Custom of the Country, Edith Wharton

"It's against the custom of the country. And whose fault is that? The man's again-I don't mean Ralph, I mean the genus he belongs to: homo sapiens, Americanus. Why haven't we taught our women to take an interest in our work? Simply because we don't take enough interest in them. [...] Why does the European woman interest herself so much more in what the men are doing? Because she's so important to them that they make it worth her while! She's not a parenthesis, as she is here-she's in the very middle of the picture" (182).

Undine echoes this statement early in the novel in regards to her father's business; "That was man's province; and what did men go 'down town' for but to bring back the spoils to their women?" (39). This theme of female victimization is an interesting perspective, yet seems at odds with Wharton's portrayal of Undine. Is she a result of this society's blatant neglect of women? She is hardly a sympathetic portrait of feminism; rather, she is defined by pure manipulation, deceit, and overwhelming vanity. Her actions stem from an all-consuming desire to be the "dominant figure of the scene" at all times, and for every failure in this vein she endeavors to be more vivacious, more striking, more influential in the sphere of society (32). Is this a direct result of being condemned to a role as a "parenthesis"? Before their marriage, Ralph Marvell certainly sees Undine as in danger of being overtaken by the petty and "cheaply fashionable" nature of New York's gentry, imagining "devouring monster Society careering up to make a mouthful of her" and vowing to save her from its clutches, but he soon falls victim to her own selfish machinations (74).

Yet Wharton is decidedly not a moralist but a commentator. Her role is not to condemn or offer solutions for society's ills but rather to observe and satirize the "paradoxes" of society, making her intentions difficult to ascertain. Does Undine represent this victimization that Bowen describes? Does Wharton mean for us to agree with Bowen and condemn American society for having created a dynamic between the sexes that allows Undine's selfish nature to flourish and indeed encourages it? Perhaps her vanity is a testament to the role she has been groomed to play: "a mere bit of flesh and blood," as Popple puts it (63).