Searching for Selves in The Awakening and The House of Mirth: Toward an Understanding of the Interplay Between Character(ization) and Identity

Abstract

The study of character and characterization has largely neglected the role of identity in the construction and interpretation of literary characters. Building on insights from classical, rhetorical, and cognitive narratology, as well as narrative psychology, this thesis attempts to establish a relationship between identity and character(ization). The basic claim is that the narrative rendition of identity development functions as a means of characterization, and reversely, that characterization results in identity attribution. Identity development as characterization is explored in a reading of Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, while Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth serves as the case study of characterization as identity attribution. Both readings demonstrate that by bringing identity into the equation it is possible to achieve a richer analysis of character and characterization. Consideration is also given to the fact that while the relationship between identity and character(ization) can be broken down into two main components, identity development as characterization and characterization as identity attribution, both processes in fact happen simultaneously.