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 in the themes perfectly located at the novel.
Quote: '. . . in metropolises it absolutely was 'not the thing' to come early on the opera; and that which was or was not 'the thing' played a component as important in Newland Archer's New York as 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 quite role that society and it is rules will have in the novel. The lives of those who are a part from the upper crust of New York society are governed by way of a set of conventions, which dictate everything from what one wears to where one goes to how early one arrives at the opera. Everyone knows the principles, and everyone is watching to make sure they are adhered to. This is a system that has been around for generations, and there's much in that system that Newland find comforting. Eventually Newland should come to question these rules, but he could be never in a position to walk away from them entirely. He and his generation will continue 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 of the world lived in an atmosphere of faint implications and pale delicacies, and the fact that he and she or he understood each other Whatsapp Friendship without a word seemed to the child to bring them nearer than any explanation might have done." (Book 1, Chapter 2)
Analysis: One in the things that pulls Newland to May Welland is the fact that they came from the same background. They were raised within the same social circle and understand its mores. He feels that common background draws them together. It is also part of what makes Newland believe that May is the best woman to get his wife. While this common bond is an attraction to Newland, during the course of the book, he begins to feel he needs more. His infatuation with Ellen brings him into exposure to a woman quite different from May, individual who was raised outside of their social circle. This causes her to become more independent than May, both emotionally and intellectually. In the end, however, May is able to use the common bond of society and it is expectations to keep Newland inside the marriage.




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Quote: "In reality each will lived inside a kind of hieroglyphic world, where the real thing was never said or done or perhaps thought, but only represented by the set of arbitrary signs . . . . " (Book One, Chapter 6)
Analysis: This is one in the more often cited lines from the book. The line explains what it is like to live within the New York culture that May and Newland were members. It was being a secret society where only the members knew the rules, which are unwritten and unspoken. That is what caused it to be so difficult for an individual like Ellen being accepted these days. She was an outsider who did not know or understand the guidelines and so was constantly breaking them. Also, this got easy for her to become pushed out in the society when she was regarded as a threat.
Quote: "He shivered a little, remembering some of the new ideas in his scientific books, and also the much-cited instance from the Kentucky cave-fish, which had ceased to formulate eyes because they had no use for the kids. What if, when he'd bidden May Welland to start hers, they are able to only look blankly at blankness?" (Book One, Chapter 10)
Analysis: Newland has always imagined being able to open May's eyes around the world. He had wanted a wife he could mold, intellectually and emotionally. He had desired to introduce her to items that were imperative that you him, like art, travel, and literature. However, it really is occurring to him that May may not be as pliable as they thinks and as open to becoming a different type of woman. Newland is suddenly confronted by the idea that May is not as capable of change as they has imagined her being, and he starts to believe that she may turn in a carbon copy of her mother, who plays beautifully the role with the perfect society wife. Of course, he has 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 which includes 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, if done in any respect, done handsomely and thoroughly; and something of these within the old New York code, was the tribal rally around a kinswoman about to get eliminated in the tribe." (Book 2, Chapter 33)
Analysis: Here the electricity and unity of the New York society is illustrated because the people combined efforts to say goodbye to Ellen as she returns to Europe. May provides the societal rules that she has been raised so that you can protect her marriage and keep Newland. She knows he'll almost certainly 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 of the society around her and push out Ellen, as Newland sees during 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 got been being unfaithful with Ellen, and they are eager to remove her to be able to restore social normalcy. Ironically, it's not the fact he was unfaithful to May that would have been a difficulty. It is always that he was considering leaving her for another woman.