course guidelines path one calendar class discussion path two calendar essay prompts reference pages

 

ornamental line

Naturalism, Realism, or Romanticism

The Age of Innocence (1920)
pagination from 1999 Oxford World's Classics edition
edited by Stephen Orgel


“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” (32).


Points for Reflection

The Age of Innocence (1920), chps 1-14 (3-91)

  1. Archer believes himself adept at understanding others’ thoughts and unspoken desires.  Does he understand himself?
  2. are the social “forms” rigorously held to by members of New York’s upper-class society generated by a preoccupation with honesty and truth?
  3. do the wealthy in New York rely more heavily on non-verbal forms of communication than on words?
  4. what do the Arts (literature, music, painting, etc.) give to Newland?
  5. does Newland Archer belong more to upper-class New York society, or artistic, bohemian society?
  6. does Newland appreciate Ellen more for who she is, or for what she represents to him?
  7. does Book I of this novel (thus far) deliver a consistent thesis concerning women’s rights?


The Age of Innocence (1920), chps 15-24 (91-171)

  1. how has the value and significance Newland attaches to May Welland’s innocence recently changed?
  2. why does Newland wish to marry May Welland at the beginning of the novel, and have his reasons for wishing to hasten the wedding changed by the end of Book I?
  3. Newland Archer notes, upon first visiting Ellen in her own home, that he cannot decipher her non-verbal cues (49).  Does he later succeed in reading her accurately, or does his understanding of her thoughts and emotions remain imperfect?
  4. Newland Archer considers himself adept at reading others’ minds.  Does he tend to be accurate or inaccurate in assessing the mental movements of May and Ellen?
  5. is Archer attracted more to the sexual purity of May, or the sexual experience of Ellen?
  6. how do the following words, uttered by May earlier in the novel, gain new meaning in the final chapters of the novel? “You mustn’t think that a girl knows as little as her parents imagine” (105).
  7. what clues has the narrative dropped that May is not as ignorant as Newland assumes?
  8. Archer assumes, following six months of marriage, that he has obtained the key to deciphering May’s “dreamy silences” (141).  Does Book II support his claim?  Does he understand May better following their wedding than before it?


The Age of Innocence (1920), chps 25-34 (172-254)

  1. how does Archer’s opinion of old New York’s “forms” and proprieties change across Book II?
  2. does Newland configure either May or Ellen as more a three-dimensional person than a symbol?
  3. does Newland’s marriage nurture more than it drains him?
  4. in the final analysis, is the marriage of May and Newland a failure?  Be sure to include a discussion of the final chapter in your response.
  5. does duty ultimately provide Arthur a bedrock foundation on which to stand, or does it provide only a mirage of success—a pyrrhic victory?
  6. why might Wharton have earlier placed, outside Ellen’s residence in Newport, “a wooden Cupid who had lost his bow and arrow but continued to take ineffectual aim” (157 mid).
  7. what do you make of the fact that, each time Archer sees Ellen after a period of separation, he cannot remember such details as the sound of her voice (161), or the appearance of her face (199)?
  8. does Archer want a sexual relationship with Ellen Olenska?
  9. is Newland Archer unfaithful to his wife—does he betray his marital vows?
  10. early in Book II, M. Rivière tells Newland, “‘it’s worth everything . . . to keep one’s intellectual liberty, not to enslave one’s powers of appreciation, one’s critical independence’”  Does Newland himself achieve this kind of intellectual independence as a married man?
  11. in what ways does the opera Faust, which opened the novel (3-4) and now helps close it (222), bookend the novel’s thematic concerns?
  12. does upper New York society operate from the assumption of females’ inner strength or weakness?
  13. why does Archer not ascend the stairs?


Impressionistic painting of woman in gossamer clothes walking away from viewer towards ocean
"Annabel Lee" (c.1890)
James Whistler


Dr. Paul Marchbanks
pmarchba@calpoly.edu