|4 | |2 Individuality and Innocence in The Age of Innocence………………………… |6 | |2.1 Ellen’s Individualistic Qualities………………………………………… |7 | |2.2 May’s Artificial Innocence……………………………………………… |10 | |2.3 Contradiction between Individuality and Innocence……………………
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Childhood is something people will hold on to for the rest of their lives. From the days on the playground to the times we were tucked into bed‚ our childhood is something highly cherished. In the novel‚ To Kill a Mockingbird‚ the author plots the change of childhood innocence to the journey of understanding reality. However it’s not always so that adulthood depicts a more wholesome view of the world. Mostly it’s purity that does the job better. Scout is a child who has been living across Arthur
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The Age of Innocence focuses on several different themes throughout the course of the novel. These themes are recurrent and one can seem them being used at various times throughout the story. They add meaning to the story and give readers of Edith Wharton’s novel many things to take into consideration during and after reading it. Class: This is evidently the largest theme in The Age of Innocence. The wealthiest of New York’s elite are the central focus of the novel. Being well-respected and
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The Age of Innocence major theme is based around a battle of the individual’s desire and the monotonous life‚ rules and duties that control New York during the eighteen seventies. The conflict is between freedom and society. It was a society “intent on maintaining its own rigid stability”. Each man and woman had its own duties and people were forced to maintain this social code that existed‚ even if they wanted to put their happiness into their own hands. Big decisions were made by group choice not
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Edith Wharton’s novel The Age of Innocence is set during the Golden Age of old New York (1945-1965).One has to wonder if the title of “The Age of Innocence" by Edith Wharton is‚ in itself‚ an ironic statement as the reader is forced to repeatedly question how innocent of a time this is and if innocence is merely an appearance and not a reality. Although the society in “The Age of Innocence" is highly organized and nuanced‚ it is merely that way so that indiscretions and actions that are anything
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The Relevance of Flowers in The Age of Innocence In the book The Age of Innocence‚ Edith Wharton shows the struggles of a man to choose between the safety that following social rules provides‚ and the adventurous dangers of choosing what is regarded as "morally incorrect." The purity and security of social conventions is represented by the lilies-of-the-valley. In the language of flowers these lilies are the embodiment of the "[r]eturn of happiness" (354)‚ and therefore serve as a symbol for the
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Wharton’s Use of Irony in the Age of Innocence Irony‚ in which meaning is inverted to suggest the opposite of what is written‚ is used throughout “The Age of Innocence” to highlight and gently mock the superficiality of the New York elite. The very title of Wharton’s novel establishes a profound sense of irony in its nostalgic yet satirical tone. It is unclear whether Wharton sees New York’s 19th century “innocence” as an endearing feature of a society still free from modernism‚ or as a sign of
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has his wife appear at the opera with an expensive necklace - which later is revealed to have been borrowed. A moving leave-taking scene in a play between two lovers who do not express their love becomes symbolic to Archer of his leave-taking from Ellen. The metaphor of performance expresses the fact that Archer and Ellen have had to pretend and not been true to their love. Archer likens his wedding to the first night at the opera‚ drawing attention to the unreality of the event - Archer
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It is evident that Newland Archer goes through a series of events that define his personality and from which we can deduct the truth. Archer finds redemption in his sons‚ love and pity coming from May. The biggest constant motif of The Age of Innocence is mortality and immortality. When Wharton first describes the characters of New York Society‚ they are always conceived of as immortal in some way. By saying this meaning that she portrays them as being like the mythological Greek antiquity‚ or
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novel‚ “ The Age of Innocence”‚ illustrates a young wealthy lawyer who degress from his life plans to marry May Welland by becoming infatuated with Countess Ellen Olenska‚ who has separated from her European husband. Eventually‚ Archer Newland and lady Olenska become devotedly in love with one another. The forbidden love is displayed as “innocence”; this so called innocence can be portrayed as young girl with lovely little pigtails that can not fulfill any harm‚ but in reality that innocence is a gordian
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