Fall from innocence spark knotes5/7/2023 ![]() It hardly matters that Ellen and Archer do not act on their love. The consequences of society's focus on the superficial can be serious. In the end, Archer admires and respects May's supreme achievement in managing appearances, when he learns that in spite of her apparent conviction in the perfect harmony of her household, she knew about his feelings for Ellen and that he had sacrificed them for her and the family. He comes to despise this quality in her, but this is the man who, when given his second chance to be with Ellen, is concerned about how he will appear to society. Archer, at this point, admires May's ability to avoid unpleasantness. May and Archer know that Ellen does not come to the ball where they announce their engagement because she wants to avoid bringing shame on the family, but May pretends, even to the man she will marry, that it is because she lacks a suitable dress. Lefferts pronounces on other people's morals at the same time as he is having extra-marital affairs. People know that Beaufort conducted illicit business deals, but overlook them as long as they are not the topic of general gossip. New York society values correct appearances more than reality. Archer remains within the world he knows so well, though as with Ellen, he pays a price: he feels he has missed "the flower of life." On the other hand, he has preserved his family intact, has led a contented life, and is respected within society. She gives up Archer and her family to regain some degree of freedom and individuality in Europe. In the end, Ellen reasserts her individuality by leaving America, though at great cost: she is forced out of New York society by the "tribe" of the family, who assume that she is having an affair with Archer. But she takes Archer's lesson to heart because she believes it is a finer and more unselfish way to live than she has known in her past. Her defeat is completed by May's announcement to her that she is pregnant: society upholds a man who sticks by his wife and baby, and abhors one who abandons them.Īrcher is instrumental in teaching Ellen to deny her own wish to be with him for others' sake, though ironically, he does not wholly believe that this is the right thing to do - it is simply what the family and society wants. After a heroic attempt to change herself and fit into New York society, she gives up and returns to Europe, though not to her husband. ![]() Her family even wants her to go back to the husband who mistreated her in order to uphold society's values, and they cut off her allowance when she refuses. Finally, he cannot muster the determination to go against the mores of his world.Įllen wants to divorce her husband and be free, but Archer persuades her that she will hurt her family and be censured by society. When he decides to follow Ellen to Europe, May reveals that she is pregnant, and he knows that this turn of events seals his fate. Often, the chief mouthpiece for society is the family - in particular, those old money families that dominate New York society.Īrcher wants desperately to be with Ellen, but society would not approve such a choice. ![]() With Ellen ultimately returning his affections, Newland has to decide if his love for her is worth the risk to his own social standing, regardless of if she does divorce, each of divorce or staying married having its own issues.Society in The Age of Innocence is a powerful force that demands that individuals sacrifice themselves to its forms and conventions. While May can sense Newland being distracted and suspects he is in love with someone else which he denies, she is unaware of the true nature of Newland's distraction and feelings for Ellen. With Ellen planning on moving back to New York permanently regardless of what happens to her marriage, Newland continues to shield Ellen from the scandal, both in an official and unofficial capacity, not only in loyalty to May and her family, but in his growing love for Ellen himself. As such, Ellen is already largely dismissed by the New York society crowd, except by the most disreputable within it. With May's appreciation, how Newland decides to handle the announcement is in large part to shield May's cousin, the Countess Olenska - Ellen - from gossip in the engagement overshadowing her issues, Ellen who has just returned to New York from having lived in Europe in her marriage and that gossip stemming not only from her estrangement from the Count and what looks to be their imminent divorce but her seeming unawareness of the scandal such would bring to the family. In the 1870s New York high society, lawyer Newland Archer has just gotten engaged to innocent society maiden May Welland.
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