Edith Whartons The Age of Innocence Essay -- Edith Wharton Age Innoce

Edith Whartons The Age of InnocenceAs he entered the box his eyes met Miss Wellands, and he saw that she had instantly understood his motive, though the family dignity which both considered so high a virtue would not permit her to tell him so. The persons of their world lived in an atmosphere of faint implications and pale delicacies, and the fact that he and she understood each other without a word seemed to the young man to bring them nearer than any explanation would have done. (Wharton 16) This statement vividly illustrates the power of the unsaid within New York society during the 1870s, the time in which The Age of Innocence was set. At that time, at that place existed a powerful set of rules, regulations, and codes pertaining to ones conduct that were most often unspoken and, therefore, were never formally outlined. However, this did not in any office lessen the degree to which these standards were adhered to, and, thereby, upheld as if they were carved in the same stone as the Ten Commandments. Because New York Society did not have much hold for religion, other than for rites of passage, the rules of society were to them like rules of their religion. As a woman who was raised in this society, Edith Wharton was able to illustrate with great clarity the influence that the unsaid had when it came to cunning how one should behave if society is to look on them favourably. She further goes on to express the perils of a life lived within these particular codes.In the initial manikin used in the introduction, which took place in Chapter II of the novel, the reader is not only able to see the reason for Newland Archers behaviour, but the mannequin also acts as a method of foreshadowing which alludes to the significant role ... ...nocence, one must only see the power that things left unsaid had in holding together a society such as the one that existed in New York during the time of the novel. Things that went unspoken, but were left to be solved by duty and appropriateness had the ability to act like the glue that held the Newland/Archer family together for a lifetime of children, and a lifetime of existence within a society that would not have accepted it any other way. Until the day before she died, May Welland/Archer acted in accordance with the unspoken rules of society in order to protect herself, her family, her marriage, and even the social structure itself, the very structure which forced her into accepting what life had given her long ago, and had taught her to learn to accept it. plant life CitedWharton, Edith. The Age of Innocence. Macmillan Publishing Company, New York 1920.