Study Guide for Important Book Quotes from The Age of Innocence

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




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Quote: "The persons with their world lived in an atmosphere of faint implications and pale delicacies, has he and she understood each other without a word seemed to the child to bring them nearer than any explanation might have done." (Book 1, Chapter 2)
Analysis: One from the things that pulls Newland to May Welland would be the fact they originated in the same background. They were raised inside same social circle and understand its mores. He feels that common background draws them together. It is also portion of what makes Newland believe May is the ideal woman to get his wife. While this common bond can be an attraction to Newland, throughout the course with the book, he begins 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 the social circle. This causes her to be more independent than May, both emotionally and intellectually. In the end, however, May is capable of use the common bond of society and it is expectations to hold Newland in the marriage.




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Quote: "In reality each of them lived in a kind of hieroglyphic world, where 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 from the more often cited lines from it. The line explains how it is like to live in the New York culture of which May and Newland were members. It was just like a secret society where merely the members knew the policies, which were unwritten and unspoken. That is what made it so difficult for an individual like Ellen to be accepted on this planet. She was an outsider who did not know or understand the policies and so was constantly breaking them. Also, this made it easy for her being pushed out in the society when she was regarded as a threat.
Quote: "He shivered a little, remembering some of the new ideas as part of his scientific books, and also the much-cited instance with the Kentucky cave-fish, which have ceased to formulate eyes given that they had no use for the children. What if, when he had bidden May Welland to open hers, they could only watch out blankly at blankness?" (Book One, Chapter 10)
Analysis: Newland has always wanted being capable of open May's eyes to everyone. He had wanted a wife he could mold, intellectually and emotionally. He had desired to introduce her to things that were imperative that you him, like art, travel, and literature. However, it's occurring to him that May might not be as pliable while he thinks in addition to being open to learning to be a different kind of woman. Newland is suddenly confronted by the idea that May is not as capable of change as they has imagined her to get, and he starts to believe that she may turn in a carbon copy of her mother, who plays beautifully the role from the perfect society wife. Of course, she has been foolish to love a girl in the hopes of changing her, but he's held onto a type of male arrogance which includes led him to believe it really is his duty to 'form" his wife into his preferred image.
Quote: "There were certain things which had to be done, if done at all, done handsomely and thoroughly; and one of these inside the old New York code, was the tribal rally around a kinswoman about to become eliminated from the tribe." (Book 2, Chapter 33)
Analysis: Here the ability and unity in the New York society is illustrated since 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 to be able to protect her marriage and Newland. She knows he'll not leave her once he realizes she's pregnant, understanding that Ellen wouldn't let him even consider doing such a thing. She is able to rally the opposite members of these society around her and push out Ellen, as Newland sees in the farewell dinner party that May insists on hosting on her behalf cousin. At this same time, Newland realizes that everyone believes he has been unfaithful with Ellen, and they're eager to remove her to be able to restore social normalcy. Ironically, it can be not the truth that he was unfaithful to May that could have been a challenge. It would be the fact he was considering leaving her for the opposite woman.