Free Essays on Age Of Innocence

One critic has called the final chapter, â€Å"A sentimental endorsement of the tribal code.† Evaluate how effective you think Chapter 34 is as the concluding chapter of the novel. Wharton’s story of the upper classes of Old New York, and Newland Archer’s impossible love for the disgraced Countess Olenska, perfectly captures an era when upper –class culture and ‘society’ had rules as rigid as any in history. The city in which the story is set is a well–defined and tightly–knit community; New York was much smaller both geographically and socially. The novel makes clear, the strict code of conduct, which was maintained but we can see how this determined the behaviour of people in the society. This critic has implied that New York society has made no change or progression and that by the end of the novel it is still sticking to the ‘old’ traditions but this contradicts the important theme of change in the novel. Wharton herself stated in her autobiography, â€Å"The first change came in the eighties†¦.there were fewer differences than between my father and the post-war generation of Americans.† We can see that any change in society remained static for years but in the last chapter many things have changed as the years have passed. May is dead, and their three children are grown. New York society, too, has changed. For instance, Dallas is engaged to Julius Beaufort’s daughter, Fanny. Their engagement would have shocked the old society, but now no one remembers Beauforts financial scandal. ‘The Age of Innocence’ concerns itself with change but also with the consequences of the failure to change, in both personal and cultural terms. Wharton began the novel with a critical and sarcastic tone towards New York’s society. She humoured over their ‘Tribal code’ although remained subtle in doing so, â€Å"..conventions on which his life was moulded : such as the duty of using two silver-backed brushes... Free Essays on Age Of Innocence Free Essays on Age Of Innocence One critic has called the final chapter, â€Å"A sentimental endorsement of the tribal code.† Evaluate how effective you think Chapter 34 is as the concluding chapter of the novel. Wharton’s story of the upper classes of Old New York, and Newland Archer’s impossible love for the disgraced Countess Olenska, perfectly captures an era when upper –class culture and ‘society’ had rules as rigid as any in history. The city in which the story is set is a well–defined and tightly–knit community; New York was much smaller both geographically and socially. The novel makes clear, the strict code of conduct, which was maintained but we can see how this determined the behaviour of people in the society. This critic has implied that New York society has made no change or progression and that by the end of the novel it is still sticking to the ‘old’ traditions but this contradicts the important theme of change in the novel. Wharton herself stated in her autobiography, â€Å"The first change came in the eighties†¦.there were fewer differences than between my father and the post-war generation of Americans.† We can see that any change in society remained static for years but in the last chapter many things have changed as the years have passed. May is dead, and their three children are grown. New York society, too, has changed. For instance, Dallas is engaged to Julius Beaufort’s daughter, Fanny. Their engagement would have shocked the old society, but now no one remembers Beauforts financial scandal. ‘The Age of Innocence’ concerns itself with change but also with the consequences of the failure to change, in both personal and cultural terms. Wharton began the novel with a critical and sarcastic tone towards New York’s society. She humoured over their ‘Tribal code’ although remained subtle in doing so, â€Å"..conventions on which his life was moulded : such as the duty of using two silver-backed brushes... Free Essays on Age Of Innocence Look again at Chapter One, which presents Old New York coming under threat from the forces of change. Edith Wharton noted that she wished to establish, from the very opening pages of the novel, a sense of the certain ‘doom’, which faced her characters. On the other hand an early review of the novel argued that â€Å"The plot is unobvious† Evaluate how effective you think this chapter is introducing the reader to the novel. The Age of Innocence was published in 1920, but is set in the time and the place of Edith Wharton’s girlhood, New York in the 1870’s. Wharton draws our attention, quite straightforwardly, to the fact that she is writing a historical novel – and writing a historical novel is only really possible if dramatic differences mark out one period from another. This suggests change and may relate to the ‘certain doom’, which lingers over her characters. Chapter One concerns itself with change but also with the consequences of the failure to change, in both personal and cultural terms. Could this failure to change or fear of change be the ‘certain doom’, which Wharton has referred to? From the very beginning of the novel Wharton makes it evident that the Old New York society has a strong resilience to change, â€Å"..the world of fashion was still content to reassemble every winter in the shabby red and gold boxes of the sociable old Academy.† This society is not ready to embrace any kind of transformation, even if it is for the better. Change is seen as a threat to Old New York. The society is so focused on their strict conventions that they don’t want any hindrance such as alteration to obstruct it, â€Å"..thus keeping out the ‘new people’ whom New York was beginning to dread and yet be drawn to..† If New York manage to keep out the ‘new people’ then their society will never change; there will not be any controversial ideas or risk of moving forward. This may seem absurd to ...