The Consequences of Convention

Paper Summary:

This paper looks at two of Edith Wharton's famous works: "Ethan Frome" and "The Age of Innocence". The essay examines the ways that society impedes the consummation of relationships throughout the two novels. Both Ethan Frome and Newland Archer are thwarted in their attempts to acquire love, but their adversary is both an invisible and ever-present one. Both men suffer from the strict moral principles underlying the foundation of society. This essay looks at the consequences and sacrifices that one might suffer under strict moral conventions.

From the Paper:

"Humans have always been magnetized by the irrepressible influences of passion and desire. Spinoza once said, "Desire is the very essence of man." Many levels of desire infiltrate human society, but there are also obstructions that can stand in the way of satiating this human yearning. In Edith Wharton's famous novels, Ethan Frome and The Age of Innocence, we find two men in such predicaments. Both Ethan Frome and Newland Archer are cursed to ache with wretchedly interminable unsatisfied desires. Together, they epitomize the tragic consequences of life lived beneath a microscope of societal criticism. Though both characters differ in their social situations, both are alike in the anguish they endure over unobtainable love. Ethan Frome and Newland Archer are tortured by conscience and moral correctness in grave ways. And, the societies described in Wharton's novels have come to embody the common conventions that lead to restraint in moments of perceived gratification."

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