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The Age of Innocence

Name: The Age of Innocence
Author: Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton

1920 · Early 20th Century · Novel · English

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Abstract

Written: 1919-1920
Setting: 1870s, with an epilogue about thirty years later; New York, Newport, Florida, Boston and Paris
Author: Edith Wharton
Country: United States
Language: English
Genre: Novel of manners
Form: Novel in two books
Recommended: Grades 10–12 (Pulitzer Prize novel of manners; restrained treatment of a love affair.)

World. In the 1870s a small circle of wealthy New York families keeps order by ritual, gossip and silence. A well-born young attorney accepts its rules and is betrothed to a lovely, proper girl.

Disturbance. Her cousin, a countess estranged from a cruel European husband, comes home seeking a divorce. Her freedom of manner shocks the clan and fascinates the attorney, who is told to talk her out of the divorce.

Temptation. He marries quickly to escape his feelings, but marriage bores him, and he and the countess come close to an affair.

Containment. His young wife quietly announces a coming child, the countess departs for Europe, and he realizes the whole family has managed the crisis while pretending to see nothing.

Coda. Decades later, a widower in Paris with his son, he sits beneath the countess's window and chooses not to climb the stairs. Wharton's Pulitzer winner is an ironic, finally tender elegy for a vanished society.

For readers. Written just after the First World War, the book contrasts a vanished, rule-bound world with the freer age of the hero's son. Students can debate whether the old code protected people or simply imprisoned them, and whether duty or passion deserves to win.

Main characters

Newland Archer: A young New York lawyer of good family.
May Welland: Conventional, loyal and shrewder than she seems.
Ellen Olenska: A countess who has left her husband in Europe.
Mrs. Manson Mingott: May and Ellen's grandmother, a formidable old woman.
Julius Beaufort: A rich, disreputable financier.
Dallas Archer: A young man of the new generation.

Summary

The Age of Innocence, published in 1920, won Edith Wharton the Pulitzer Prize in 1921, the first awarded to a woman for fiction. It looks back fifty years to the New York society of the 1870s, a world governed by unspoken rules and family alliances. Newland Archer, a young lawyer of good family, is engaged to May Welland, beautiful, conventional and seemingly innocent. At the opera he meets May's cousin, Countess Ellen Olenska, who has returned from Europe after leaving her husband, a dissolute Polish count. Ellen's unconventional manners and her wish for a divorce scandalize the family, and Archer, asked by his law firm to dissuade her, finds himself falling in love with her. Ellen opens his eyes to the narrowness of his world; old New York, Wharton writes, lived in a kind of hieroglyphic world where the real thing was never said. To escape temptation Archer hastens his marriage to May. Married life proves dull, and his feelings for Ellen grow; they meet secretly and plan to become lovers. But May, far shrewder than Archer supposed, tells Ellen that she is pregnant before she is certain of it, and Ellen returns to Europe. The family closes ranks around May with a farewell dinner for Ellen, and Archer realizes that everyone has believed him and Ellen to be lovers and has quietly managed the situation. He stays with May, and they live a decent, dutiful life. Many years later, after May's death, Archer, now fifty-seven, goes to Paris with his son Dallas, who reveals that May knew of his sacrifice. Archer sits outside Ellen's apartment but decides not to go up, preferring the memory to the reality. The novel is a subtle, ironic and finally tender study of duty, desire and social convention, and of how much the world had changed by 1920.

Virtues in this work

Honor: Archer keeps his marriage vows to May despite his love for Ellen.
Temperance: He restrains his passion for Ellen.

Plot or Argument

The engagement
Archer, engaged to May, meets Ellen Olenska and is asked to discourage her divorce.
Marriage
Archer marries May but cannot forget Ellen; they meet and plan to be together.
The farewell
May's announcement sends Ellen to Europe; the family gives her a farewell dinner.
Thirty years later
After May's death, Archer goes to Paris and decides not to see Ellen.

Characters

Newland Archer, protagonist
A young New York lawyer of good family.
May Welland, Archer's fiancée and wife
Conventional, loyal and shrewder than she seems.
Ellen Olenska, May's cousin
A countess who has left her husband in Europe.
Mrs. Manson Mingott, family matriarch
May and Ellen's grandmother, a formidable old woman.
Julius Beaufort, banker
A rich, disreputable financier.
Dallas Archer, Archer's son
A young man of the new generation.

Lessons

Rules unspoken
Old New York governs itself by signs rather than words. Students can find examples of what is meant but never said.
- What is the 'hieroglyphic world'?
- How does the family deal with scandal?
- Are such rules good or bad for people?
Related across the library
- Great Expectations, Chapter II
  to look after him and the river was just another horizontal line not nearly so broad nor yet so black and the sky was just a row of long angry red lines and dense black lines intermixed On the edge of the river I could faintly make out the only two black things in all the prospect that seemed to be standing upright one of these was the beacon by which the sailors steered like an unhooped cask upon a pole an ugly thing when you were near it the other a gibbet with some chains hanging to it which had once held a p...
- In Darkest England and the Way Out, Part 1, Chapter 6: The Vicious
  what he cannot do And so it is with the drunkards If they are to be rescued there must be something more done for them than at present is attempted unless of course we decide definitely to allow the iron laws of nature to work themselves out in their destruction In that case it might be more merciful to facilitate the slow workings of natural law There is no need of establishing a lethal chamber for drunkards like that into which the lost dogs of London are driven to die in peaceful sleep under the influence of...
- My Life and Work, Full Text
  so and always will be so And if any man cannot see it it is because he will not look beyond his own nose Now as to saturation We are continually asked When will you get to the point of overproduction When will there be more cars than people to use them We believe it is possible some day to reach the point where all goods are produced so cheaply and in such quantities that overproduction will be a reality But as far as we are concerned we do not look forward to that condition with fear--we look forward to it with...
- The Gay Science, FEARLESS ONES
  as we have said and not as a German Or did the Germans prove at least by the way in which they seized on the Schopenhauerian question their inner connection and relationship to him their preparation for his problem and their need of it That there has been thinking and printing even in Germany since Schopenhauer's time on the problem raised by him it was late enough does not at all suffice to enable us to decide in favour of this closer relationship one could on the contrary lay great stress on the peculiar awkwa...
- The Black Arrow, Full Text
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Duty and desire
Archer gives up Ellen for May. Wharton presents his choice with both regret and respect.
- Why does Archer stay with May?
- Was it the right choice?
- What does Dallas reveal at the end?
Related across the library
- Antony and Cleopatra, Act 5, Scene 2
  In her strong toil of grace Caesar, viewing the dead queen, says she looks as if she would catch another Antony in her net of beauty; even the victor pays her tribute.
- Passing, Lesson: Security versus freedom
  Security versus freedom. Irene craves stability; Clare and Brian both crave escape. The novel asks what is lost when safety becomes the highest value in a marriage or a life.
- Far from the Madding Crowd, Lesson: Vanity and its consequences
  Vanity and its consequences. Bathsheba admires herself in a mirror on the first page and sends a valentine as a joke. Her small vanities set off great consequences for Boldwood, and she grows through suffering into humility and honesty.
- Fathers and Sons, Ch. 3–5
  Bazarov collects and dissects frogs at Maryino to study physiology.
- Cranford, Lesson: Honesty when it costs
  Honesty when it costs. Miss Matty gives five sovereigns for a farmer's worthless note because she feels responsible as a shareholder. Captain Brown admits his poverty openly. Both choose honesty over appearances.
Innocence
The title is ironic. Students can decide who in the novel is truly innocent.
- Is May innocent?
- What does Archer learn about innocence?
- How has the world changed by the last chapter?
Related across the library
- Eugene Onegin, Lesson: Faithfulness
  Faithfulness. Tatiana chooses fidelity to her marriage over her feelings for Onegin.
- A Lost Lady, Part Two, Ch. V
  After a second stroke the townswomen take over the house, Mrs. Forrester collapses and lives on black coffee and brandy, and Niel takes charge of the nursing and night vigils.
- A Lost Lady, Lesson: Draining the marsh
  Draining the marsh. Ivy Peters drains the meadows the Captain kept for their beauty and plants wheat. Niel sees the act as spite and as the new West's habit of cutting everything into profitable bits. The marsh becomes a symbol of the difference between owning land to use it and owning it to love it.
- The Quiet American, Lesson: Innocence is not harmless
  Innocence is not harmless. Pyle's danger lies in the union of personal decency with abstract political certainty. Greene teaches that innocence backed by power can evade responsibility for the bodies it harms.
- Washington Square, Lesson: Romance can educate through pain
  Romance can educate through pain. Catherine's love for Morris wounds her, but it also separates her inwardly from her father's judgment. Disappointment becomes part of her moral adulthood.

Context

Wharton, writing after the First World War, looked back on the closed society of her own childhood in 1870s New York.

Composition

Serialized in the Pictorial Review in 1920 and published that year by D. Appleton.

Reception

It won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for the Novel and is widely regarded as Wharton's masterpiece.

Marriage Class / Society Love Desire Memory / Time Gender Women

Comparisons

The House of Mirth
Wharton's earlier novel of New York society and its victims.
The Great Gatsby
Another 1920s novel about longing, wealth and the impossible past.

Quotes

“In reality they all lived in a kind of hieroglyphic world, where the real thing was never said or done or even thought, but only represented by a set of arbitrary signs”

— Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence, Book I, Chapter VI (Project Gutenberg #541).Quote card

The Real Mother Goose, Full Text
going to St Ives As I was going to sell my eggs As I was going up Pippen Hill As I went through the garden gap As I went to Bonner As little Jenny Wren As round as an apple as deep as a cup As soft as silk as white as milk As the days grow longer As Tommy Snooks and Bessy Brooks A sunshiny shower A swarm of bees in May At the siege of Belleisle Away birds away Baa baa black sheep Barber barber shave a pig Bat bat Bell horses bell horses what time of day Bessy Bell and Mary Gray Billy Billy come and play Birds of...
The Argonautica, Book III, Medea's sleepless night
And fast did her heart throb within her breast, as a sunbeam quivers upon the walls of a house when flung up from water, which is just poured forth in a caldron or a pail may be; and hither and thither on the swift eddy does it dart and dance along; even so the maiden’s heart quivered in her breast. The famous simile for Medea's agitation as she lies awake deciding whether to give Jason the drug that will save him.
Middlemarch, Full Text
the mysterious mixture behaves under the varying experiments of Time has not dwelt at least briefly on the life of Saint Theresa has not smiled with some gentleness at the thought of the little girl walking forth one morning hand-in-hand with her still smaller brother to go and seek martyrdom in the country of the Moors Out they toddled from rugged Avila wide-eyed and helpless-looking as two fawns but with human hearts already beating to a national idea until domestic reality met them in the shape of uncles and...
Great Expectations, Chapter V
had tumbled into and all the injuries I had done myself and all the times she had wished me in my grave and I had contumaciously refused to go there I think the Romans must have aggravated one another very much with their noses Perhaps they became the restless people they were in consequence Anyhow Mr Wopsle s Roman nose so aggravated me during the recital of my misdemeanours that I should have liked to pull it until he howled But all I had endured up to this time was nothing in comparison with the awful feeling...
The Red and the Black, Full Text
that she thought it imprudent to get Julien's uniform made at Verri res She wanted to surprise both him and the town Having settled the questions of the guards of honour and of the public welcome finished the mayor had now to organise a great religious ceremony The King of did not wish to pass through Verri res without visiting the famous relic of St Clement which is kept at Bray-le-Haut barely a league from the town The authorities wanted to have a numerous attendance of the clergy but this matter was the most...

“Each time you happen to me all over again.”

— Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence, Book II, Chapter XXIX (Project Gutenberg #541).Quote card

The Mysterious Island, Chapter 7
boat and Pencroft would rig it as a cutter and they would be able to undertake voyages of circumnavigation round the island etc In the meanwhile night came on and it was already dark when the settlers reached Flotsam Point where they had found the precious chest The distance between Flotsam Point and Granite House was another four miles and it was midnight when after having followed the shore to the mouth of the Mercy the settlers arrived at the first angle formed by the Mercy There the river was eighty feet in...
The Railway Children, Chapter VI, Saviours of the train
How lucky we DID put on our red flannel petticoats! After the train stops short of the landslide, Phyllis thinks of the luck of the red flannel.
Kim, Chapter XV
“I am Kim. I am Kim. And what is Kim?” Recovering after the mission, Kim feels detached from the world and asks who he is, a question that runs through the book.
Kim, Chapter I, opening sentence
He sat, in defiance of municipal orders, astride the gun Zam Zammah on her brick platform opposite the old Ajaib-Gher—the Wonder House, as the natives call the Lahore Museum. The novel opens with Kim on the great cannon outside the Lahore Museum, just before he meets the lama.
The Jungle Book, Full Text
tiger who has caught nothing and does not care if all the jungle knows it The fool said Father Wolf To begin a night s work with that noise Does he think that our buck are like his fat Waingunga bullocks H sh It is neither bullock nor buck he hunts to-night said Mother Wolf It is Man The whine had changed to a sort of humming purr that seemed to come from every quarter of the compass It was the noise that bewilders woodcutters and gypsies sleeping in the open and makes them run sometimes into the very mouth of t...

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

The opera scene at the opening.
How the family treats Ellen.
The scenes at the Patroon's house and in Boston.
May's farewell dinner for Ellen.
The final chapter in Paris.

Key terms and names

Old New York: The established families of New York society in the 19th century.
Irony: A gap between appearance and reality.
Novel of manners: A novel about a society's customs and values.
Countess: A noblewoman, here Ellen's title from her marriage to a Polish count.

Seminar Questions

Comprehension Why has Ellen returned to New York?
Comprehension Why does Archer hurry his wedding?
Comprehension What does May tell Ellen?
Interpretation What does the farewell dinner mean?
Interpretation Why does Archer not go up to Ellen's apartment?
Big Question Is it better to keep a promise than to follow one's heart?

Faith Connections

Matthew 5:37 (Scripture)
Let your yea be yea; old New York hides the truth behind signs.
1 Corinthians 13:7 (Scripture)
Love beareth all things; compare May's loyalty.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Convention can be stifling, yet the loyalty it protects can have real worth; Archer's sacrifice is both a loss and a quiet fidelity.

Rhetorical device: irony. The title calls the age innocent while showing a society that knows and manages everything.

Debate: Resolved: that Archer was right to stay with May.

Memory Work

In reality they all lived in a kind of hieroglyphic world, where the real thing was never said or done or even thought, but only represented by a set of arbitrary signs
Book I, Chapter VI. Wharton's memorable description of a society that never says what it means.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Compare Archer's view of May at the beginning and at the end.

Comparison with The House of Mirth: Compare Ellen Olenska with Lily Bart as women judged by New York society.

Creative Prompts

Essay
Who is the most innocent character in The Age of Innocence?
Dialogue
Write the conversation between May and Ellen that Archer never hears.
Classroom
List five social rules of old New York and the scenes that show them.