Ghostly presences: Edith Wharton's Sanctuary and the issue of maternal sacrifice

College Literature, Spring 1998 by Salas, Angela M

At the same time, since the dilemmas in Sanctuary are defined in shadowy social Darwinist terms, Wharton seems to be positing a conclusion in which, by being honorable and honest, Dick likely removes himself not only from the architecture competition, but from competition for posterity as well. No museum will be erected with his name as architect appended to it. Clemence Verney, supposedly the most desirable female in Dick's circle, is the male winner's prize. Since, in her world, the woman does not enter the battle with the men, Clemence has accepted the role of cheerleader and woman behind the man; provided, of course, that the man be the victor. The old world of honor and fair dealing, a world which Kate represents and with which Dick decides to ally himself, is being swept away by ambition and the same sense of self-interest which Denis manifested all those years back; ironically Clemence Verney and her contemporaries have the language of Darwinian theory to justify their decisions. Humanity is not above animal nature; it is immersed in it.l3 Josephine Donovan writes about Kate and Dick's situation, asserting that the "world in which her son and his generation operate is one severed from a maternal personalist ethic; it is governed primarily by a socialDarwinist capitalist ethic of competition and success, the survival of the fittest" (1989, 55). Dick may have saved his soul by allying himself with his mother, but he has probably lost the whole world of posterity, glory, and wealth. That Dick is himself aware of all these Darwinian ramifications is made evident early in the novella when he replies to Kate's question about what will happen to his relationship with Clemence if he should lose the competition: "He shrugged laughingly, but with a slight contraction of his confident brows. `Why, I shall have to make way for someone else, I suppose. That's the law of life"' (1991, 160).

We have two possible endings, neither of which is happy. One possibility is that Dick has merely deferred his slide into the abyss. Crumpling up Darrow's blue-prints is easier than escaping his father's cowardice; now that Kate knows how "abysmally weak" Dick is, she will have to watch and wait to see if Dick is ever again tempted by public glory to compromise the ethics she has inculcated in him. The second possibility is that Dick is now an upright and stalwart man who will accept being overlooked professionally and socially in order to be able to rest comfortably at night. If this is the case, Wharton implies that Kate and Dick are the end of their genetic line. Kate has passed on traits which will die when she and Dick do. Wharton's narrative does not indicate that she would argue that Kate's struggle has not been worth it; it does, however, indicate that Kate and Dick are very much alone in a world gone crass with its new freedom from ideas of nobility and decent conduct by a twisted appropriation of Darwinian theory. Women of Clemence Verney's ilk will marry vigorous, hearty, and successful men of Denis Peyton's type: men who will prize self-interest and family security over integrity and fair-dealing. They will in turn raise children who believe in the dogma of success at all costs and who will outmaneuver and outperform children raised to believe in the social contract and in honorable behavior. The people and the ethics of the old order will be effaced and forgotten. The scorn some readers heap upon the "unbelievable" construct of Sanctuary actually indicates that Wharton was a very good fortune teller. If readers cannot believe that parents would subsume their lives for children, and that a parent's influence can drag a young man back onto the path of honor and integrity, then that old order must, in fact, have been effaced in our time.