The Age of Innocence Critics Flashcards
The Guardian
“Offered his freedom, he does not accept it. Married, and desperate with desire for the woman whom he loves and who loves him, he is on the point of sacrificing her to his love when the woman to whom he is married discovers herself to be enceinte.”
“The planned dishonour is abandoned, and the tale is finished. Convention rather than humanity has conquered impulse.”
R. McCrum
“Meanwhile, in a typical Wharton twist, Newland Archer’s bride may be timid, but she is determined to marry her fiancé and uses all the power of New York society to bring him to heel.”
A. Mariva DeBorde
“[In Newland Archer] Wharton has drawn a character who lacks the ability to choose. Although he admires the ‘fire’ he sees in Ellen, it is something he must do from afar, for he is a man ultimately made of water.”
Dr. L. Bennet
“Newland Archer radically misreads the apparently unknowing May Welland”
