Yet after their marriage, she suspects that Newland is Ellen's lover. The The Age of Innocence quotes below are all either spoken by Ellen Olenska or refer to Ellen Olenska. Her welcoming Ellen is viewed skeptically, and she insists the rest of the family support Ellen. Ellen's love for Newland drives her important decisions: dropping divorce from Count Olenski, remaining in America, and offering Newland choice of sexual consummation only once, and then disappearing from his life. He imagines seeing, Everything happens the way Archer imagined. He sees the sexual inequality of New York society and the shallowness of its customs, and struggles to balance social commitment to May with love for Ellen. She tore it open and carried it to the lamp; then, when the door had closed again, she handed the telegram to Archer.It was dated from St. Augustine, and addressed to the Countess Olenska. She had never before made any allusion to the flowers, and he supposed she had never thought of him as the sender. [4], Wharton was raised in the old world of rigid and proper New York society which features in the story. Ellen Olenska brings up the general "Woman Question" in modern literary criticism. Now her sudden recognition of the gift, and her associating it with the tender leave-taking on the stage, filled him with an agitated pleasure. He thinks it must be bad, if the family is summoning, ...way into the drawing room, she turns the conversation back to the problem of getting, When they leave the Wellands’, May asks Archer how he’ll be able to meet, ...lights, and telephones without wires. She offers to release him from their engagement so he can marry the woman he truly loves, thinking he wants to be with Mrs. Rushworth, a married woman with whom he had recently ended a love affair. He realizes that, ...their fanciest china, and everyone is dressed most handsomely, if in an old-fashioned way. Archer can’t imagine, ...all, in the same world as before. ", The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter, Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Fighting France: From Dunkerque to Belfort, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Age_of_Innocence&oldid=1017502166, Pulitzer Prize for the Novel-winning works, American novels adapted into television shows, Wikipedia articles with MusicBrainz work identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WorldCat-VIAF identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, In 2009, an episode of the television teen drama, This page was last edited on 13 April 2021, at 03:49. Since childhood, his life has been shaped by the customs and expectations of upper-class New York City society. Your grateful May.”. Mr. Jackson interjects that at the French court, moral standards were very lax. ...Mrs. Mingott might convince the Wellands to move the wedding up. The implication is that May did so because she suspected the affair and that this is Ellen's reason for returning to Europe. She brings him a note that, ...an honor that the van der Luydens have agreed to attend May’s farewell dinner for, ...through the guest list, and Mrs. Welland says that May and Archer are certainly giving, A day or two later, Archer went to visit Mrs. Mingott, who lamented, ...drawing room is generally thought to be decorated very nicely. Nonetheless, May pretends to be happy before society, maintaining the illusion that she and he have the perfect marriage expected of them. While the novel gives a facade of hope and achievement, it is actually about failure and despair. I’ve wanted to tell you that, when two people really love each other, I understand that there may be situations which might make it right that they should—should go against public opinion. Newland is stunned at the prospect of seeing Ellen again. After dinner, he and, Archer watches Lawrence Lefferts and his wife meeting, At 5:30 the next evening, Archer rings the bell of the house, Archer meant to tell May that he was going to visit, ...examines the room, which is decorated unlike any room he’s seen. May is a picture of Innocence. By the first of November this household ritual was over, and society had begun to look about and take stock of itself. Compartmentalizing her life’s roles prevented her from having to compromise the distinct qualities of each paradigm. Being accepted by high-class acquaintances is another common theme that is displayed throughout this novel. The real loneliness is living among all these kind people who only ask one to pretend! And if you feel yourself in any way pledged... pledged to the person we’ve spoken of... and if there is any way... any way in which you can fulfill your pledge... even by her getting a divorce... Newland, don’t give her up because of me! After May's death, Newland Archer learns she had always known of his continued love for Ellen; as May lay dying, she told their son Dallas that the children could always trust their father, Newland, because he surrendered the thing most meaningful to him out of loyalty to their marriage. She became a countess by marrying Polish Count Olenski, a European nobleman. When he says, Archer doesn’t understand. She asks what happened to him; she was waiting at Mrs. Mingott’s when, However, Archer is shown into Mrs. Mingott’s room without seeing, Mrs. Mingott says that her family convinced her to cut off, Before Archer saw Mrs. Mingott, he had planned to learn what day, ...them. If The Age of Innocence were a fairy tale, our guide/mentor would probably be a wizened old man or sweet old lady. He wonders whether he would know if, On the drive home, May says she would have liked to see, ...only reality, but now it feels incredibly unreal. Mrs. Welland introduces, ...guests to be received. She changes the subject to, ...give details. Frustrated by her independence, the family has cut off her money, as the count had already done. "[11] The characters take pride in their social standings and those that come from "old money" feel threatened by those that are coming from "new money". Wharton wrote the book in her 50s, after she had established herself as a strong author, with publishers clamoring for her work. Ellen suffers as much as Newland from their impossible love, but she is willing to live in emotional limbo so long as they can love each other at a distance.
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