Wharton’s The Age Of Innocence

Question 1

Similarity between The Age of Innocence and Plath’s work

Answer 1

Both Newland and Plath’s protagonists experience a sense of emotional detachment and inertia within society

Question 2

Newland Archer conditioned to the New York society ideals presented as historic laws

Answer 2

‘this seemed natural to Newland Archer as all the other conventions on which his life was moulded’ (way he dresses, gardenia in buttonhole and does his hair), opening opera scene

Question 3

Newland’s suffocation

Answer 3

Resigns himself to ‘collective interest’ rather than individual desire, doesn’t pursue Madame Olenska out of traditional commitment to May

Question 4

Newland’s internalisation of convention stifling his individual will

Answer 4

Denouement of narrative, after May Welland’s passing:
May knew her children were ‘safe’ with Newland, as he had ‘given up the thing [he] most wanted’

Question 5

Newland’s cowardice

Answer 5

Idealised Madame Olenska as the ‘foreign visitor’ she was characterised as - a tangible and possible escape from society he fantasised about, but would never dream of committing
Thinks of her as ‘some imaginary beloved in a book or picture’

Question 6

Dallas ‘escapes this restrictive cast’

Answer 6

‘Dallas belonged body and soul to the new generation’ - architect, a profession that older generations of high society would never have pursued
• about to marry Beaufort’s daughter, which would have been considered scandalous in the past

Question 7

Newland context

Answer 7

• shows the constrictions of 1870s society as well as extremities in social thought - represented by his relationships with Ellen and May

Question 8

Ellen Olenska as a foreign escape

Answer 8

• 1848 revolutions - bourgeois rebelling for freedom in Europe, she represents this challenge to societal norms

Question 9

Newland’s inaction

Answer 9

• Although Newland finds Ellen by the pier, turns away before greeting her
• End - Olenska invites him over after May’s death, but he is too afraid to see her

Question 10

Wharton’s inspiration for writing The Age of Innocence

Answer 10

The novel is both a personal recollection of the claustrophobic world of New York Edith Wharton was born into, and a discussion of an old fashioned world in the brink of profound and permanent change post WW2

Question 11

When was the Age of Innocence published

Answer 11

1920