Society in The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

761 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: • Impact of divorce on women of the Victorian Era

Society in The Age of Innocence The Age of Innocence, written by Edith Wharton, is about the upper-class society of New York City in the 1870’s. The novel follows the life of an upper-class lawyer named Newland Archer. He is going to wed May Welland, who comes from another upper-class family. As the novel progresses Newland starts to become intrigued with May’s cousin, the poor Ellen Olenska. Ellen is called “poor” because she is shameful in the eyes of the society that surrounds her. Ellen left her husband and moved back to New York City to be with her family. Divorce is not acceptable in the 1870’s high society like it is today. Newland tries at first to protect Ellen from the bad reputation that she will perceive if she divorces her husband. In the end he just wants her to be free and desires to be with her for the woman she became. There are still different levels of society in the world, but the lives of distinction are perhaps not as evident. On the eve of Newland and May’s engagement announcement, Newland meets Ellen for the first time. They were all attending the opera and Newland was noticing how the rest of his peers were talking and making slurs about poor Ellen. He did not like this because he thought it would look bad upon May. He wants May to be known socialite after they wed. Newland states that, “He did not in the least wish the future Mrs. Newland Archer to be a simpleton.” (7) Even before the engagement he already thought by her timid ways that she would not be the way he wanted her to be in their society. He could not believe that May’s family allowed Ellen to attend a public event such as the opera. He also did not want May to be badly influenced by Ellen. While being introduced to Ellen, the... ... middle of paper ... ...ewland and Dallas walked to Ellen’s home, but Newland never went inside to see her. He sent Dallas in, sat down on a bench outside for a few minutes, and then walked back to their hotel. Here he had his chance to see what would have been between him and Ellen, but passed it up. One would guess he wanted to preserve the life that he lived with May and let the dreams he had of being with Ellen to finally come to a close. Today one is the same way as Newland was over a hundred years ago. Protecting those people that surround one is more important than one’s own feelings. Newland lead the life that society thought he should, and though it was not all unhappy, he always had the wonder of “what if”. People today do what they perceive as necessary to survive in the eyes of others. It may not always be what one desires, but is what is required by the surroundings.

Show More
Related

  • Ethan Frome And The House Of Mirth, By Edith Wharton

    920 Words  | 2 Pages

    Wharton’s parents raised her in aristocratic society. Her father, George supported the family working in real estate, while her mother Lucerita was a stay at home mom. Her mother was devoted to high society, and was unsupportive of her interests in writing. (Todd and Wetzel) Unlike her mother, Morton Fullerton supported Wharton. While in England, Wharton met Fullerton. As their relationship progressed, she became close friends with Katharine Fullerton. Katharine was Morton’s orphaned sister, that his family took in. (Witkosky) While Wharton was in England her husband was seeking “cures” for his depression. As portrayed in the novel, Ethan Frome’s wife Zeena was constantly seeking cures for her illness. Like Teddy, Zeena was isolated from society and kept to herself. Ethan’s wife was devoted to high society because she came from an aristocratic home. Therefore, Zeena never supported Ethan’s interest in becoming an engineer. Wharton’s mother was alike to Zeena when it came to how her life was lived. Ethan’s lover, Mattie Silver, was taken in by the Frome’s in the novel. She had no family who wanted her just like Katharine Fullerton. Mattie was raised by the Frome’s in a society she did not know how to adapt to because she was never taught how. “Mattie is attempting unsuccessfully to fit in a society she does not understand.”

    Read More

  • Theme Of Rhetorical Devices In The Thing Hings They Carried

    901 Words  | 2 Pages

    Analyzing innocence has always been a difficult task, not only due to it’s rapid reevaluation in the face of changing societal values, but also due to the highly private and personal nature of the concept. The differences between how people prioritize different types of innocence - childhood desires, intellectual naivety, sexual purity, criminal guilt, etc. - continually obscures the definition of innocence. This can make it difficult for people to sympathize with others’ loss of purity, simply because their definition of that loss will always be dissimilar to the originally expressed idea. Innocence can never truly be adequately described, simply because another will never be able to precisely decipher the other’s words. It is this challenge, the challenge of verbally depicting the isolationism of the corruption of innocence, that Tim O’Brien attempts to endeavour in his fictionalized memoir, The

    Read More

  • Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

    729 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, Ethan, a reserved young man was torn between two women. He was married to Zenobia Frome, but his true love was his wife’s cousin, Mattie Silver. Zeena and Mattie were different in all aspects. Mattie was a caring, loving, beautiful young girl, while Zeena was a sickly, shrewish woman aged well beyond her years. Ethan was continuously drawn to Mattie throughout the novel, as she was much more attractive and amicable than Zeena.

    Read More

  • Ethan Frome Vs. Age of Innocence

    617 Words  | 2 Pages

    The setting shows that no matter the place or people, society will always restrict. Ethan Frome takes place in a small, poor area called Starkfield, while Age of Innocence takes place in the large city of New York. New York is a big, rich city with sophisticated people who have higher standards and only expect the "best" behavior. In Age of Innocence, no family invites Beaufort to dinner or any social events due to his undesirable social status. He divorced his wife for a mistress which was unheard of at that time. Society had tried to restrict him to stay with his wife, and because he rejected this he is punished socially. In Ethan Frome, the town looks down upon Ethan Frome and his family for their past and their dissimilarity to the rest of the town. Mr. Hale does not pay Ethan when he asks for the advance, because he is taking advantage of Ethan. He is acting as the oppressor like society; and Ethan does not argue and therefore is like a follower being restricted, because he did not get paid. Also, wh...

    Read More

  • The Legacy Of Edith Wharton: The Legacy Of Edith Wharton

    1320 Words  | 3 Pages

    Novels such as “The Age of Innocence”(The Editors of), which discusses a “ picture of upper-class New York society in the 1870s” (The Editors of), strongly relates to Wharton and her background. “The Age of Innocence” is considered Wharton’s “finest work” (The Age Of). The novel is based off Newland Archer and May Welland’s troubled marriage. At first, the married couple live in harmony and joy, however this dramatically changes throughout the book. Once Newland meets “May's cousin, the Countess Ellen Olenska, on the run from an unhappy marriage” (The Age of Innocence), Newland immediately falls in love. Society plays a major key role in this book. Therefore, Ellen cannot divorce her husband or make a public announcement of her feelings for Newland. As Newland’s feelings grow deeper for Ellen he feels a strong need to run away with her and live their life together. However, Newland knew that severe consequences would be upheld against him if he were to run away with Ellen. Such as, being disowned from his family. However, he never cared much about the consequences and put Ellen as his main focus. May is a sharp woman and figured out their feelings toward each other and as a result, the day they planned to leave was the day May announced her pregnancy with Newland. The book ends with May and Newland carrying on their unhappy marriage and kids while Ellen and Newland’s relationship is forever

    Read More

  • Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

    1390 Words  | 3 Pages

    Edith Wharton, a famous author of many outstanding books, wrote a chaotic love story entitled Ethan Frome. The story took place in the wintery town of Starkfield, Massachusetts. Wharton was a sophisticated young woman who found love in sitting down and holding people’s attention by way of a pen. Wharton wrote yet another thriller that told the tale of two love stricken people that barely found it possible to be together; which later forced them to fall into the temptation of love that cannot be controlled. Wharton had many different writing styles but for different books meant different needs. In Edith Wharton’s novel, Ethan Frome, frustration and loneliness play roles in disappointment while imagery, symbolism, and individual responsibility provide the novel with a tortuous plot.

    Read More

  • Ethan Frome. by Edith Wharton

    1019 Words  | 3 Pages

    The quiet town of Starkfield, Massachusetts silently and solemnly watches as the story of Ethan Frome, his repulsive wife Zeena, and the lively Mattie Silver and their tragic love triangle unfolds. When Mattie Silver, a cousin of Zeena, comes to live at the broken down Frome farm to take care of Zeena and her constant illnesses, Ethan begins to realize what real love can do to a person. Mattie starts to put light and meaning back into Ethan’s life, appearing to him as “a fairy maiden, a princess of nature” in Ethan’s dark and tedious world (Ammons 2). The dilemmas that Ethan faces about whether or not to choose duty over personal desire occur frequently, causing Ethan to experience many abrupt changes of heart. One minute Ethan speculates about “what he and Mattie were to live on when they reached the West” (Wharton 116). The next minute, he reverts back to a life with Zeena due to a new financial or obligatory obstacle, continuing the internal cycle of arguments he holds over his future. The reader knows from the beginning that Ethan turns out to be hopeless and “the ruin of a man” through the thoughts and relations of a newcomer engineer (Wharton 3). However, the spark of hope that remains in the reader for happiness for Ethan- or any of the characters- throughout the book is annihilated as the ending comes. The sledding suicide attempt of the two lovers, thwarted ironically by Zeena’s loathsome face appearing in Ethan’s mind and swaying his concentration, transformed Mattie “into a mirror-image of Zeena” and forces her to stay at the Frome household until death (Ammons 2). The last chapter in Ethan Frome reveals the horrible situation that “traps all three of them” and forces them to despise each other and relive their past eve...

    Read More

  • Edith Wharton's The Custom of the Country

    438 Words  | 1 Pages

    In The Custom of the Country, Edith Wharton weaves business and greed into the society of her novel. Undine, the heroine of the novel, has insatiable wants, complete disregard for anyone else’s needs and frightening precision in getting what she desires. Although the novel very rarely treads into the offices of Wall Street and only alludes to the business practices making and breaking the characters, business is brought into the parlor and even bedroom of Undine Spragg,

    Read More

  • To Kill a Mockingbird - Theme of Innocence

    510 Words  | 2 Pages

    Innocence is a time when a person has never done something, it is the first step of the theme of innocence to experience. The second step in the movement from innocence to experience, is experience. This step is what is achieved after a person or thing has done something they have never done before or learns something they have never know before. The theme of growth from innocence to experience occurs many times in the first part of To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. This process is one of the central themes in the first eleven chapters of this book, because it shows how Scout and Jem change and mature.

    Read More

  • The House of Mirth: Breaking free from the Reins of Luxury

    1665 Words  | 4 Pages

    The lives we lead and the type of character we possess are said to be individual decisions. Yet from early stages in our life, our character is shaped by the values, customs and mindsets of those who surround us. The characteristics of this environment affect the way we think and behave ultimately shaping us into a product of the environment we are raised in. Lily Bart, the protagonist in Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth, is an exceedingly beautiful bachelorette who grows up accustomed to living a life of luxury amongst New York City’s upper-class in the 20th century. When her family goes bankrupt, Lily is left searching for security and stability, both of which, she is taught can be only be attained through a wealthy marriage. Although, Lily is ashamed of her society’s tendencies, she is afraid that the values taught in her upbringing shaped her into “an organism so helpless outside of its narrow range” (Wharton 423). For Lily, it comes down to a choice between two antagonistic forces: the life she desires with a happiness, freedom and love and the life she was cut out to live with wealth, prestige and power. Although, Lily’s upbringing conditioned her to desire wealth and prestige, Lily’s more significant desires happiness, freedom and love ultimately allow her to break free.

    Read More

  • Loss of Innocence in Truman Capote's In Cold Blood

    874 Words  | 2 Pages

    "All things truly wicked start from an innocence,” states Ernest Hemingway on his view of innocence. Innocence, what every youth possesses, is more accurately described as a state of unknowing but not ignorance- which connotation suggests a blissfully positive view of the world. Most youth are protected from the harsh realities of the adult world. Therefore they are able to maintain their state of innocence. While innocence normally wanes over time, sometimes innocence can be abruptly taken away. Some of the characters in Truman Capotes In Cold Blood lost their innocence due to the traumatic events they experienced in childhood and adulthood while some had none to begin with.

    Read More

  • Progress and Innocence in One Hundred Year of Solitude

    2165 Words  | 5 Pages

    Loss of innocence is a time-worn theme in the literature of every culture. It traditionally takes the form of some type of epiphany visited upon an unsophisticated character as she grows up and encounters the larger world. The focus of this theme is normally personal, in the point of view of an individual, or the omnipotent third person account of the reaction of an individual. While this aspect can be found in the novel, it additionally explores the loss of innocence of a family, people or race, called estirpe in the original edition.

    Read More

  • Relationships in Wharton's The Age of Innocence

    1265 Words  | 3 Pages

    Newland loathes the monotonous conversations with May and repetitiveness of his job. Newland respects and loves May with all his heart, but when she begins to call him original, Newland realizes she was always “going to say the right thing” (Age of Innocence 22) because she was simply giving the replies “instinct and tradition” have taught her (Age of Innocence 72). Cynthia Griffin Wolff, in her article entitled “Edith Wharton”, declares that the small world of New York was “suffocating” and “stifled spontaneous expressions of emotion” (3). Also, Newland lived in a kind of “hieroglyphic world” where what someone actually wanted to say was never said or thought, but just “represented by a set of arbitrary signs” (Age of Innocence 40).

    Read More

  • The Age Of Innocence, By Edith Wharton

    1120 Words  | 3 Pages

    In The Age of Innocence, women are viewed in a white light of innocence. Promiscuity was excusable, even expected of men, but for women sexuality was a part of the criteria to be accepted into society or find a husband. Women were expected to be loyal to their husbands, accept restrictions, and never divorce. Archer sees May exactly as he is expected to, as a pure young woman in need of guidance. However, May had powers of her own that weren’t taken into account by Newland. May had her loyalty, duty, and most importantly, her pregnancy. May had been aware of Newland’s desire to be with Ellen for some time. New York society never would have approved of his choice to do what would make him happy, but May takes matters into her own hands in her final fight for Newland. May reveals that she is pregnant, and this piece of news immediately eliminates Archer’s choice to leave May. Finally, Newland cannot gather up the courage to go against the morals of New York society. He has no choice but to put the interests of his family above his own desires once again. The idea of a female character revealing her intuition and shred of social power ultimately forces Newland, and the reader, to question who is really in

    Read More

  • The Social Upheaval in Persuasion by Jane Austin

    876 Words  | 2 Pages

    Before the major upheaval occurs Jane Austin gives us a glimpse of what social life, the class distinction, was like through the perspective of Ann Elliot. Ann is the second out of three daughters to Sir Walter Elliot, the proud head of the family (Austen, 2). The Elliots are an old landowning family that seems well known in the upper echelons of British society. The most important piece of background we are presented with as central to the plot of the story is that eight years prior to the setting Ann was engaged to a man she loved, Frederick Wentworth. They were soon engaged, but her family along with mother-like figure, Lady Russell, soon persuaded Ann that the match was unsuitable because Frederick Wentworth was essentially unworthy without any money or prestige (Austen, 30). This piece of background echoes exclusivity among the upper classes of Britain. In that time it would seem unacceptable for a girl like Ann with a family like hers to marry or even associate with someone not of ...

    Read More

More about Society in The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

Open Document