Eng232

Michelle Colón

ENG 232

World Literature II

Mark Bates

At the end of The Age of Innocence, instead of going on upstairs along with his son to see Madame Ellen Olenska, Newland Archer walks away from the apartment in which she resides and heads on back to his hotel. As I read this last scene, I asked myself – why, after many years and with May Welland Archer no longer in the picture, did he not go up to Countess Olenska’s apartment. Newland Archer’s character is a conflict within itself, and I feel as though out of respect and duty to his late wife, May, is the reason why he didn’t go up to that apartment.

In the novel Newland Archer’s character is a great study of internal conflict. Though he presents hisself as a forward thinker, the rigid society in which he lives in does not allow him that form of thinking or being. As a result of this society, he allows himself to get pulled into that safe lifestyle in which appearance is everything.

“In matters of intellectual and artistic Newland Archer felt himself distinctly the superior of these chosen specimens of old New York gentility; he had probably read more, thought more, and even seen a good deal more of the world, than any other man of the number. Singly they betrayed their inferiority; but grouped together they represented “New York,” and the habit of masculine solidarity made him accept their doctrine on all the issues called moral. He instinctively felt that in this respect it would be troublesome—and also rather bad form—-to strike out for himself.” (Wharton, p. 4)

At first he is in love with May Welland and everthing she stands for and believes in; though he does hope that his wordly culture is of some influence on her, in which case he envisions them sharing an intellectual kinship.

“We’ll read Faust together… by the Italian lakes…” he thought, somewhat hazily confusing the scene of his projected honey-moon with the masterpieces of literature which it would be his manly privilege to read to his...