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Alexis Sanchez
Professor Partlow-Myrick
ENGL 212-101
30 September 2018
Response Essay Rough Draft
In “The Angle at the Grave” by Edith Wharton is about a death of a beloved writer named Orestes Anson who leaves his estate to his only intelligent granddaughter named Paulina; who is a major push over. She lets other people plan her life for her. Edith Wharton’s use of characterization and symbolism show how women were able to break stereotypic norms of a domesticated women at this time period.
“The Angel at the Grave” by Edith Wharton is about a girl named Paulina Anson who is the granddaughter of the late Orestes Anson, a beloved writer who was favored by many. Since her grandfather’s passing she becomes like a prisoner in their home and acts as a guardian of the house. Orestes wrote a collection of writing called the “Works of Orestes Anson”, that Paulina holds in her drawer as a sort of momentum of her grandfather even though he and others told her to burn it. Later on, in the excerpt Paulina meets a man named George Corby who wants to write an article her grandfather whom he says to be the “Greatest man ever to live.”
Wharton’s use of characterization is what make this piece of work so intriguing. Starting off with Paulina, she has dedicated her whole life to saving her grandfather’s works and legacy. She found his writing and ideas to be interesting, so she moves into his home to handle is on-going affairs after his passing. She even rejects the offer to go to New York with her soon to be husband to live in the house. This shows to you that Paulina goes with her gut and not follow behind a man. When Wharton states “People said that she gave up on young Winslow because her aunts disapproved of her leaving them; but such disapproval as reached her was an emanation from the walls of the House…’ (35) Although this story takes place the early 1900’s, it shows that women were finding themselves to be more intellectual than domesticated.
Wharton symbolizes the house in gr...
