Age of Innocence :: essays papers

Age of Innocence Chapter One Summary The play opens at the opera. Newland Archer enters his opera box and looks out across the line of business to see his girlfriend, May Welland, touch the lilies he had given her. While dreaming of their future together, his thoughts ar interrupted by gasps from the gentlemen sitting with him. They are utter about a fashionably dressed woman who has just sat down in the box with May. Sillerton Jackson gasps, I did not think they would strike tried it on, which means, he cant believe the Mingotts would allow the woman to come and sit in their box at the Opera. Analysis This is a retain about the conventions of Old New York, New York City in the 1870s. Wharton loves contrasting the old against the new. She begins these contrasts in the very first paragraph. Here she describes the new Opera theater that is going to be erected in the remote forties. We can assume that the forties have been built up since then and people reading her book i n the 1920s (when it was published) would enjoy hearing about how New York has changed. Along these lines, there is also a description of the old people versus the new people, whom NY was beginning to apprehension and yet be drawn to. Also important in this first chapter is Whartons discussion of fashionability and propriety. We can tell from the way that Newland Archer, Lawrence Lefferts and Mr. Silverton Jackson are introduced (all are so concerned with what is moral and the thing) that Wharton will spend a lot of time in the unfermented discussing and perhaps critiquing these concepts in the book. Of note, as well, is the grand attention to detail that Wharton has. The way she describes clothing and interior decoration with much detail has led many to dub this book a costume novel. We will have to see for ourselves if the book develops beyond being a bodice ripper sort of book. May Welland will be one of the most important characters in the book. She is holding L illies of the Valley. In the 1870s the lily of the valley was the flower of chastity and of the names Cynthia and Diana. Later in the book, May is often compared to Diana, the Greek goddess of the hunt.