Age of Innocence Review!!!

Throughout the Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton masterfully uses irony as she sardonically chastised Old New York society by using subtle yet artful techniques. Such can be illustrated when Archer rides “his wife’s dark blue brougham (with the wedding varnish still on it) (183)” in order to retrieve Ellen at the train station when the night before he lies to May by saying that his business tip is postponed when May asks, “…how can you meet Ellen tomorrow, and bring her back to New York, when you’re going to Washington (182).” Yet unlike before, May catches Archer in the lie but doesn’t confront him about it, though it is obvious that she May knows due to the fact it is evident as Wharton describes her awareness in context, “Her voice was as clear as a bell and full of wifely solicitude (182).” However, Wharton’s technique is so strong that even through such a brief scene during Archer and May’s conversation one is able to feel the effects of an implicit argument and suspicion arising even when there is no raising of voices or violence. Instead, it is a very subtle, convoluted, and formal argument that though implicit in speech is obvious enough to make the reader conscious of the hidden intentions and guilty quivers the characters feel. For instance, Wharton makes it clear to the reader that Archer feels guilt-ridden when May knows of his intention to pick up Ellen during the phrases which say that “it did not hurt him half as much to tell May an untruth as to see her trying to pretend that she had not detected him (183).” Yet in the phrases beforehand, Wharton uses layers and layers of veiled suggestions to prod the reader towards confirming such a direct statement as when May suddenly questions Archer’s authority and truthfulness by saying, “Then it’s not postponed? (182)” Therefore suggesting a sense of disbelief or suspicion in what Archer has said. Moreover, after Archer gives away too many details there is a challenging tone that occurs when Archer “turned his eyes to hers in order to not appear to be avoiding them. Their glances met for a second, and perhaps let them into each other’s meanings more deeply than either cared to go (183).” Through this quote, the reader realizes that both characters are cognizant of the fact that Archer is lying through his teeth yet no one cares to confront the problem further illustrating the hinted but unspeakable components of what is considered ‘appropriate’ in society. Yet Wharton also illustrates in this short scene the unspoken conventional restrictions that are implied through Old New York’s social code. When May raises her voice and questions Archer’s authority she does so “with an insistence so unlike her that he felt the blood rising to his face, as if here blushing for her unwonted lapse from all the traditional delicacies (183).” This quote therefore suggests that Archer was very taken back, nearly baffled by May’s sudden confrontation against her prototypical role, and assuming a character quality that is very unlike her, resulting in an impressionable but fleeting moment of intolerance. Through this brief but very important moment one realizes that May has just barely crossed the line in defying a woman’s right to voice her thoughts and question a man’s judgment. Wharton, therefore, uses this instance to lightly make the reader aware of such restrictions that have been set upon her and how society, like Archer, is startled by such a burst of defilement against their strictly instilled social norms.