The Letters

Is the Class system from the 18th century as Edith Wharton describes class separation really relevant in the modern age? Edith Wharton grew up surrounded by the luxuries which the middle class enjoyed during eighteenth century America. This was the time in which women catered to their homes, husbands, and the dinner parties held for their friends. While women were expected to maintain those expectations as wives, before marriage the young ladies were expected to find a suitable husband which the families would accept. The women such as Wharton must of sure loved these expectations placed on them from birth. Amongst Edith Wharton’s family, she was viewed as a strange girl leading them to fear the worst… EDITH LIVING A SINGLE LIFE WITH A CAREER! Wharton having a carrer as a writer and being self dependent was just an awful thought for the family, so they did what any family would do, tried to marry her off as soon as possible to a man amongst their social class. Edith Wharton, the intelligent women she is, married a man she meets who she felt as though she can wear the pants in the relationship in order to continue pursuing her love of reading. The marriage didn't last long, of course, as soon as Wharton became a divorced woman she was able to pursue her dreams as a writer which as Laurel states in her blog, are intelligent works of art. Within her writing, Wharton touched upon class and the effects which class has on people and marriages.
One of the works which Edith Wharton published was the short story The Letters. In the short story, Wharton touches upon both topics of marriage, class, and even her favorite subject education. A short look at the story and we might begin to see the similarities it has to the modern day.
 The first character of the story is the young Lizzie West. Lizzie does not belong to the elite nor is she even a part of the high society. She is a teacher to a Mr. and Mrs. Deering's daughter. Yes, even then teachers were not very high up on the social ladder unless you are teaching at a prestigious University. Even though she does not belong to the elite, she wants the best for little Juliet, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Deering. Even though women are not supposed to be educated in subjects such as Writing, reading, science, and etc., Lizzie is and wants Mr. Deering's daughter to be educated as well. When Mr. Deering lost his wife and everything he left to try and begin a name for himself by capturing the American Dream as any migrant to America wants when they go to America.
So many of the aspects of each character and situation is still amongst much of society. Today the gap between the elite and the lower class is even bigger than in the time of Wharton yet there's so much which is still seen amongst it all. The way in which Mrs. Deering is represented as the mother who just cares about what is on the social newspaper is present amongst the society no matter how many times anyone wants to deny it. Today’s society is still concerned about what is going on with the social life of others. How many mothers do you not see sitting at the park reading People Magazine or Vogue Magazine while their kids are playing? Even when it is not through tabloid magazines everyone is so concerned with the social life of the people they know looking through social media wondering what they are up to. Social media is the biggest social newspaper announcing where someone traveled to or even ate for dinner while advertising who they know and who is courting who. So many moms are even interested in what's going on in the neighborhoods gossiping about who's child they saw acting suspicious or with the wrong crowd. Even mothers who can afford it will hire nannies to watch the children while they are concerned with the image of the family and the social news of the town/city, best example upper East Side of Manhattan. No matter what social class a person belongs to they are always interested in the business of those around them. 
    Oh my gosh, did you hear Mr. Deering left to the United States to make a name for himself and live the American Dream,but came back after Lizzie became wealthy, now she is paying off his debt! Mr. Deering is the type of man that wants to live a comfortable lifestyle full of wealth and goods that he left to try and pursue that idea. He fails, of course, finding the easiest way to that lifestyle by marrying the newly wealthy Lizzie after leaving her. In the time of Wharton marriage was a business contract ensuring a lifestyle for the women, nowadays the marriage is based on the concept of the favorite four-letter word, love. Are we sure that marriage is not about financial stability? Yes and no, it is true that many people do marry based on love more now than they did at the time of Edith Wharton, take Lily Bart  for example, no not the same Lily Bart from Gossip Girl, but Lily Bart from House of Mirth, she had the opportunity to Marry the man she loved yet decided to go after the money. This still happens today, do we really think many of the 20-year-olds marrying 60 yr old billionaires is because of love. I don't think so. Even using the MRS. degree as an example is relevant today, yes the woman are being educated, they are mostly going to school to capture the attention of a man receiving a degree. Woman are going after the man with degrees knowing they are the ones who will be making more money than the man not attending due to the degree. Well, what about the population who does not do that, many are still under the category of marriage and finance. Most people will not get married until they are sure that they will be able to financially support a marriage. This entire aspect contributes to the topic of  class since women either try to marry into the middle class or stay within their social circle thus staying in the same class. 
    Let us not forget about Lizzie, even Lizzie within the short story of Edith Wharton has a 21st-century aspect. Lizzie was head over heals about Mr. Deering giving him her all, literally she was the mistress, she didn’t care what happened to Mr. Deering she knew she had to marry but did not since she was waiting for the love of her life to come back to her. She wrote him the letters for a very long time, it was love, but she never received anything back from him. The patients she has is astonishing, as soon as he appeared she married him since he came back for her, or did he. Lizzie finds out the truth that he never read a single letter she sent him causing her to question if it was really love or was the whole marriage a lie. Rather than leaving the lying husband; reminder Lizzie is paying off his debt while he does nothing but lays around, she decides to stay married to him and live the lie because she loves him. Even though there is such a high percent of divorce now, many people still remain married due to their pride or even because one is still in love so decide to live a lie. Some people still find shame in divorce, but others rather stay living in a bubble suppressing the truth.  
    So many aspects of the 18th century are present amongst the society of the 21st century, the community is very involved with the social newspaper now called social media, even marriage is still a financial contract between husband and wife. Although Women are educated and have their own careers, there is a social class among all of us even more divided than before. We have split the class system into the blue collar working class and the white collar career. society still is in aww when it comes to the life of the elite, they even seek to be a part of it when reading the tabloids which are just as similar as the social section of the newspaper.