The basic plot of The Age of Innocence is this, Newland is engaged to May Welland during the time where high society dominated New York. However, when May’s scandalous cousin, the Countess Ellen Olenska, returns to the city, his world is turned upside down as he falls in love with her. What bothers me the most about this story is that is appears as though Newland falls for Ellen the second he sees her. It does not make sense, but the way I am interpreting it is that Newland is engaged to May and over the moon about it, then the Countess comes along and all of a sudden now he loves her. I feel like there is no process of the two of them falling in love. I can understand why Newland is attracted to her. Ellen represents everything New York society is against, “it is clear she is not ‘innocent’, and she doesn’t pretend to be so” (Davis article). Since Newland is struggling with his own identity within society at this time, Ellen seems like the perfect girl for him. It frustrates me for in the beginning of the novel, Newland could not be happier with his choice of a bride, “She dropped her eyes . . . Newland Archer . . . drew a breath of satisfied vanity and his eyes returned to the stage” (26). Then all it takes is some new meat to come along and he can change his affections just like that? Again, I understand why Newland and Ellen fall for each other, I’m just not happy about it.
I find all of the women in this novel to be confusing. Countess Olenska is constantly gossiped about and to an extent ostracized for her scandalous, non New York high society behavior, but Mrs. Manson Mingott definitely marched to the beat of her own drum and she was respected for it,
He had always admired the high and mighty old lady who . . . put the crowning touch to her audacities by building a large house of pale cream-coloured stone (when brown sandstone seemed as much as the only wear as a frock-coat in the afternoon) (33).
When the Countess is old will she be admired for her bold choice in clothing and quirky house in the artists district? It is interesting that Wharton chose to have these two clearly independent female characters mixed in with the rest of the society pleasing women who would not be caught dead wearing last seasons colors. The fact that these two types of women are put in the same social settings and therefore always being compared by the reader only makes them contrast more.
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Nat--I like the comparison you make between Ellen and Mrs. Mingot, and you ask a good question, why one is scandalous while the other is the matriarch of society. It's definitely something you could pursue if your want to.
As to your other point, I think Wharton creates Newland to be ripe for the kind of attraction he finds in Ellen. He wants to be an independent thinker but is more conventional than he wants to admit, but is not as "over the moon" about May as he appears to be. She is what he is supposed to want, and he tells himself that she is what he does want, but Wharton wants us to see him as someone who wants more, whether he knows it or not.
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