The Age of Innocence

Set in New York upper society in the 1870's, The Age of Innocence spotlights Newland Archer, a young "man of means" bound to cultural duty and restraint. Engaged to cousin May, he cannot put down his unbounded feelings for Countess Ellen Olenska, his wife's cousin in an abusive marriage to a European lesser noble. "His whole future seemed suddenly to be unrolled before him; and passing down its endless emptiness he saw the dwindling figure of a man to whom nothing was ever to happen." This passage describes the role of a man in society of the time: emotionless, cool, restrained, robotic. Archer predictably chooses the life he was born to lead. But the last chapter describes his eldest son's opposite character born of rebellion to the society life, and Archer's last encounter with the path not chosen. Wharton's language and style eloquently describe the time, which pervades even the word choices she makes. Would we have chosen differently, given the circumstances?