Edith Wharton opens
The Age of Innocence at the opera, and the reader first glimpses the heroines through Lawrence
Lefferts’ opera glass. It is a privileged glimpse, as is most of Wharton’s fiction; she lets the reader view an entire society through her eyes. This affluent New York society operates on a strict set of unwritten rules. Things happen the same way year after year; no one dares to deviate from the established traditions. Each year, always on the night an opera is seen, the Beauforts hold a ball. It is the only night of the year that they use their house’s ballroom. People know that the ball will begin in half an hour when Mrs. Beaufort rises at the end of the opera’s third act.
Something unusual happens, however, at this particular opera. Lawrence Lefferts spies Ellen Olenska in Mrs. Manson Mingott’s box. Since Ellen returned from Europe in disgraceful circumstances (having left her husband, a Polish count), it is considered a breach of form and good taste to invite her to one’s box. Gossip begins at once; people hardly watch the opera. Newland Archer, always the gentleman, goes to the box in midperformance to introduce himself. His fiancée, May Welland, is also in the Mingott box; she is beaming because of their recent engagement, that very afternoon. She and Newland are so thoroughly steeped and versed in their society’s way of thinking that they practically hold a conversation with their eyes alone. Ellen, on the other hand, jars Newland by speaking flippantly about everyone; she has no idea how critically they view her or how powerful they are. The society does attempt to ostracize her a few days later; as if on cue, everyone refuses invitations to a dinner in her honor.
As Newland helps Ellen adjust, giving her legal advice about her husband, he falls in love with her. The society does not allow divorce, though infidelity is accepted. Ellen wants desperately to obtain a divorce and leave her past behind; she sees divorce as freedom. While Newland cannot bear the thought of her returning to her husband, he advises her to remain married because of the pressures of the society. In society’s eyes, she should return to her wealthy husband, no matter how unhappy she was with him.
The Age of Innocence shows how little concern this society has for a woman’s freedom; it cares only for maintaining appearances and preserving its traditions. Ellen is beautiful, intelligent, and charming; she wants also to be independent, but the society will not allow it.
The book’s second half begins with the marriage of Newland and May. He tries to settle into the normality of being married; they travel in Europe, then set up a house in New York. He imagines that his love for Ellen is a thing of the past. When he sees her for the first time in a year and a half, however, he quickly changes his mind, doubting that he can live without her. Now Newland is the one who desperately craves independence. He wants to run away with Ellen, but she refuses. Ironically, their views of the society have nearly reversed: Newland, so formerly respectful, would leave it in a second, while Ellen now wants to follow its rules. She eventually returns to Europe, but not back to her husband. Newland stays in New York, married to May.