「Study Guide for Important Book Quotes from The Age of Innocence」の版間の差分

2016年7月28日 (木) 00:00時点における版

These important quotes from Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence may help your understanding in the themes based in the novel.
Quote: '. . . in metropolises it had been 'not the thing' to arrive early on the opera; and that which was or has not been 'the thing' played an element as important in Newland Archer's New York because the inscrutable totem terrors which in fact had ruled the destinies of his forefathers many thousands of years ago." (Book One, Chapter 1)
Analysis: This quote explains very early in the text the important role that society and its rules will play in the novel. The lives of those that are a part with the upper crust of New York society are governed by a set of conventions, which dictate sets from what one wears to where one travels to how early one arrives at the opera. Everyone knows the guidelines, and everyone is watching to make sure they are followed. This is a system that's been around for generations, as there are much in this system that Newland find comforting. Eventually Newland arrive to question these rules, but he could be never able to walk away from them entirely. He and his generation will continue caught up in these arbitrary restrictions. However, the next generation will in the end toss them aside being unimportant.




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Quote: "The persons with their world lived in the atmosphere of faint implications and pale delicacies, it comes with he and she understood each other without a word gave the impression to the young man to bring them nearer than any explanation could have done." (Book 1, Chapter 2)
Analysis: One with the things that pulls Newland to May Welland is the fact they originated in the same background. They were raised in the same social circle and understand its mores. He feels that common background draws them together. It is also a part of what makes Newland think May is the ideal woman to get his wife. While this common bond is an attraction to Newland, throughout the course in the book, he starts to feel he needs more. His infatuation with Ellen brings him into exposure to a woman very different from May, one who was raised outside of these social circle. This causes her being more independent than May, both emotionally and intellectually. In the end, however, May is capable to use the common bond of society and its expectations to keep Newland within the marriage.




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Quote: "In reality all of them lived in a kind of hieroglyphic world, where the real thing never was said or done or perhaps thought, but only represented by a set of arbitrary signs . . . . " (Book One, Chapter 6)
Analysis: This is one with the more often cited lines from the ebook. The line explains what it's like to live inside New York culture which May and Newland were members. It was just like a secret society where merely the members knew the policies, that have been unwritten and unspoken. That is what caused it to be so difficult for somebody like Ellen being accepted these days. She was an outsider who were not sure or understand the principles and so was constantly breaking them. Also, this caused it to be easy for her to get pushed out with the society when she was regarded as a threat.
Quote: "He shivered a bit, remembering some in the new ideas in their scientific books, and also the much-cited instance of the Kentucky cave-fish, that have ceased to formulate eyes simply because they had no use girls number for friendship the kids. What if, when he had bidden May Welland to open hers, they might only look blankly at blankness?" (Book One, Chapter 10)
Analysis: Newland has always imagined being in a position to open May's eyes around the globe. He had wanted a wife he could mold, intellectually and emotionally. He had planned to introduce her to things that were crucial that you him, for example art, travel, and literature. However, it is occurring to him that May may not be as pliable because he thinks so when open to being a different form of woman. Newland is suddenly up against the idea that May is not as capable of change as he has imagined her to be, and he actually starts to believe that she may turn right into a carbon copy of her mother, who plays beautifully the role with the perfect society wife. Of course, he's been foolish to fall in love with a girl inside the hopes of changing her, but he's held onto a form of male arrogance that has led him to believe it's his duty to 'form" his wife into his preferred image.
Quote: "There were certain things which in fact had to be done, and if done at all, done handsomely and thoroughly; the other of these inside the old New York code, was the tribal rally around a kinswoman about to become eliminated through the tribe." (Book 2, Chapter 33)
Analysis: Here the power and unity in the New York society is illustrated because the people combined efforts to say goodbye to Ellen as she returns to Europe. May has used the societal rules that she has been raised as a way to protect her marriage whilst Newland. She knows he can not leave her once he realizes jane is pregnant, which Ellen may not let him even consider doing such a thing. She is able to rally another members with their society around her and push out Ellen, as Newland sees throughout the farewell dinner party that May insists on hosting for her cousin. At this same time, Newland realizes that everyone believes he's got been disloyal with Ellen, and they are eager to do away with her in order to restore social normalcy. Ironically, it really is not the fact he was unfaithful to May that would've been a challenge. It is always that he was considering leaving her for another woman.