1) The document analyzes masculinity and paternal relationships in Edith Wharton's novel The Custom of the Country. It argues that Wharton critiques passive masculinity and subservient paternity through the progressively more assertive men in Undine Spragg's life. 2) Undine's first husband Ralph and second husband Raymond treat her like a child rather than an equal partner, failing to fulfill her desires. Her final husband Elmer treats her as an intellectual equal and meets all her needs, representing Wharton's ideal of masculinity. 3) For Wharton, a successful marriage requires a man with a strong will who leads his wife as an equal partner, in contrast to the

1. Kaitlynn Bush
Professor Laila Amine
ENGL 3840.006
October 14, 2016
Undine’s Progressive Fathers:
Analyzing Masculinity within Paternity in The Custom of the Country
Traditional sexism within marriage is a widely-explored concept in the twentieth century.
In Edith Wharton’s novel, The Custom of the Country, she displays traditional sexism in the
extreme as she outlines the social climbing of arguably the most vicious female protagonist in
modern literary history, Undine Spragg. Undine does not let anything or any person keep her
from moving up the social ladder of the New York aristocracy through the only avenue available
to her: marriages with increasingly wealthy men. Laura Johnson states, “not only is marriage
presented as a career, it is presented as the only career available to women” in the twentieth
century (952). Undine is not only presented as a product of her familial influence to acquire more
wealth and status, but she is also a creation of a cultural environment that only allows her to
achieve her goals through matrimony. Her malicious nature is utilized to evaluate the institution
of marriage in early-twentieth-century American culture, especially in the relationships between
men and women. However, the success of her final relationship portrays Wharton’s view of what
masculinity should be. I argue that Wharton critiques passive masculinity and subservient
paternity through the progressive men in Undine’s life. This is particularly showcased where the
male figures she is involved with take over the role of a father to Undine rather than acting as her
husband, until her final marriage.

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Marriage in the twentieth century was conventionally chauvinistic, and this caused an
increasing dichotomy between husbands and wives. Men went to work each day to provide for
the needs and whims of their women at home, and high-society women occupied their time at
home or spending the money their husbands earned. Beth Kowaleski-Wallace describes it as
“distinct spheres, the office and the drawing room, the former a place of masculine exploit and
‘enterprise,’ the latter a place of feminine ignorance and indifference, where women are
encouraged to consume flagrantly and parasitically the fruit of their husbands’ labors” (46).
Because the daily lives each sex led were mutually exclusive, there was a large gap in
understanding, and this was the key issue in Undine’s marriages. This breach is amplified by the
parental relationship she carried with the subsequent men in her life until her final marriage.
The first example of a man acting in a paternal role for Undine is, of course, her father
himself. Abner Spragg embodies the stereotypical father in the twentieth century. He works
exceptionally hard to provide everything his daughter desires without involving her in the
financial responsibilities of life, and he always manages to give her what she requests at his own
expense. Kowaleski-Wallace describes the average twentieth century American man as someone
who “zealously protects her and keeps her ignorant of the meaning of his work” (46). For
example, Undine wishes to go to the opera in hopes of encountering a few prominent members
of New York society, but her father cannot afford it for her. When she responds with a moody
outburst, her father succumbs to her will and buys her not only an opera-box for one night, but
for every other weekend to appease her temper (Wharton, 30-42). This depicts how Undine has
been treated her entire life; she obtains what she wants and does not care about the consequences
it leaves for the men who provide for her. Mr. Spragg does neither possess the willpower to say

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no to his daughter nor involves her in the trials he goes through to fulfill her wishes, and that is
ultimately the reason Undine acts so entitled in her relationships with her father and other men.
The next significant man in Undine’s life is her first husband, Ralph Marvell. Just as Mr.
Spragg spoiled his daughter and did not deny her anything, neither could Ralph. Ralph thought
he could show Undine that there is more to life than material pleasures, like a father instructing a
wayward child, but he was mistaken about her ability to change. Undine’s focus is strictly on the
material, and Ralph did not have the funds to support her extravagant lifestyle. This warranted
him useless to Undine. She viewed Ralph as nothing more than a replacement of her father’s role
to fulfill her every desire. The surest example of Ralph failing to fulfill the role of Undine’s
father and provider is while they are on their honeymoon. Undine’s father could not send the
check he had promised because of financial failure. However, Ralph cannot afford to continue
their honeymoon because he has no money of his own. To make ends meet, Undine asks Ralph
to do the one thing he hates to do: ask his wealthy sister for financial aid. Undine’s only
reasoning was that she “must have some clothes to go home in,” and Undine’s unconsciousness
of Ralph’s discomfort in asking his sister for money “hurt him more than her indifference to her
father’s misfortune” (Wharton, 117). This scene between Undine and Ralph parallels Undine’s
relationship with Mr. Spragg. Her father never allowed her to care how he obtained the things
she desired, so she therefore thought that everything she desired would be handed to her if she
was firm enough. That mentality carried over to her marriage with Ralph. However, Ralph
continued to succumb to Undine’s will in whatever she wanted, no matter how much he detested
her choices, or how she spent the money he worked for. Because Ralph embodied Mr. Spragg’s
passive paternity but did not have the money to sustain it, Undine grew increasingly disgruntled
in the marriage. Ralph failed to be the replacement of her father as her provider. Her

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dissatisfaction with Ralph led her to divorce him and eventually marry a man who was able to
provide her with any material thing she desired, but not everything she needed.
Raymond de Chelles gave Undine much of what she wanted financially and emotionally,
but his love for her did not outweigh his loyalty to his family or his dreams of taking over the
family property in the country. Rather than fulfilling Undine’s dream of living in the Hôtel de
Chelles in Paris, he moved her to social and cultural isolation in Saint Désert because of his
familial duty (Wharton, 344). In addition, Raymond viewed Undine as intellectually inferior
because she was not interested in the business of their estate or the reasoning behind his actions
regarding his bloodline responsibilities (Wharton, 350). After Raymond and Undine had argued
about going to Paris and Undine had consented to his will, she observed that “though he was still
charming as ever.… He had apparently decided that his arguments were unintelligible to her, and
under all his ardour she felt the difference made by the discovery” (Wharton, 346). Although
Raymond was able to resist Undine, unlike Ralph (Wharton 345), he did not treat her as an
intellectual equal, and this was his greatest fault in marriage to her. Rather than leading Undine
as an equal, Raymond treated her as a beautiful commodity. As Marie Saussure states, “the
French aristocrat’s status-based conception of marriage corresponds to his thick relationship to
property” (697). Raymond also resisted her like he would a child. He therefore filled the
authoritarian father-role for Undine that Mr. Spragg never did, but Raymond pushed Undine
away in the process because he still did not treat her as an equal in their marriage. However,
Undine’s final husband possessed everything she needed to be happy in marriage.
Elmer Moffatt is different from every other man in Undine’s life in many ways; he is
rich, successful, popular, and just as manipulative and acquisitive as Undine herself is. However,
those characteristics are only a part of what allows him to win her devotion in the end. Moffatt is

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the only character in the book who does not treat her as if she was a child, but as his wife. Elmer
truly understands how Undine views the world, and he provides what she needs financially,
emotionally, and relationally. When Elmer forces Undine into choosing between running away
with him or remaining with Raymond, Undine admits that her first marriage to Elmer was the
“only time [she] ever truly cared – all through!” (Wharton, 396). And again a moment later she
said, “I’ve always felt, all through everything, that I belonged to you” (Wharton, 397). In this
scene, Moffatt forces her to choose, but he does not treat her as a lesser person; he treats her as
an equal and a partner. This is the first relationship Undine has with a man where she is spoiled
but not coddled, adored but not patronized, and allowed to be herself without feeling inferior.
The marriage between Undine and Moffatt shows what Wharton sees as the key to a successful
marriage.
Undine’s relationship with the various men in her life ultimately shows what Wharton’s
definition of masculinity is: a man must possess a strong enough will to resist a woman’s whims,
but he must treat her with equality in order for the relationship to be successful. Johnson states,
“Wharton suggested that such marriages, characterized by unity of interests, form the backbone
of a strong republic” (958). The initial men in Undine’s life – Mr. Spragg, Ralph, and Raymond
– each appear to view Undine as too fragile to cope with the financial cares of the world, or too
intellectually inferior to garner real companionship in marriage. They did not embody the
characteristics of masculinity that Wharton admires – strength of will, protection, leadership, and
partnership – and that is why their relationships with Undine failed. Moffatt, in contrast, not only
embodied these characteristics, but he treated Undine as an intellectual partner and saw her for
who she truly was. In order for Undine to be happy, she had to be treated as an equal, and her
husband needed to be able to lead her. The necessity of equality and partnership in a marriage is

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Wharton’s formula for success between men and women, and it reduces the dichotomy between
the sexes that was present in the twentieth century. Mutual respect in a marriage and a man who
strongly leads his wife is what Wharton considers true masculinity.

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Works Cited
Johnson, Laura. K. "Edith Wharton and the Fiction of Marital Unity." MFS Modern Fiction
Studies 47.4 (2001): 947-976. Project MUSE. Web.
Kowaleski-Wallace, Beth. "The Reader as Misogynist in ‘The Custom of the Country’" Modern
Language Studies 21.1 (1991): 45-53. Web.
Sassoubre, Ticien Marie. "Property and Identity in The Custom of the Country." Modern Fiction
Studies 49.4 (2003): 687-713. ProQuest. Web. 16 Sep. 2016.
Wharton, Edith. The Custom of the Country. New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1913. Print.