『트와일라잇 슬립』

Twilight Light - The Irony of the Progressive era, the Painless Peace

This paper aims to examine the social/mental turmoil of New York upper class in Edith Wharton’s Twilight Sleep. In the 1920s, there was a tremendous change in American society. The influence of World War I led to a change in skepticism and values about human life. Ironically, World War had become the basis for American society’s entry and development into the capitalist system. As the development of science and medicine accelerated, traditional human relationships and values for them collapsed. And the people tended to focus on activities such as quasi-religious activities and time-consuming activities to escape from the painful reality. Edith Wharton’s Twilight Sleep reflects the characteristics of this American society. This paper analyses that the numerous activities and efforts of Pauline Manford were attempts in terms of social and economic change. Moreover, this paper discusses the contradictory situation in which society has advanced, entered the age of modernism, but the collapse of people’s moral standards and traditional values of family have been accelerated.