a little Undine in all of us
I think that to say that Undine is cold, selfish, narcissistic, ruthlessly ambitious, etc. is fair, of course, because of her behavior throughout the novel eg. how she treats her partner and child. But don’t you think that’s the shallow analysis? I mean isn’t it easy to judge her? And why would you stop there, I mean it’s just not interesting, why not go deeper. The purpose of prose is to teach a lesson to the reader and that is done through its characters, and we only learn from the characters if we can relate to them. If the author fails to create realistic, authentic characters which we can relate to then I have to question their writing ability and probably they wouldn’t sell many copies or get any of their themes across and we wouldn’t be reading their work in our English class. If you cannot relate to Undine and recognize her in yourself to a certain extent then you are either being dishonest with yourself and are in need of some introspection, or you’re not reading very closely and thinking about her character. Undine represents a caricature of a quality that all human beings share, and she takes it to an extreme level. I think that Wharton purpose of describing Undine is to articulate her thoughts and feelings so deeply that we sympathize with her and recognize them in ourselves, so that we won’t fall victim to them the same way that she does. It’s a satire of the high capitalistic society which takes advantage of natural human desires to teach us, to warn us not to be like undeen.
5 responses so far
I was hoping you would have gone further into detail about human nature and (I’m not sure if you said it explicitly, but I assume Darwinism?), as I do believe there is something important to be explored there. But, if everyone is provoked to such a response by Undine, it is because there is truth to her character, personal sure, but more likely intrapersonal. Which is what makes it easiest to condemn her, not as some caricature of ourselves which we can all be hypocritical about and scoff at ‘not’ being, but as an experience that has exaggerated itself as it became a scornful memory if that makes sense. Basically… Do you think that this (Wharton’s experiences in society, marriage, her memories) could have been less, as much or more motivation for Wharton’s writing as teaching about how greed/capitalism/etc. breaks down family structure and destroys human decency?
sure. darwinism is the theory that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that increase the individual’s ability to compete, survive, and reproduce. I think it’s really interesting to take this scientific approach when studying human behavior, and it gets even more interesting once you realize how similar all complex organisms are to each other. do you know how similar human beings are to lobsters, for example, in terms of competition for territory, fighting, mating, and even things as simple as posture? we are so similar in fact that anti depressants work on lobsters, and after reading about the effects their neurochemistry eg. ratios of serotonin to octopamine has on their behavior it helps explain our own behavior. an evolutionary study of human behavior is so much more interesting in my opinion than a ‘social structure study’ because social structure come from nature (!) so if we don’t analyze our behavior on that deeper level then we are not understanding our behavior.
i could give you another quick example also relevant to the reading. how can we explain undine’s attraction to men of power? well..how can we explain why men are generally attracted to females with large breasts or why females are generally attracted to muscular men as opposed to men who are thin and weak or overweight. again on the most foundational level it is explained with natural selection, or evolution, or darwinism, whatever you want to call it – because we are naturally attracted to people who will make competent partners because we want to reproduce so that our species survives. a specific example is men being attracted to large breasts-well that one is linked to breastfeeding. and i’m sure you can think of other examples yourself, but the point is that are their billboards and marketing campaigns that also influence our tastes and create social norms? Of course! But it’s important not to get the order mixed up, nature always comes first. So Undine’s attraction to men of power, who succeed in the business field, who can give her money and a wealthy life-is out of hand yes and she is satirized to a certain extent- but her desires are most importantly natural! human! so lets sympathize with her! i can recommend a few studies and readings about the nature of dominance hierarchy and much more which is consistent with all complex organisms and that includes lobsters, and birds, and humans, and undine, and me, and you, and everyone. i think that it is very productive to study human behavior from the foundational level: nature, science.
In an effort to understand the characters’ behaviors through an evolutionary study, these are some conjectures I’ve made from your post. Assuming that, a lobster’s emotions or serotonin to octopamine levels are similar to that of humans, and that the reason for their depression may be due to their present state if they are not dominant or mating, etc., this could be compared to Ralph’s situation, the accidents that followed his inability to assert himself. Making it so that he was incapable of surviving, as when an animal falls to their prey. By considering Wharton’s text from an evolutionary standpoint, this can be conjectured of turn-of-the-century and current society: Marketing comes from or norms, our needs, which mirror those of nature’s needs, people must feel a want, a need for whatever is advertised and so the advertisement has to hit the core of ‘humanity’ (which is basically a restatement of what you’ve said, but relevant because Undine’s motives come from what she both wants [the object: money] and needs [the foundation: self-assertion and the means of survival both in the context of the hierarchal level she wants to obtain]). As for the social norms in the text, they either mirror those of animals, aesthetics of beauty and wealth are flaunted in order to attract attention and assert dominance, or they try to push against the idea that we are complex organisms like animals to create a divide between ‘us’ and ‘them’ – which conforms to the societal hierarchy, social and business values which dictate actions. I’ve only begun Derrida’s The Animal That Therefore I Am, but it may be worth looking at in regards to the divide and ignorance of the animal mind, but it is philosophical, not scientific. I would like you to recommend other studies and readings about the nature of dominance hierarchy. And, do include birds, specifically because it’s interesting that mockingbirds have a complex vocabulary with which they form grammatically correct sentences.
I enjoyed reading this post because I completely agree with your argument that Wharton wants the reader to introspect and realize that there is a part in each one of us that is just as selfish and narcissistic as Undine is. If Undine’s character was nothing but loathsome and repugnant, I doubt anybody would want to engage with the story of the novel. Instead the reader sympathizes with her, consciously or subconsciously, as they realize that part of her behavior can be ascribed to human nature. That being said, maybe Darwinism can account for some of Undine’s reckless behavior, but the maternal desire to protect her infant is a biologically essential mechanism for preservation of the species, and the way Undine treats her son would be an example of going against nature as she doesn’t portray ‘normal’ maternal behavior which would mean further propagation of the species.
I definitely agree with your response that Undine is in all of us. Maybe not to the same extent but more so pieces of it. Her dishonesty, sarcasm, and the lack of care she holds for her own is more on the extreme side of human nature. in fact, one of the points I made in my Response paper was that Undine is the product of a society where there were no lines that shouldn’t be crossed. All in all, I very much enjoyed reading your response.