Age of Innocence Chapters 15-24 Analysis

     Chapters 14 through 24 are chock full of symbolism, themes, and motifs as well as character development and plot development. In chapter 14 we meet Archer’s friend Ned Winsett who is a failed author turned journalist who represents social freedom and what it cost. While talking to Archer, Ned points out that, “Life isn’t much of a fit for either of them” (Wharton 105). Ned believes that life isn’t much of a fit for him because he is not able to support himself or his family as an author because the people do not care for his writing. He feels that he has to conform to a certain way of living in order to live life but wants to be able to succeed in life by writing novels. For Archer freedom is constricted due to his place in high society. Ned suggests to him that he should become a politician but Archer just blows it off and says that he cannot because that is not what is expected of a gentleman like him. Archer is not even able to become a good lawyer due to the idea of working for money being looked down upon by his social peers. In the same way that Ellen is looking for freedom, Archer realizes that due to his social standing his freedom is constricted and the only available lifestyles for him include sports and culture. In chapter 16 Archer goes to May to plead with her to have the wedding moved to April instead of having to wait another whole year in order to be married. May thinks that Archer wants to move up the date of the wedding because he has fallen in love with another woman and fears that his love will fade before the prearranged wedding date. The irony of this is that May is right in her assumption that he has fallen for another woman but she thinks it is his old mistress instead of her cousin Ellen. May has enough insight and intuition to see that Archer has fallen for another woman but was wrong with her guess which allowed Archer to assure her that she is mistaken and as soon as Archer says she is wrong she backs down and just accepts it as the truth. In chapter 18 Archer questions Ellen of whether her aunt was accurate in what she was saying to which Ellen replies, “You mean, does she speak the truth” (139). Archer realizes through this that what he thought to be straightforward and honest language is actually a twisted way of speaking meant to hide the truth. Ellen is the only person who speaks the plain truth. She is straightforward with her way of speaking and does not use words to hide the truth of her conversations. Also in the chapter after they confess that they love each other Archer states, “I’m still free and you’re going to be” (144). He claims so passionately that he will call off his engagement and help her file for a divorce. However a telegram is received that says that the proposal to have the wedding date moved up has been considered and approved and he loses all will to do anything about it. He gives up on what he wants to do and resigns himself to a fate that can easily be changed. This shows that Archer’s freedom is a very fragile thing that is easy to take away from him. In a sense he also takes away the freedom of others. An example of this would be when he convinced Ellen to not go through with her divorce and to accept her fate. She tells him that the only reason she did was because he asked her to and he realizes that he is just stealing away other people’s freedom.

Age of Innocence Chapters 1-14 Analysis

   Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton is a novel about a young man named Archer Newland who lives in high society in New York during the late eighteen hundreds and goes about his life while pondering why society is the way it is. A big theme in this novel is innocence vs. experience and which, if either, is better. The two characters who most represent this are May Welland and Ellen Olenska. May represents innocence for a variety of reasons. She is naïve, unquestioning, and ultimately happy. May’s naivety can be seen when Archer ponders, “What if, when he had bidden May Welland to open hers, they could only look out blankly at blankness” (Wharton 69). This shows how Archer knows that May’s sheltered lifestyle has caused her to develop into one who questions nothing and simply sees the world around her the same as others of her class and the way she was raised to. He is hoping that when she finally opens her eyes to see the world for herself that she will have the capacity to think for herself and have new ideas instead of simply accepting the world for what those who are like her say that it is like. Ellen Olenska, on the other hand, is quite the opposite. She is free-spirited, intelligent, miserable, and lonely. She is always called “poor Ellen Olenska” due to the way that her husband treated her and the dodgy details that arose of how she escaped from him. Ellen’s loneliness and ability to see high society for what it truly is is shown when she says, “The real loneliness is living among all these kind people who only ask one to pretend!” (65). This shows how Ellen feels that even though she is among all these people of high esteem she is still lonely because they do not care to see the real Ellen and only want her to conform to their customs and practices. She feels that as long as the others of her stature try to compel her to fit into a certain mold there is no point in trying to make friends because they will not know the real her and so she will continue to feel lonely. Archer is torn apart by these two ladies and is attempting to find a happy mix between innocence and experience because it can be seen that too much innocence causes one to be naïve and unquestioning while too much experience causes one to become unhappy and feel like they are outcast from those closest to them. Archer has many controversial ideas for his time and old society ways such as when he says, “I’m sick of the hypocrisy that would bury alive a woman of her age if her husband prefers to live with harlots.’ He stopped and turned away angrily to light his cigar. ‘Women ought to be free – as free as we are” (35). Archer is incredibly forward thinking for his time. Generally men expected women to wait on them and to only speak about certain matters when they are brought up to them. Archer is condemning the double standard that allows men to find others outside of a failed marriage and is defending the right of women to get divorces and to remarry. Archer has not thought out his progressive view all the way though. Archer is trying to find a healthy balance between living a happy life filled with innocence but also trying to fill it with experience so that he will not be naïve and unquestioning of the world that appears around him.

Aunt Jennifer's Tigers

Aunt Jennifer's tigers prance across a screen,
Bright topaz denizens of a world of green.
They do not fear the men beneath the tree;
They pace in sleek chivalric certainty.  Aunt Jennifer's finger fluttering through her wool
Find even the ivory needle hard to pull.
The massive weight of Uncle's wedding band
Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer's hand.
When Aunt is dead, her terrified hands will lie
Still ringed with ordeals she was mastered by.
The tigers in the panel that she made
Will go on prancing, proud and unafraid.

   Aunt Jennifer's Tigers is a poem by Adrienne Rich in the year 1950. The poem is mainly about a woman who is struggling to accept the fate of her daily life while at the same time striving to attain immortality through her work. Aunt Jennifer is living a generally unhappy life and uses sewing to attempt to escape to a new world in which she can leave her problems behind. She sews tigers because they are capable of demanding respect from others, something Aunt Jennifer is incapable of doing. Through doing this she deals with her problems by avoiding facing them and running away. The way that she escapes into her art is shown is through the vivid imagery at shows what she is capable of doing. This allows us to gaze into Aunt Jennifer's subconcious, she wants to be like tigers who don't let themselves be victimized by anyone. The tigers prancing help to show that they are strong and self-confident beings. The use of color in the first part of the poem symbolizes how the tigers and the land enjoy a greater sense of happiness and freedom than Aunt Jennifer has ever known. The yellow resonates fierce energy while the green reminds one of Spring and rebirth. Aunt Jennifer is searching for energy and rebirth and displays this through her sewing. She has no hope of finding either at home and as such uses foerign animals to signify how she would like to travel and discover the world. The passage "They do not fear the men beneath the tree" shows another reason why she uses the tigers in her work. Tigers are not afraid of most things and are predatory in nature. She wants to be like the tiger so that she will no longer fear her husband and be able to live her life the way that she wants to. Aunt Jennifer is doing what she can to cope with an unhappy lifestyle and this melancholy is made apparent in the second part of the poem, which deals in ambiguous images of rapidity and heaviness to symbolize the need to escape from the stagnancy of her marriage. She works rapidly because she is afraid that she will either not live long enough to complete her work or that she will be interuppted midway through. The marriage to the speaker's Uncle is perhaps Aunt Jennifer's greatest weight. After all, "The massive weight of Uncle's wedding band Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer's hand". This bulk is probably more emotional and mental than physical. It is doubtful that Aunt Jennifer's wedding band itself weighs down her hand so much that she can't sew as fast as she'd like. The weight is probably one in which her marriage didn't turn out as she planned.  Aunt Jennifer's marriage has most likely turned out to be her biggest disappointment and one that she would probably even like to escape. And for at least a little while escape she does, right into her sewing.