本論文將伊蒂絲·華頓的《歡樂之家》解讀為對投機資本主義侵蝕鍍金時代婚戀觀的一種批判。華頓揭示了婚姻敘事與資本運作之間的同構性：求愛是投機行為，婚姻則是交易契約。在小說構建的世界中，婚姻成為流通手段，求愛化作投機活動——愛情如同投資，依賴風險承擔、流動性配置與人力資本增值預期。本文借助馬克思的不變資本與可變資本理論框架，將珀西·格雷斯（Percy Gryce）、勞倫斯·塞爾登（Lawrence Selden）和西蒙·羅西戴爾（Simon Rosedale）解析為資本形態的三種具象化呈現：格雷斯（Gryce）象徵不變資本——穩定卻缺乏活力；塞爾登（Selden）體現可變資本——文化資本豐厚而物質基礎脆弱；羅西戴爾（Rosedale）則彰顯資本本質——具有流動性、適應性與自我增殖特性。他們與莉莉·巴特（Lily Bart）的互動關係，揭示出一個將所有人類情感置於市場價值尺度下衡量的世界。莉莉（Lily）的美貌、風雅與品味如同易損耗資產，是必須持續投入才能維持的可變資本形態。她試圖通過婚姻實現經濟保障的努力之所以失敗，根源在於其自我本質抗拒金融化改造。當莉莉（Lily）最終拒絕利用醜聞牟利——徹底否定投機邏輯——她便在這個將人的價值等同於交換價值的體系中喪失了存在意義。本文認為，莉莉（Lily）之死象徵著不可資本化的自我最終被清算，這恰是純粹性在投機時代的必然宿命。

This thesis reads Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth as a critique of speculative capitalism's invasion of Gilded Age romance. Wharton demonstrates an isomorphism between the marriage plot and capital operations, where courtship is a speculative act and marriage is a transaction. In the novel’s world, marriage is a means of transaction, and courtship becomes a speculative act: love, like investment, depends on risk, liquidity, and the hope of personal capital appreciation. Drawing on Marx’s concepts of constant and variable capital, the thesis takes Percy Gryce, Lawrence Selden, and Simon Rosedale as distinct embodiments of capital forms. Gryce represents constant capital—secure yet stagnant; Selden personifies variable capital—rich in culture but materially fragile; and Rosedale epitomizes capital itself—fluid, adaptive, and self-generating. Their relationships with Lily Bart reveal a world where every human relation is measured by its market potential. Lily’s beauty, grace, and taste function as perishable assets: forms of variable capital that demand continuous expenditure. Her efforts to convert these into economic security through marriage fail precisely because her self resists financialization. Her refusal to profit from scandal—her ultimate rejection of speculation—renders her valueless within a system that equates human worth with exchange value. The thesis contends that Lily’s death signifies the final liquidation of a self that cannot be capitalized—the inevitable fate of purity in a speculative age.

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