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 from the themes perfectly located at the novel.
Quote: '. . . in metropolises it absolutely was 'not the thing' to come early on the opera; and the fact that was or has not been 'the thing' played an element as important in Newland Archer's New York because the inscrutable totem terrors that had ruled the destinies of his forefathers 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 who are a part of the upper crust of New York society are governed with a set of conventions, which dictate from what one wears to where one goes to how early one arrives with the opera. Everyone knows the policies, and everyone is watching to make certain they are followed. This is a system that is around for generations, as there are much in this system that Newland find comforting. Eventually Newland arrive to question these rules, but he is never in a position to walk away from them entirely. He and his generation will remain caught up in these arbitrary restrictions. However, the next generation will ultimately toss them aside as being unimportant.




eval(ez_write_tag([[300,250],'brighthubeducation_com-medrectangle-2']));


Quote: "The persons of the world lived in the atmosphere of faint implications and pale delicacies, and the fact that he and he or she understood the other person without a word gave the impression to the child to bring them nearer than any explanation might have done." (Book 1, Chapter 2)
Analysis: One in the things that attracts Newland to May Welland is always that 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 believe May is the perfect woman to get his wife. While this common bond can be an attraction to Newland, throughout the course in the book, he begins to feel he needs more. His infatuation with Ellen brings him into experience of a woman not the same as May, individual who was raised outside of their social circle. This causes her to be more independent than May, both emotionally and intellectually. In the end, however, May is able to use the common bond of society and its expectations to help keep Newland within the marriage.




eval(ez_write_tag([[580,400],'brighthubeducation_com-netboard-1']));


Quote: "In reality each of them lived in the kind of hieroglyphic world, the place that the real thing was never said or done as well as thought, but only represented with a set of arbitrary signs . . . . " (Book One, Chapter 6)
Analysis: This is one in the more often cited lines from the novel. The line explains what it's like to live inside New York culture that May and Newland were members. It was just like a secret society where just the members knew the guidelines, that have been unwritten and unspoken. That is what got so difficult for an individual like Ellen to get accepted these days. She was an outsider who didn't know or understand the policies and so was constantly breaking them. Also, this managed to get easy for her to become pushed out in the society when she was regarded as a threat.
Quote: "He shivered a little, remembering some from the new ideas in their scientific books, as well as the much-cited instance with the Kentucky cave-fish, which in fact had ceased to develop eyes given that they had no use for the kids. What if, when he had bidden May Welland to spread out hers, they could only look blankly at blankness?" (Book One, Chapter 10)
Analysis: Newland has always thought of being capable to open May's eyes to the world. He had wanted a wife he could mold, intellectually and emotionally. He had wanted to introduce her to stuff that were important to him, including art, travel, and literature. However, it really is occurring to him that May may not be as pliable as he thinks in addition to being open to transforming into a different sort of woman. Newland is suddenly confronted by the idea that May just isn't as capable of change as he has imagined her to become, and he actually starts to believe that she may turn into a carbon copy of her mother, who plays beautifully the role with the perfect society wife. Of course, he has been foolish to adore a girl inside the hopes of changing her, but he's held onto a kind of male arrogance containing led him to believe it can be his duty to 'form" his wife into his preferred image.
Quote: "There were certain things that have to be done, and if done at all, done handsomely and thoroughly; the other of these within the old New York code, was the tribal rally around a kinswoman about to get eliminated through the tribe." (Book 2, Chapter 33)
Analysis: Here the energy and unity of the New York society is illustrated since the people come together to say goodbye to Ellen as she returns to Europe. May Whatsapp Friendship provides the societal rules that she has been raised as a way to protect her marriage and Newland. She knows he will not leave her once he realizes she is pregnant, which Ellen would not 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 through the farewell social gathering 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 these are eager to remove her so that you can restore social normalcy. Ironically, it really is not the fact that he was unfaithful to May that would have been a difficulty. It is the fact that he was considering leaving her for the opposite woman.