How the text of “The Last Asset” characterizes Mrs. Newell

Mrs. Newell is undoubtedly the kind of lady who uses everything and everyone around her for self-gains. She appears to be very competitive and someone who would go above and beyond to gain and maintain social class and status. She uses her daughter to gain acceptance and to maintain in the superior class by marrying her off to a wealthy French man for as Wharton states, “what was the use of producing and educating a handsome daughter if she did not, in some more positive way, contribute to her parent’s advancement” (218). She also use her husband as an “asset” to compliment her appearance at her daughter’s wedding for according to her, “I was given to understand at once that my husband must appear-if only to establish the fact that we’re not divorced” (Wharton 224). To her everything and everyone is a commodity and wealth and class amongst her appearance matters most.