Intro

When first it was released, this book was seen as a simple vain custom drama. Nonetheless Age of Innocence is much more than that, the truth is that things have meaning, everything has a meaning, when you meet someone you shake hands, that might sound silly or trivial, but in fact that has a deep symbol, shaking hand has a touch which shows some level of intamacy but not so intamate, both of them have to get a closer to each other and reach a middle point, I could write a whole essay about all the symbolism in shaking hands. That's what Age of innocence is about, it's about what things meaning under the hood, specially in a marriage, that's what the title is saying, the age of innocence is the age the time where you think that shaking a hand is just hand shake and nothing else, the age where you think that marriage is about loving someone, the age where you think you can be free, the age where you don't know social conditioning exists.

Many times during that book we can see and feel what social construction means. The marriage between Newland and May was arranged, and we need to fully understand what arranged means, it means that it was designed, negotiated, traded, planned, multiple meetings were held before this breeding was approved. This book would be a boring story of a marriage boring in a boring New York upper class, if it wasn't for a character named Countess Olenska, she is something different, she is a iconoclasta. The marriage of May and Newland can be summarized by the following words: "He saw his marriage becoming what most of what the other marriages were: a dull association of material and social intersects held together by ignoracnce on the one side and hypocrisy on the other", this quote is strong in many ways, it shows that difference between expectation of reality, it shows the difference between being inocent and not.

Ellen and May

Ellen is not the most beautiful, not the smartest, but she has something that all other woman of her time didn't. She was alive, she was free, she was original, she decided not to follow the playbook. This makes her look like a sun, like the most sexy room on every room she is at.

Ellen and May are cousins, but they represent opposites, one is the beautiful innocent girl that follows the society rules even though she is not aware thos eexist, she is the perfect example of what innocent means at this book, whereas Ellen she is not, she knows life is hard, marriage is boring, she is older. May is like Beatles, Ellen is like the Rolling stones, one represents a boring light, and the other an exciting darkness.

Ellen: "But do you know, they interest me more than the blind conformity to tradition -somebody else's tradition - that I see among our own friends. It seems stupid to have discovered America only make it into a copy of anohter country"

Newland's choice

Newland sees this abism between Ellen and May, and he can see that living with May is like being in a jail, a jail you are forced to follow a souless playbook, a brainless and futil play book. When given the two options, Newland wanted to choose Ellen, but decided to go for May, just like I myself did, I chose not follow my dreams and become a mathematician and became a corporate, the age of innocence is over. The best I can do is to have kid, and be able to see some innocent eyes again, eyes that don't know the truth and have hope that word can be different with no social conditioning.

Newland chooses May over Ellen:

"Her colour burned deeper, but she held his gaze. No I wasn't sure then- but I tolde her I was. And you see I was right! she exclaimed, her blue eyes wet with victory"

"He had married (as most young men did) because he had met a perfectly charming girl at the moment where a series of rather aimless sentimental adventures were ending in premature disgust and she had presented peace stability, comradeship and the steadyeyeing sense of an unescapable duty"

End

In the end, May steps up and looses her innocence, she is able to end the affair by lying to Ellen about being pregnant and then hold a dinner party in her honor. At this moment, the innocence is finally over.

• the fact that May was able to do this while looking so naive and innocent shows that even though she was bornt innocent, she has been groomed by her family to perform according to society standards

End end

This chapter is written to show, quite ironically, that all the prohibitions that "bent and bound" Newland no longer exist a generation later. His son Dallas is able to live the life that Newland would have lived if he had not had Society choosing the women he mustt marry, the profession he would have, the way he would speak. Dallas makes fun of Newland for living such a life without passion, living in a "deaf and dumb asylum" for so many years. Newland even recognizes that the death of May has liberated him to finally be with his true love, Ellen, but habit has made him a coward and trapped in the same day-to-day life.

But Newland has become so inculcated by his old society values that he can¹t even act when there are no prohibitions.

Now, the theme of the book becomes tricky. Prior to this chapter, one could make an easy case that Society prevented people from realizing their dreams. But now we see, that it is Newland¹s own cowardice that prevents him from being happy. Society becomes just an excuse for why people don¹t seek out their dreams. Beaufort is an example of a man from his own generation who found happiness despite the regulations, his own financial destruction and the disdain of society. Wharton¹s point seems to be that people should not blame their society for their inability to act ­ the rules and norms of society change rapidly, so it is only one¹s personal standards that can be constant and abided by.