Study Guide for Important Book Quotes from The Age of Innocence

These important quotes from Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence will help your understanding with the themes based in the novel.
Quote: '. . . in metropolises it absolutely was 'not the thing' to arrive early with the opera; and that which was or had not been 'the thing' played an important part as important in Newland Archer's New York because the inscrutable totem terrors which 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 key role that society and its particular rules can play in the novel. The lives of people who are a part from the upper crust of New York society are governed with a set of conventions, which dictate from what one wears to where one travels to how early one arrives at the opera. Everyone knows the policies, and everyone is watching to ensure that they are honored. This is a system which has been around for generations, and there's much because system that Newland find comforting. Eventually Newland can come to question these rules, but he or she is never capable to walk away from them entirely. He and his generation will stay caught up in these arbitrary restrictions. However, the next generation will ultimately toss them aside as being unimportant.




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Quote: "The persons with their world lived in the atmosphere of faint implications and pale delicacies, and the fact that he and she or he understood one another without a word did actually the son to bring them nearer than any explanation would have done." (Book 1, Chapter 2)
Analysis: One in the things that draws Newland to May Welland is the fact that they originated in the same background. They were raised inside the same social circle and understand its mores. He feels that common background draws them together. It is also section of what makes Newland believe May is the best woman being his wife. While this common bond is definitely an attraction to Newland, in the course in the book, he actually starts to feel he needs more. His infatuation with Ellen brings him into exposure to a woman not the same as May, one that was raised outside of these social circle. This causes her to be more independent than May, both emotionally and intellectually. In the end, however, May is in a position to use the common bond of society as well as expectations to help keep Newland within the marriage.




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Quote: "In reality each will lived inside a kind of hieroglyphic world, in which the real thing never was said or done or even thought, but only represented by way of 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 how it is like to live in the New York culture which May and Newland were members. It was like a secret society where only the members knew the policies, that had been unwritten and unspoken. That is what got so difficult for someone like Ellen to get accepted in this world. She was an outsider who did not know or understand the rules and so was constantly breaking them. Also, this made it easy for her to get pushed out with the society when she was perceived as a threat.
Quote: "He shivered a little, remembering some from the new ideas in the scientific books, and the much-cited instance in the Kentucky cave-fish, which in fact had ceased to develop eyes since they had no use for the children. What if, when he previously bidden May Welland to open up hers, they are able to only look out blankly at blankness?" (Book One, Chapter 10)
Analysis: Newland has always dreamed of being in a position to open May's eyes to everyone. He had wanted a wife he could mold, intellectually and emotionally. He had wanted to introduce her to things that were vital that you him, such as art, travel, and literature. However, it can be occurring to him that May may not be as pliable as he thinks in addition to being open to being a different form of woman. Newland is suddenly confronted by the idea that May just isn't as capable of change as he has imagined her to be, and he starts to believe that she may turn in a carbon copy of her mother, who plays beautifully the role in the perfect society wife. Of course, he's got been foolish to adore a girl within the hopes of changing her, but he has held onto a form of male arrogance which includes led him to believe it can be his duty to 'form" his wife into his preferred image.
Quote: "There were certain things that had to be done, and when done at all, done handsomely and thoroughly; and one of these inside old New York code, was the tribal rally around a kinswoman about to be eliminated from your tribe." (Book 2, Chapter 33)
Analysis: Here the energy and unity from the New York society is illustrated as the people come together to say goodbye to Ellen as she returns to Europe. May has utilized the societal rules with which she has been raised in order to protect her marriage and Newland. She knows he'll almost certainly not leave her once he realizes she's pregnant, knowning that Ellen may not let him even consider doing such a thing. She is in a position to rally another members of these society around her and push out Ellen, as Newland sees through the farewell supper party that May insists on hosting to be with her cousin. At this same time, Newland realizes that everyone believes he's been disloyal with Ellen, and they may be eager to get rid of her to Whatsapp Friendship be able to restore social normalcy. Ironically, it really is not the truth that he was unfaithful to May that might have been an issue. It is the fact he was considering leaving her for another woman.