"The Age of Innocence"

Paper Summary:

"The Age of Innocence" by Edith Wharton is an enchanting Victorian era novel that eloquently illustrates the price of being among New York's high society during the late nineteenth century. The paper examines the relationship between the three main characters of the book. It shows how Archer and Ellen resemble and differ from one another in their outlook on the customs and values of society and their speculation of life.

From the Paper:

"Archer is the character chosen to reveal the author's sentiments on the inadequacies of American society. Wharton uses frequently the concept of the tribe, with its tribal principles and tabus, the most important of which existed to secure its own survival and purity of race by breeding and its protection against social contamination by exclusion from its environment of alien elements. She sees that in America, against the need and power of money and the lure of sex, tribal instincts and customs, family pride and hereditary principles are bound to go down" the wasting away of an aristocracy." (Lovett, 47)"

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