The Heiress is a purely American tale. The New York of 1850 was not yet a shrill, citified city. It was stratified, but it was still a town in which one commonly rose financially and socially by dint of ambition and hard work, as opposed to the European system of entitlement. The play is based on Henry James' novel Washington Square. James, like Edith Wharton, was a great observer of upper class New York society, where one's position could be likened to a game of backgammon. In The Heiress a man wants to marry a wealthy, plain woman, and she falls in love with him, a charming yet idle man. Love and power come to a head with social position always the undercurrent. Which triumphs? The answer is as ambiguous as human nature.