The Age of Innocence
Archer’s Development and
‘emergence’
Examination concepts
• Presentation of character
– Through narrative perspective
– Through use of motif-based symbolism
– Through dialogue
• Presentation of key thematic concerns
– Through tone
– Through explicit textual detail
– Through character perspective
Archer’s development in Book 2
• Part of the bildungsroman concept
• Is he facing a dilemma?
– In a sense, “no”. Archer is still very much a figure of
NY society and is in a ‘stable’ position in terms of
respect, status etc.
– However, the opening of Book 2 of the novel
exposes…
• A lack of satisfaction in terms of intellect
• A lack of satisfaction in terms of emotion
– We can therefore identify a similar issue as that
mapped in Book 1 – a desire to be part of NY society
and tradition opposed by a desire to follow emotion
and intellect
Where does the dissatisfaction
emerge?
• Wharton begins to make it very clear that
Archer is not entirely at ease
– Through the narration (both the omniscient
narrator and Archer’s own thoughts)
– “Archer was dealing hurriedly with crowding
thoughts…” [Ch22, p186]
Sense of life in relation to May and
NY society
• A sense of constraint is denoted throughout
the text whenever May and the Wellands are
discussed.
• As Book 2 develops, Wharton’s narrator
continually presents Archer’s thoughts in a
way that suggests that he sees only stagnation
in his new life as a “son-in-law”
• “What am I? A son-in-law –” [Ch 21, p177]
Sense of life in relation to Ellen
• A sense of liberty is suggested by Archer’s
interactions with Ellen
• Consider the continuous use of specific
images in association with Ellen – especially
her eyes, voice and the symbolic motif of the
flame
Archer as naïve boy
• Archer is frequently depicted in a way that
suggests he is not fully aware e.g. the
lighthouse episode, the letter episode
• Archer is not always conscious that he is not in
control
• Wharton’s narrator demonstrates this in two
ways
– Peevishness with May and her family
– Adoration of Ellen
Archer as naïve boy
"Because you didn't look round—because you
didn't know I was there. I swore I wouldn't
unless you looked round." He laughed as the
childishness of the confession struck him.
"But I didn't look round on purpose.” [Ch 23 ,
p192]
An ‘emerging’ Archer – the
bildungsroman
• Wharton’s narrator allows us to map Archer’s gradual
change in levels of awareness
• The young man was sincerely but placidly in love. He delighted in the
radiant good looks of his betrothed, in her health, her horsemanship, her
grace and quickness at games, and the shy interest in books and ideas that
she was beginning to develop under his guidance. (She had advanced far
enough to join him in ridiculing the Idyls of the King, but not to feel the
beauty of Ulysses and the Lotus Eaters.) She was straightforward, loyal and
brave; she had a sense of humour (chiefly proved by her laughing at HIS
jokes); and he suspected, in the depths of her innocently-gazing soul, a
glow of feeling that it would be a joy to waken. But when he had gone the
brief round of her he returned discouraged by the thought that all this
frankness and innocence were only an artificial product. Untrained human
nature was not frank and innocent; it was full of the twists and defences of
an instinctive guile. [Ch 6, p37]
The emergence of Archer
He was sorry that he had not told May Welland
of Countess Olenska's request, and a little
disturbed by the thought that his betrothed
might come in to see her cousin. What would
she think if she found him sitting there with the
air of intimacy implied by waiting alone in the
dusk at a lady's fireside? [Ch 9, p 57]
The emergence of Archer
He remembered what she had told him of Mrs.
Welland's request to be spared whatever was
"unpleasant" in her history, and winced at the
thought that it was perhaps this attitude of
mind which kept the New York air so pure. "Are
we only Pharisees after all?" he wondered,
puzzled by the effort to reconcile his instinctive
disgust at human vileness with his equally
instinctive pity for human frailty. [Ch 11, p 78]
The emergence of Archer
"Now we're coming to hard facts," he thought,
conscious in himself of the same instinctive
recoil that he had so often criticised in his
mother and her contemporaries. How little
practice he had had in dealing with unusual
situations! Their very vocabulary was unfamiliar
to him, and seemed to belong to fiction and the
stage. In face of what was coming he felt as
awkward and embarrassed as a boy. [Ch 12,
p88]
The emergence of Archer
"Well, then: is it worth while to risk what may be
infinitely disagreeable and painful? Think of the
newspapers—their vileness! It's all stupid and
narrow and unjust—but one can't make over
society.“[Ch 12 , p 91]
The emergence of Archer
He looked away into the fire, and then back at
her shining presence. His heart tightened with
the thought that this was their last evening by
that fireside, and that in a moment the carriage
would come to carry her away. [Ch 18, p135]
The Age of Innocence
Archer’s Development and
‘emergence’
Book 2
Recap from previous lecture
• The bildungsroman concept of Archer’s
“emergence”
• The concept that presentation helps to guide
the reader
• The concept that Wharton provides a way of
perceiving two different ‘Archers’ – one
through direct speech, the other through the
narrative itself
Archer’s kiss – Ch 18
The one thing that astonished him now was that he
should have stood for five minutes arguing with her
across the width of the room, when just touching her
made everything so simple.
She gave him back all his kiss, but after a moment he
felt her stiffening in his arms, and she put him aside
and stood up.
"Ah, my poor Newland—I suppose this had to be. But it
doesn't in the least alter things," she said, looking
down at him in her turn from the hearth.
"It alters the whole of life for me." [p 139]
Book 2 – Archer’s continuing
journey
The wedding represents a heightening of what
has already emerged in the narrative
"And all the while, I suppose," he thought, "real
people were living somewhere, and real things
happening to them . . .“ [Ch 19, p 149]
Book 2
Archer had reverted to all his old inherited ideas about
marriage. It was less trouble to conform with the
tradition and treat May exactly as all his friends treated
their wives than to try to put into practice the theories
with which his untrammelled bachelorhood had
dallied. There was no use in trying to emancipate a wife
who had not the dimmest notion that she was not free;
and he had long since discovered that May's only use of
the liberty she supposed herself to possess would be to
lay it on the altar of her wifely adoration. [Ch 20, p160]
Book 2
Chapter 23 – the entire ‘build up’ for the
meeting between Ellen and Archer is almost free
of any mention is names – why is this? [p188189]
The words hardly reached him: he was aware
only of her voice, and of the startling fact that
not an echo of it had remained in his memory.
He had not even remembered that it was lowpitched, with a faint roughness on the
consonants. [p190]
Book 2
There had been days and nights when the
memory of their kiss had burned and burned on
his lips; the day before even, on the drive to
Portsmouth, the thought of her had run through
him like fire; but now that she was beside him,
and they were drifting forth into this unknown
world, they seemed to have reached the kind of
deeper nearness that a touch may sunder. [Ch
23, p 195]
Book 2
What her answer really said was: "If you lift a
finger you'll drive me back: back to all the
abominations you know of, and all the
temptations you half guess." He understood it as
clearly as if she had uttered the words, and the
thought kept him anchored to his side of the
table in a kind of moved and sacred submission.
[Ch 24, p200]
Book 2
But after a moment the sense of waste and ruin
overcame him. There they were, close together
and safe and shut in; yet so chained to their
separate destinies that they might as well have
been half the world apart.
"What's the use—when you will go back?" he
broke out, a great hopeless How on earth can I
keep you? crying out to her beneath his words.
[Ch 24, p 200]
Book 2
The day, according to any current valuation, had been a
rather ridiculous failure; he had not so much as
touched Madame Olenska's hand with his lips, or
extracted one word from her that gave promise of
farther opportunities. Nevertheless, for a man sick with
unsatisfied love, and parting for an indefinite period
from the object of his passion, he felt himself almost
humiliatingly calm and comforted. It was the perfect
balance she had held between their loyalty to others
and their honesty to themselves that had so stirred and
yet tranquillized him; … [Ch 25, p 202]
Book 2
• Presentation creates further dilemmas for the
reader.
– How is Archer going to resolve this conflict?
– Which set of values will prevail?
– How will Ellen react if Archer pursues his passion
further?
Book 2
"I'm so sorry: it shan't happen again," she
answered, in the firm bright tone she had
learned from her mother; and it exasperated
Archer to feel that she was already beginning to
humour him like a younger Mr. Welland. She
bent over to lower the wick, and as the light
struck up on her white shoulders and the clear
curves of her face he thought: "How young she
is! For what endless years this life will have to go
on!“ [Ch 26, p 218]
Book 2
"The change will do you good," she said simply,
when he had finished; "and you must be sure to
go and see Ellen," she added, looking him
straight in the eyes with her cloudless smile, and
speaking in the tone she might have employed
in urging him not to neglect some irksome
family duty. [Ch 26, p218]
Key concepts
• At this point in the novel, we can argue that
Archer is finally becoming fully aware of the
complete conflict between his wishes and his
reality.
• Ellen Olenska remains passionate in terms of
feelings but knows she cannot reciprocate
without causing ‘damage’ to the social fabric.
Book 2
Her tone was so natural, so almost indifferent,
that Archer's turmoil subsided. Once more she
had managed, by her sheer simplicity, to make
him feel stupidly conventional just when he
thought he was flinging convention to the
winds.
"I think you're the most honest woman I ever
met!" he exclaimed. [Ch 29, p236]
Book 2
• "For us? But there's no us in that sense! We're
near each other only if we stay far from each
other. Then we can be ourselves. Otherwise
we're only Newland Archer, the husband of
Ellen Olenska's cousin, and Ellen Olenska, the
cousin of Newland Archer's wife, trying to be
happy behind the backs of the people who
trust them.” [Ch 29, p239]
Book 2
He had fallen into the way of dwelling on such
conjectures as a means of tying his thoughts fast
to reality. Sometimes he felt as if he had found
the clue to his father-in-law's absorption in
trifles; perhaps even Mr. Welland, long ago, had
had escapes and visions, and had conjured up all
the hosts of domesticity to defend himself
against them. [Ch 30, p241]
Book 2
• Archer concedes to ‘baser’ feelings?
She turned away, and he followed and caught
her by the wrist. "Well, then: come to me once,"
he said, his head turning suddenly at the
thought of losing her; and for a second or two
they looked at each other almost like enemies.
"When?" he insisted. "Tomorrow?"
She hesitated. "The day after.“
[Ch 31, p258]
Book 2
…he saw that her face, which had grown very
pale, was flooded with a deep inner radiance.
His heart beat with awe: he felt that he had
never before beheld love visible.
[Ch 31, p 258]
Ideas to ponder
“He was at heart a
dilettante, and thinking over a pleasure to come
often gave him a subtler satisfaction than its
Realization.” [ Ch 1]
How is this linked to the theatrical motif
throughout the novel?
Activity
• Access a soft copy of the text – e.g. PDF
format
• Type word and phrase searches such as;
– “It struck him”, “he was struck” or simply “struck”
– “he thought” “she thought”, “the thought”
– “he felt”
– “fire”, “flame” “enflamed” etc
• What is the CONTEXT? How is this relevant to
the presentation of characters?
Conclusions?
• Although the novel is a relatively simple story
of potential and lost love, it is presented in a
manner that influences the reader’s
judgement
• Archer is initially presented as a rather selfrighteous figure but one with a potential for
depth of feeling
• The real conflict of the novel is that which
takes place within Archer’s own conscience