Age of Innocence Essay Question How far do

Age of Innocence Essay Question: How far do you find the title of this novel “Age of innocence” an appropriate one for the issues it explores? OR To what extent is the era of Old New York truly an “Age of Innocence”?

Innocence (def) The state, quality, or virtue of being innocent as: • a. Freedom from sin / moral wrong OR Guiltlessness of a specific legal crime • b. simplicity or artlessness [usually associated with freedom from guile, cunning, or deceit] • c. Lack of worldliness or sophistication; naiveté. • d. Lack of knowledge or understanding; ignorance. • e. Freedom from harmfulness; inoffensiveness.

Historical period • Although published in 1920, the novel is set in the 1870 s. • New York in the late nineteenth century was a major trading port, a nucleus for immigration and the cultural capital of America. • It was a brave ‘New World’ of opportunity that had broken free from the ‘old world’ of Europe. • This was the Gilded Age (1877 -1889), a period of unparalleled growth in wealth and industry. • The novel faithfully recounts the social rituals of upperclass New York society of that time – a class that is now dead and buried – ‘memorialized’ in this novel.

Age of Innocence • The innocence Wharton recalled in her novel was about the sexual propriety and financial rectitude of her parents' age and their aversion to the uglier side of life(Waid). • It was a society that upheld values of loyalty (to family), chastity and honesty. • a society that advocated gentility, refinement and high sophistication in the pursuit of a cultured lifestyle in keeping with their status in society. • BUT This society was obsessed with Social Form and Taste and spent all its time and most of its energy on its social code – its rituals and rules. • Eg the wedding

Chpt 19 – the wedding • “The things that had filled his days seemed now like a nursery parody of life …. ” pg 149 • “A stormy discussion as to whether the wedding presents should be "shown" had darkened the last hours before the wedding; and it seemed inconceivable to Archer that grown-up people should work themselves into a state of agitation over such trifles ……” pg 149 • => the childishness and infantilism of their concerns • => their attention to ‘trifles’ overrides the real significance of the wedding => it becomes an empty ritual

Aversion to the uglier side of life • The extreme concern with aesthetics and ‘form’ have meant they focus/worry too much on the minutiae of their social code – obsessing on details. • Hardly anyone is aware of how stagnant and in danger of decay their society is …except for Mrs Mingott who warns of the need for change “we need new blood and new money” pg 25 • Their existence is sheltered and protected by their wealth and privileges. • “Archer …. in full agreement with Mr. Letterblair's view; but put into words by this selfish, well-fed and supremely indifferent old man it suddenly became the Pharisaic voice of a society wholly absorbed in barricading itself against the unpleasant. Pg 80

Innocence or Ignorance? • "Now we're coming to hard facts, " he thought, conscious in himself of the same instinctive recoil that he had so often criticised in his mother and her contemporaries. How little practice he had in dealing with unusual situations!” pg 88 • Their Innocence is more Ignorance as they insulate themselves from the ‘harsher’ or ‘uglier’ side of life. • (as described in the novel) Their insularity and provincialism also betray a lack of concern or knowledge of a wider world and its possible impact on them => they live in Ignorance of the oncoming world war that will change all life and history and sweep their Innocence away forever. • They have a tendency to Ignore reality

Innocence and Hypocrisy • Although good values are upheld, the novel reveals instances of hypocrisy and cruelty practiced under the guise of respectability or gentility. • Eg the farewell dinner to Ellen: • “He guessed himself to have been, for months, the centre of countless silently observing eyes and patiently listening ears, he understood that, by means as yet unknown to him, the separation between himself and the partner of his guilt had been achieved, and that now the whole tribe had rallied about his wife on the tacit assumption that nobody knew anything, or had ever imagined anything, and that the occasion of the entertainment was simply May Archer's natural desire to take an affectionate leave of her friend and cousin. “ pg 276

• => under the cover of graciousness & generosity – the ‘tribe’ is basically enforcing social order and ‘getting rid’ of an unwanted ‘foreigner’ => note how everyone conspires not to allow the ‘lovers’ to speak privately to each other. • It was the old New York way of taking life "without effusion of blood": the way of people who dreaded scandal more than disease, who placed decency above courage, and who considered that nothing was more illbred than "scenes, " except the behaviour of those who gave rise to them. Pg Chpt 33 p 276

Issue of Women • Innocence vs Experience: May vs Ellen • May is the perfect embodiment of Innocence / purity. From the moment, we are introduced to her – she is portrayed as the ‘ideal woman’- the ‘nice’ woman. • At the Opera, everything about her signals Purity from her dressing, her demeanor, her ‘frank’ eyes the flowers she carries ‘lilies of the valley’. Her very Innocence marks her appeal => at the Van der Luyden dinner, we are told that she is the ‘handsomest girl’ in the room and the general consensus from the ‘tribe’ is that ‘there is no better match in NY than May Welland’

• But she is a “creation of factitious purity, so cunningly manufactured by a conspiracy of mothers and aunts and grandmothers and long-dead ancestresses…’p 37 => Her Innocence is not ‘natural’ but ‘artificial’ – from social conditioning and training. • Her Innocence stems from Ignorance / avoidance of experience : • “She was frank, poor darling, because she had nothing to conceal, assured because she knew of nothing to be on her guard against; and with no better preparation than this, she was to be plunged overnight into what people evasively called "the facts of life. " p 37

• At first, Archer chooses her for these very attributes: • p 20 ‘What a new life it was going to be, with this whiteness, radiance, goodness at one's side!” , • P 21 “Nothing about his betrothed pleased him more than her resolute determination to carry to its utmost limit that ritual of ignoring the "unpleasant" in which they had both been brought up. ” => she has been taught to avoid life’s difficulties. • May’s innocence (ignorance) – ensures that social stability and society as they know it is maintained. Enacting ‘blameless domesticity’, May’s influence over Archer is to place him back into class and family. Her two telegrams block Archer’s attempts to leave the family. Her timely pregnancy also helps her enforce society’s claims on Archer.

• After their marriage, p 160 -161” Archer had reverted to all his old inherited ideas about marriage. It was less trouble to conform with the tradition and treat May exactly as all his friends treated their wives … There was no use in trying to emancipate a wife who had not the dimmest notion that she was not free. . ’ • Any thought of rebellion (from Archer) is crushed by the power of her innocence and ‘fineness of feeling for him. ” “Whatever happened, he knew, she would always be loyal, gallant and unresentful; and that pledged him to the practice of the same virtues. All this tended to draw him back into his old habits of mind. ” 161 • With May as his wife, Old NY can rest easy, family and property are safe for another generation.

• However, Archer’s appreciation of May becomes oppression and distaste: May looks like a “type rather than a person” ; a model for “ a civic virtue or a Greek Goddess’, with “ preserving fluid for blood” p 154. • Archer continues to ‘read’ May’s character in the rhetoric approved by his society – he ‘locks her in the virginal script he criticizes’ (Knight). • She remains for him – an emptiness, a blank white page of convention, infantile, cold and suffocatingly present “The room is stifling, I want a bit of air” pg 243 “…he marveled afresh at the way in which experience dropped away from her. ” p 173

• Yet there are indications of possible hidden depths: • If blushes are a ‘red flag’ showing knowledge of which no lady is permitted, then May’s blushes speak volumes. It is possible to see the blushes as signs of an interior life, imagination, blood and feeling that Archer prefers to overlook in May. • The end of the novel with Dallas’ revelation of May’s knowledge also hint at a deeper understanding in May which Archer did not credit her for. • “After a little while he did not regret Dallas's indiscretion. It seemed to take an iron band from his heart to know that, after all, some one had guessed and pitied. . And that it should have been his wife moved him indescribably “ pg 294. => his marriage was not all duty – there was empathy and understanding

May’s death • At the end, Archer’s final memories of May are: • “And as he had seen her that day, so she had remained; never quite at the same height, yet never far below it: generous, faithful, unwearied; but so lacking in imagination, so incapable of growth, that the world of her youth had fallen into pieces and rebuilt itself without her ever being conscious of the change. ” 287 => Archer sees her as never having changed. • “she had died thinking the world a good place, full of loving and harmonious households like her own, pg 287 => protected by a kind of ‘innocent family hypocrisy’ May died protected from reality and unpleasantness – just as she had lived her life.

• May’s manipulation of Archer – is more innocent guile (oxymoron)than underhanded trickery. • Her methods though manipulative are also open and frank – she does not hide the fact that she announced her pregnancy to Ellen before she was sure. • She basically uses the only weapons she has – her family support, her fertility and her socially sanctioned status as wife. Her methods work only because of the basic sense of decency and morality that both Ellen and Archer possess. • She also has ‘luck’ on her side – her pregnancy was very timely.

Ellen – woman of experience • In contrast to May, Ellen is depicted as The Woman of Experience. • From the start, Archer depicts Ellen as a figure of “unattainable plenitude” (Knight) – he fills her with ‘suggestion’ – of enigma, passion, womanliness, Europe, mysterious joys, appalling suffering, art, music, literature, excitement and adventure. This expressed through the exoticism of her room, her beauty and the expression of her eyes. • Being in her home is like being in ‘Samarkand’ p 62 its smell - ‘rather like the scent of some far-off bazaar, a smell made up of Turkish coffee and ambergris and dried roses. ” 58

Ellen • Archer romanticises Ellen but society fears her and sees her as the unsettling Other / Outsider. • Her life’s experiences and situation make her radically unstable unlike the ‘simplicity’ and predictability of May • A Lady should be like an ‘idol’ - all inert and passive/silent. An ornament to be admired but Ellen’s ‘animated talk’ and relaxed posture are viewed as signs of self-will and passion. • Ellen’s dressing also ‘codes’ the erotic – and she is presented as an image of sexuality. Eg ‘the robe of red velvet with the glossy black fur’ chpt 9 • She is also the one who voices the desire for a sexual tryst “Shall I once come to you; and then go home? ” pg 257 and asks Archer bluntly if he intends to make her his mistress.

Innocence in Ellen (? ) • Yet the Novel never really confirms Ellen’s bold sensuality. Behind her frank exterior could be chasteness and selfcontainment. • Still, since women in Old NY are defined only in relation to men, Ellen’s status is that of a ‘scarlet woman’ who ran from her husband. • Ellen is innocent of any taint of adultery - neither with the Secretary nor with Archer. • Her relationship with Archer is a result of Archer’s sense of family solidarity rather than any overt seduction on her part. • Ellen’s ‘innocence’ can also be seen at the beginning in her naïve expectation that Old NY will welcome her.

• However, from this naivety she achieves growth and maturity. • She learns from Archer =>: “…you who made me understand that under the dullness there are things so fine and sensitive and delicate that even those I most cared for in my other life look cheap in comparison. ” 198.

Double standards • The demands of innocence on women is of course greater than on men. • Men are encouraged to have sexual exploits but before marriage. After marriage – they are considered ‘innocent’ – as long as they do not hurt the family or society by flouting their mistresses in public. • As mentioned earlier, their ‘Innocence’ takes the form of Ignorance – as society encourages both men and women to ignore ‘the ugly realities of life’

Archer’s naivety / innocence • As a bildungsroman – the novel traces Archer’s development from an ‘untried youth’ to a mature and fulfilled ‘citizen’ of his community. • Archer’s Innocence/Ignorance lies initially in his unthinking acceptance of the rules and norms of his society. • He judges his actions as morally acceptable based on the values of his society. • His maturity begins only when he starts to question the gendered patterns of power in Old NY. Ellen is the catalyst of change and growth in Archer. • Whilst appreciating the fine civility of his society, he also recognises its empty rituals and repressivness.

Conclusion • Ultimately, the ending of the novel reveals that more important than preserving innocence is allowing growth and change to take place. • The Old NY society of the 1870 s was ‘innocent’ in its ignorance and provincialism but it must give way to a more progressive society. • Note how only Archer and Ellen survive to welcome the new Age. By accepting change and maturing, both Archer and Ellen continue to lives of contentment peace and influence in their respective worlds.

• As the critic Cynthia Wolff states – by naming the novel after a well known painting of a little girl by Sir Joshua Reynolds, Wharton has already made it clear that the only real Innocence is in childhood • What is of greater importance is that society and individuals learn to accept what they cannot change and move on.