Social Duty And Individual Desire In Faust, By Edith Wharton

In addition, another character that Wharton uses to show the conflict between social duty and individual desire is May Wellan. From the beginning to the end of the novel, May Welland’s behavior always proves that she follows the society, as “In New York’s eyes, May is the “Nice Girl”, the Angel and Diana of public statuary. Seen from the male club box, everything about her signals purity - an “innocence” which licenses her appeal and guarantees the survival of the family” (Bell 30). In the beginning, May’s appearance at the Opera is so innocent and pure, exactly shows that she is a perfect product of Old New York, as “May Welland projects the aura of innocent maidenhood, seated between her mother and her aunt, clutching her bouquet of lily-of-the-valley. As she watches the performance of Faust, her attention focuses on the love aria, not the bargain that Faust makes with Mephistopheles” (Pennell 150). Moreover, May follows the rules, especially her family, and she never seems to act something on her own. Her wedding is a proof, as she listens to her parents, she wants to have their permissions in mostly everything, from the date and the place of the wedding to the
Newland is a man who conforms to the society but questions its rules at the same time; May is the perfect girl that the society wants; and Ellen represents the opposite, which is chaos and breaking rules. Through those characters, The Age of Innocence is the novel that perfectly proves how society’s duty and rules can harm and even destroy individual’s love and talents, with the example of cruel Old New York society. “Strict adherence to the rules of outward form [inhibiting] the development of individual talents” (Pennell