Edith Wharton's The Reef: New York High Society & the House of Atreus

Edith Wharton's reputation as the grande dame of American letters rests largely on her imaginative prose fiction about Gilded Age New Yorkers, whose vices it subtly, yet scathingly, criticizes. In her most autobiographical novel, The Reef, she satirizes members of her society, including her own family and familiars, through characters who not only resemble them but also, for added effect, assume the traits of figures from the myth of the house of Atreus, widely considered to be the evilest clan in literature. In constantly alluding to the Greek, Roman, and post-classical tragedies that comprise the ancient story, Wharton demonstrates how woefully decadent old New York is. Each of her book's main character will be compared with their corresponding historical personage and mythological figure to analyse the transgression they have either committed or suffered. Then, the various relationships between every set of three will be further studied. While some observations will reveal critiques of such wrongs as infidelity, as well as direct attacks on objectionable persons, others will go beyond mere association and suggest that certain aspects of high society are even worse than those found in the wicked household of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra.