American Literature

It was a time of ruthlessness in social ambition as well as business and politics.  The persons of their world lived in an atmosphere of faint implications and pale delicacies (Wharton,pg. 21).  This was a time when appearances were more important than the real thing, when it was more important to marry into status instead of for love and everyone overlooked something important about the important but compounded with the unimportant.  It was a time when high society was a culture and old money was important. How one dressed and who made the clothing as well as where it came from was important. Women were bound into a society in which their main job was to find the right man from the right status, marry him and assure that his status remained high. This paper will discuss the ruthlessness of that social ambition and how it pertained to marriage and culture in The Age of Innocence.

    How one looked and who one was born to and where was of primary importance. Larry Liffert, in some ways was an example of the times. He knew everyone and knew everything about them.  He knew when to wear a black tie and when not and he always dressed perfectly, right down to her shiny pointed shoes. He was tall and long legged and was just so all the time. Everyone looked to him to determine when all was right. They looked to him now to determine if the new person was right.  The opera is used throughout the story to depict the upper class needs of these people.  In the opera not only was dress important but who you sat with and where you sat and in what order you sat. The greater your importance, the better your box and who you were with.  If you could not attend you made sure someone of status was there to replace you.  This was all one big show to assure that you were able to show where you belonged in the order of things.

    The wearer of this unusual dress who seemed quite unconscious of the attention it was attracting stood a moment in the centre of the box, discussing with Mrs. Welland the propriety of taking the ladies place in the front right hand corner, then she yielded with a slight smile, and seated herself in line with Mrs. Wellands sister in law, Mr. Lovell Mengott, who was installed in the opposite corner. (Wharton, pg. 7).  This is an example of how important where you sat was.  No matter who had been in this box, when the new person arrived, it would have to be decided who was the most important to sit in the front because the rest of the gallery would see them.  If you managed this wrong and the inappropriate person was in the inappropriate spot, rest assured the rest of the gallery would notice.  In this particular case it was not exactly what it seemed but the example is not to be missed. Everyone in the boxes watched this episode and the ruthlessness comes when a mistake of proper etiquette is made.
    Marriage, at the time was just as ruthless.  People married others that kept them in the right social status and no matter what else, this had to happen.  Love was not a consideration.  Love was allowed though, in a discreet manner. No one ever talked about it and certainly the wife would always say the right things. During the whole episode where the young lady had just entered the booth, the booth was receiving quite a lot of male attention. Newland Archer during this brief episode had been thrown into a strange state of embarrassment. It is annoying that the box which was thus attracting the undivided attention of masculine New York should be that in which his betrothed was seated.(Wharton, pg. 10).  At first, you might think that his concern was for her but in the end his concern is for himself and the status that the two of them must maintain. He then determines that she must announce her betrothal, not at a private party but at the public ball after so that everyone would know that they were together.

    How you faired in this society or culture depended on all of these things.  You might be a member of the culture but you at the same time could be an outcast. Beufort passed for an Englishman, was agreeable, handsome, ill tempered, hospitable, and witty.(Wharton, pg. 33). These things could not buy him a place in this society, no, it was much more ruthless than that. He had come to America with letters of recommendation from old Mr. Manson Mingotts English son in law, the banker and had speedily made himself an important position in the World affairs(Wharton, pg. 33) now this would buy him entrance into this society.  The ruthlessness of it is that it was for the good of the others that they would choose to include him, not for his good.  As long as it met their needs for him to be part of this society he would be kept there.  but his habits were dissipated, his tongue was bitter, his antecedents were mysterious and when Meddora Manson announced her cousins engagement to him it was felt to be one more act of folly in poor Medoras long record of imprudenences.(Wharton, pg. 34). This statement shows that not following the cultural norms of the time could cause you to be an outcast, no matter how well off you were and how well married you were.  You had to also play the part and meet everyones expectations of a person of that social class.

    There were, in fact, dim glimmers of a break away. Newland Archer felt that women were held hostage in some ways.  He felt that they needed to be freer and make some of their own decisions.  This was a totally foreign kind of thought in a culture in which you were part of the society. This was a change for him though.  He went from nothing about his betrothed pleased him more than her resolute determination to carry to its utmost limit that ritual of ignoring the unpleasant in which they had both been brought up(Wharton, pg. 44) to Im sick of the hypocrisy that would bury alive a woman of her age if her husband prefers to live with harlots.(Wharton, pg. 58) Being still single, he could say the latter however, the expectations of him would be too high if he were married. He also had to be careful about what he said and to whom he said such things because this is not the way one does things.  If things are not done the way they should be, loss of a place in the order of the culture, could mean loss of business as well as social status.

    Once married, Archer whisks his wife away to what she describes as a wonderful honeymoon.  At this time, he tries to help her break free and become more able to decide for herself.  She remains the adoring young woman she was brought up to be and even when he temps her to run off to another great trip she says, that would be nice if you did not have to return to New York,(Wharton, pg. 136). already the disciplined young wife.   Then he found as part of his culture and upbringing that he was now a married man which made him part of society.  He must be his part.  Archer had reverted to his old ideas about marriage.  It was less trouble to conform to the tradition and treat May exactly as all his friends treated their wives than to try to practice the theories which his untrammeled bachelorhood had dallied.  There was no use in tying to emancipate a wife who had not the dimmest notion that she was not free. (Wharton, pg. 137). This statement pretty much says it all.  If the women of the time did not want a change, certainly the men would not change.  Her whole goal in life was to assure his status and in order to do that she must daily meet the expectations of this society.

    A time of innocence, maybe it was. Certainly it is difficult for most of us to see that. It was a culture and society that took much daily work to maintain.  Only if you were rich could you afford it and the pressures must have been enormous, not to mention the worry that you might make a mistake. To fall out of favor with those around you would be a nightmare that none of us would ever understand. At one point May says, does anything ever happen in heaven(Wharton, pg. 94). Well certainly, much happens in heaven if that is what we call this place.

    In conclusion, this writer believes that this was not a time of innocence but a time of ruthlessness in which the members of this society would do anything and everything to maintain status.  It was an exclusive culture that this book talks about, as there was much else going on at the time.  This being an exclusive society, however, the rules are great and the need to maintain ones status is high.  It was a time that was ruthless in social ambition as well as business and finance.