THE AGE OF INNOCENCE
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Through his relationship with her—first friendship, then love—he begins questioning the values on which he was raised. He sees the sexual inequality of New York society and the shallowness of its customs, and struggles to balance social commitment to May with love for Ellen. He cannot find a place for their love in the intricate, judgmental web of New York society. Throughout the story's progress, he transgresses the boundaries of acceptable behavior for love of Ellen: In the end, though, Newland Archer finds that the only place for their love is in his memories.
Some scholars see Wharton most projected onto Newland's character, rather than Ellen Olenska. The matriarch of the powerful Mingott family, and grandmother to Ellen and May. She was born Catherine Spicer, to an inconsequential family. Widowed at 28, she has ensured her family's social position through her own shrewdness and force of character.
She controls her family: Welland agree to an earlier wedding date. She controls the money—withholding Ellen's living allowance when the family is angry with Ellen , and having niece Regina Beaufort ask for money when in financial trouble. Mingott is a maverick in the polite world of New York society, at times pushing the boundaries of acceptable behavior, such as receiving guests in her house's ground floor, though society associates that practice with women of questionable morals.
Her welcoming Ellen is viewed skeptically, and she insists the rest of the family support Ellen. Mrs Mingott was inspired by Edith Wharton's own portly great-great-aunt, Mary Mason Jones, who is said to have given rise to the phrase " Keeping up with the Joneses ", due to her belief that fashionable society would always strive to keep up with her. May's mother, who has raised her daughter to be a proper society lady. May's dullness, lack of imagination, and rigid views of appropriate and inappropriate behavior are a consequence of this influence. She has effectively trained her husband, the weak-willed Mr.
Welland, to conform to her desires and wishes. Welland is the driving force behind May's commitment to a long engagement. Without her mother's influence, May might have agreed sooner to Newland's request for an earlier wedding date. After a few years of marriage, Newland Archer perceives in his mother-in-law what May will become — stolid, unimaginative, and dull. He later comes to feel the same training by May which was imposed upon Mr.
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Raised to be a perfect wife and mother, she follows and perfectly obeys all of society's customs. Mostly, she is the shallow, uninterested and uninteresting young woman that New York society requires. When they are in St. Augustine, though, May gives Newland a rare glimpse of the maturity and compassion he had previously ignored. She offers to release him from their engagement so he can marry the woman he truly loves, thinking he wants to be with Mrs. Rushworth, a married woman with whom he had recently ended a love affair.
When he assures May that he loves only her, May appears to trust him, at least at first. Yet after their marriage, she suspects that Newland is Ellen's lover. Nonetheless, May pretends to be happy before society, maintaining the illusion that she and he have the perfect marriage expected of them.
Her unhappiness activates her manipulative nature, and Newland does not see it until too late. To drive Ellen away from him, May tells Ellen of her pregnancy before she is certain of it.
Yet there still is compassion in May, even in their loveless marriage's long years after Ellen's leaving. After May's death, Newland Archer learns she had always known of his continued love for Ellen; as May lay dying, she told their son Dallas that the children could always trust their father, Newland, because he surrendered the thing most meaningful to him out of loyalty to their marriage.
May is a picture of Innocence. May's cousin and Mrs. She became a countess by marrying Polish Count Olenski, a European nobleman.
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Her husband was allegedly cruel and abusive, stole Ellen's fortune and had affairs with other women. When the story begins, Ellen has fled her unhappy marriage, lived in Venice with her husband's secretary, and has returned to her family in New York City.
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She is a free spirit who helps Newland Archer see beyond narrow New York society. She treats her maid, Nastasia, as an equal, offering the servant her own cape before sending her out on an errand. She attends parties with disreputable people such as Julius Beaufort and Mrs. Ellen suffers as much as Newland from their impossible love, but she is willing to live in emotional limbo so long as they can love each other at a distance.
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Ellen's love for Newland drives her important decisions: Her conscience and responsibility to family complicate her love for Newland. When she learns of May's pregnancy, Ellen immediately decides to leave America, refusing Newland's attempt to follow her to Europe, and so allow cousin May to start her family with her husband Newland.
The reception of Ellen's character has changed over time. Miriam Margolyes as Mrs. Sian Phillips as Mrs. Alexis Smith as Mrs. Michael Gough as Mr. Jonathan Pryce as Riviere.
This novel is foremost a sociological analysis and although it is, at its core, a sharp and censorious critique of the collective and ethical mores of a very particular society, it retains an air of nostalgia that for a twenty-first century reader brings a certain wistfulness when one realizes that many of the criticized social barriers have been pulled down but that the revealed boundless field can also seem somewhat disorienting. May was the representation of family, duty and convention. Perhaps the silliness of the names mirrors Whartons' own slightly mocking perspective on the society she herself inhabited. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The fact that the novel is elegantly funny makes it easy to read, but it is the philosophical undertones that are truly impressing.
Robert Sean Leonard as Ted Archer. Carolyn Farina as Janey Archer.
The Age of Innocence is a American historical romantic drama film directed by Martin Scorsese. The screenplay, an adaptation of the novel of the. The Age of Innocence is a novel by the American author Edith Wharton. It was her twelfth novel, and was initially serialized in in four parts, in the.
Tracey Ellis as Gertrude Lefferts. Norman Lloyd as Mr. Domenica Cameron-Scorsese as Katie Blenker. Cook as Male Opera Singer.
The 100 best novels: No 45 - The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (1920)
Jon Garrison as Male Opera Singer. Howard Erskine as Beaufort Guest. John McLoughlin as Party Guest. Christopher Nilsson as Party Guest. Kevin Sanders as The Duke. Cristina Pronzati as Countess Olenska's Maid. Clement Fowler as Florist. Cindy Katz as Stage Actress. June Squibb as Mingott Maid. Mac Orange as Archer Maid.
Brian Davies as Philip. Thomas Gibson as Stage Actor. Thomas Barbour as Archer Guest. Henry Fehren as Bishop. Patricia Dunnock as Mary Archer. Martin Scorsese as Photographer. Joanne Woodward as Narrator, the narrator. August 7, Full Review…. June 19, Full Review…. February 1, Full Review…. An extraordinarily sumptuous piece of filmmaking. July 22, Rating: August 14, Full Review…. August 4, Rating: April 23, Rating: March 17, Rating: Book-based Scorsese classic has mature themes.
Luciano and his wife, Catherine Scorsese , had a small cameo appearance in the film. At first she is ostracized by society and vicious rumors are spread, but, as May's family boldly stands by the Countess, she is gradually accepted by the very finest of New York's old families. After the Countess announces her intention of divorcing her husband, Archer supports her desire for freedom, but he feels compelled to act on behalf of the family and persuade the Countess to remain married. When Archer realizes that he has unwittingly been falling in love with the Countess, he abruptly leaves the next day to be reunited with May and her parents, who are in Florida on vacation.
Archer asks May to shorten their engagement, but May becomes suspicious and asks him if his hurry to get married is prompted by the fear that he is marrying the wrong person. Archer reassures May that he is in love with her. When back in New York, Archer calls on the Countess and admits that he is in love with her, but a telegram arrives from May announcing that her parents have pushed forward the wedding date. After their wedding and honeymoon, Archer and May settle down to married life in New York.
Over time, Archer's memory of the Countess fades. When the Countess returns to New York to care for her grandmother, she and Archer agree to consummate their affair. But then suddenly, the Countess announces her intention to return to Europe. May throws a farewell party for the Countess, and after the guests leave, May announces to Archer that she is pregnant and that she told Ellen her news two weeks earlier. Archer is 57 and has been a dutiful, loving father and faithful husband. The Archers have had three children. May had previously died of infectious pneumonia and Archer had mourned her in earnest.
Archer's engaged son, Ted, persuades him to travel to France. There, Ted has arranged to visit the Countess Olenska at her Paris apartment.
Archer has not seen the countess in over 25 years. Ted confides to his father May's deathbed confession that " Because once, when she asked you to, you gave up the thing you wanted most. While sitting outside the apartment, he recollects their time together and gets up and walks away. Scorsese's parents, the actors Charles and Catherine Scorsese , have a small cameo appearance during the sequence in which Archer meets the Countess at the Pennsylvania Terminus in Jersey City. The scenes set in the home of Mrs. The film's title sequence was created by Elaine and Saul Bass.
The famous paintings featured in the film were newly created high-quality reproductions. The film is the work of one of America's handful of master craftsmen. Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times wrote: Yet it is also much more, and the last scene of the film, which pulls everything together, is almost unbearably poignant.
