. ed. 2003. A Historical Guide to Edith Wharton. Oxford:Oxford University Press. Smith, Allan Gardner. 1980. "Edith Wharton and the GhostStory." Women and Literature 1:149-59. Sumner, William Graham Sumner, William Graham,1840–1910, American sociologist and political economist, b. Paterson, N.J., grad. Yale, 1863, and studied in Germany, in Switzerland, and at Oxford. . 1949. "The Concentration of Wealth:Its Economic Justification." In Democracy and the Gospel of Wealth.Boston: D. C. Heath and Company. Veblen, Thorstein Veblen, Thorstein(thôr`stīn vĕb`lən), 1857–1929, American economist and social critic, b. Cato Township, Wis. Of Norwegian parentage, he spent his first 17 years in Norwegian-American farm communities. . 1979. The Theory of the Leisure Class. 1899.Reprint. New York: Penguin. Waid, Candace. 1991. Edith Wharton's Letters from theUnderworld: Fictions of Women and Writing. Chapel Hill: University ofNorth Carolina Press The University of North Carolina Press (or UNC Press), founded in 1922, is a university press that is part of the University of North Carolina. External linkUniversity of North Carolina Press . Wharton, Edith Wharton, Edith (Newbold)orig. Edith Newbold Jones(born Jan. 24, 1862, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died Aug. 11, 1937, Saint-Brice-sous-Forêt, near Paris, France) U.S. novelist and short-story writer. . 1968. The Collected Short Stories of Edith Wharton.Ed. R.W. B. Lewis. 2 vols. New York: Scribner's. ______. 1997. The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton. 1973. Reprint.Scribner-Simon & Shuster. ______. 1998. A Backward Glance. 1934. New York: Touchstone-Simon& Shuster. White, Barbara. 1991. Edith Wharton: A Study of the Short Fiction.New York: Twayne. Zilversmit, Annette. 1987. "Edith Wharton's LastGhosts." College Literature 14.3:296-309. ______. 1992. "'All Souls": Wharton's LastHaunted House and Future Directions for Criticism." In EdithWharton: New Critical Essays, ed. Alfred Bendixen and AnnetteZilversmit. New York: Garland. Karen J. Jacobsen is assistant professor of English at ValdostaState University Valdosta State University is a public university located in the city of Valdosta, Georgia, in the United States, and is part of the University System of Georgia. Degree levels offered at VSU include: Associate's, Bachelor's, Master's, Education Specialist, and Doctoral. . She has published articles on Harriet PrescottSpofford and Ellen Douglas.