Fractured Identities, Moral Mediations, and Cancerous Aspirations of Madeline Lee and Silas Lapham: The Allure of Power versus the New Woman and the Nouveau Riche Man

Abstract

I provide a critical analysis of literary democracy within The Rise of Silas Lapham and Democracy. I attempt to advance an original view of why the American Realism literary movement should include tropes not only of the figure of the New Woman, but also those of the figure of the Nouveau Riche man. It will further illustrate how the protagonists’ morals drive them to rebel against their personal ambitions, their oppressive environments, and their behavioral conditioning — thus provoking them to act other than as society would dictate. Keywords: Democracy; Locational Vulnerability; Confinement; Fractured Identity; Agency.