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Irony in edith wharton by ethan frome
Irony in edith wharton by ethan frome
Nir Evron. Realism, Irony and Morality in Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence summary
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Edith Wharton’s novel, The Age of Innocence, has an ironic twist to the plot of the story. The official definition of irony is: the expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect. Many famous novels have an ironic twist to the plot of the story. Such novels, Pride and Prejudice, Lord of the Flies, and The Great Gatsby. “The Age of Innocence takes place during the last breath of New York high society, although its members did not sense the dramatic changes coming to their world” (Hadley11).1 Wharton, uses irony typically for a humorous effect. Irony is also used as an autobiographical effect. The role of irony in The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton is a major theme in Wharton’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel.
Wharton uses the novel The Age of Innocence as a source of ironic twists that tie into her autobiographical effects. Edward R. (Teddy) Wharton, Edith Wharton’s past husband, is diagnosed with manic depression. Mr. Wharton also has many affairs during his marriage with Edith Wharton. “By the time Wharton wrote this book, she had survived an unhappy 25 year marriage” (Cliffnotes).2 She ignored her husband’s affair and business just like May Welland in The Age of Innocence. “What is most striking in the two volumes, other than the similarity of tone discernible in all the tales, is Edith Wharton’s preoccupation with the irony of things, especially in the connection with man’s failures” (Plante 421).3 “Wharton shares significantly with Archer is neither character nor biography but rather a particular situation: that of outliving that had formed her” (Evron 1).4
Wharton uses Newland Archer as a major role of irony in her novel, The Age of Innocence. “W...
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...and Hermeneutics,” New Literary History 12.1 (1948): 11-27. Rpt. in Realism, Irony, and Morality in Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence. Nir Evron. Standford University. Print.
Saunders, Judith P. “Ironic Reversal in Edith Whartons ‘Bunner Sister’”, in Studies in Short Fiction, Vol. 14. 3. (1977): 241-245. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Thomas Votteler. Vol. 6. Michigan: Gale, 1990. Print.
Sholl, Anna McClure; “The Work of Edith Wharton,” in Gunton’s Magazine Vol. 25. (November, 1903): 426-432. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Thomas Vottele. Vol. 6. Michigan: Gale, 1990. Print.
SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on The Age of Innocence.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. n.d., Web. 25 March. 2014.
“Themes in The Age of Innocence.” Cliffnotes.com. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt., n.d., Web. 25 Mar. 2014.
Wharton, Edith. The Age of Innocence. New York: D. Appleton, 1920. Print.
Analyzing innocence has always been a difficult task, not only due to it’s rapid reevaluation in the face of changing societal values, but also due to the highly private and personal nature of the concept. The differences between how people prioritize different types of innocence - childhood desires, intellectual naivety, sexual purity, criminal guilt, etc. - continually obscures the definition of innocence. This can make it difficult for people to sympathize with others’ loss of purity, simply because their definition of that loss will always be dissimilar to the originally expressed idea. Innocence can never truly be adequately described, simply because another will never be able to precisely decipher the other’s words. It is this challenge, the challenge of verbally depicting the isolationism of the corruption of innocence, that Tim O’Brien attempts to endeavour in his fictionalized memoir, The
Edith Wharton’s brief, yet tragic novella, Ethan Frome, presents a crippled and lonely man – Ethan Frome – who is trapped in a loveless marriage with a hypochondriacal wife, Zenobia “Zeena” Frome. Set during a harsh, “sluggish” winter in Starkfield, Massachusetts, Ethan and his sickly wife live in a dilapidated and “unusually forlorn and stunted” New-England farmhouse (Wharton 18). Due to Zeena’s numerous complications, they employ her cousin to help around the house, a vivacious young girl – Mattie Silver. With Mattie’s presence, Starkfield seems to emerge from its desolateness, and Ethan’s vacant world seems to be awoken from his discontented life and empty marriage. And so begins Ethan’s love adventure – a desperate desire to have Mattie as his own; however, his morals along with his duty to Zeena and his natural streak of honesty hinder him in his ability to realize his own dreams. Throughout this suspenseful and disastrous novella, Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton effectively employs situational irony enabling readers to experience a sudden shock and an unexpected twist of events that ultimately lead to a final tragedy in a living nightmare.
One of the ways to turn a critical lens onto Edith Wharton’s writing would be to approach texts through various modes of reading. Through this approach, critical discourse often assumes that the text offers readings that work in spite of the text itself and that authorial intention does not matter. The premise of these tenets, of course, is that so much of textual analysis is rooted in a separation of text and author and also between text and reader. These distinctions provide a space in which Wharton thrives, particularly in Ethan Frome, whose narratives are multiple and fluid. Indeed, as a story fixed in rural Masachusetts, a town entirely of its own character and yet anonymous enough to serve as any town, Ethan Frome emblematizes an
Novels such as “The Age of Innocence”(The Editors of), which discusses a “ picture of upper-class New York society in the 1870s” (The Editors of), strongly relates to Wharton and her background. “The Age of Innocence” is considered Wharton’s “finest work” (The Age Of). The novel is based off Newland Archer and May Welland’s troubled marriage. At first, the married couple live in harmony and joy, however this dramatically changes throughout the book. Once Newland meets “May's cousin, the Countess Ellen Olenska, on the run from an unhappy marriage” (The Age of Innocence), Newland immediately falls in love. Society plays a major key role in this book. Therefore, Ellen cannot divorce her husband or make a public announcement of her feelings for Newland. As Newland’s feelings grow deeper for Ellen he feels a strong need to run away with her and live their life together. However, Newland knew that severe consequences would be upheld against him if he were to run away with Ellen. Such as, being disowned from his family. However, he never cared much about the consequences and put Ellen as his main focus. May is a sharp woman and figured out their feelings toward each other and as a result, the day they planned to leave was the day May announced her pregnancy with Newland. The book ends with May and Newland carrying on their unhappy marriage and kids while Ellen and Newland’s relationship is forever
Edith Wharton, a famous author of many outstanding books, wrote a chaotic love story entitled Ethan Frome. The story took place in the wintery town of Starkfield, Massachusetts. Wharton was a sophisticated young woman who found love in sitting down and holding people’s attention by way of a pen. Wharton wrote yet another thriller that told the tale of two love stricken people that barely found it possible to be together; which later forced them to fall into the temptation of love that cannot be controlled. Wharton had many different writing styles but for different books meant different needs. In Edith Wharton’s novel, Ethan Frome, frustration and loneliness play roles in disappointment while imagery, symbolism, and individual responsibility provide the novel with a tortuous plot.
The book being called The Age of Innocence is ironic because the one who would be perceived as being most innocent, is not as naïve as believed. May Welland Archer grew up innocent and naïve and has never known passion until her husband introduces her to it. After Newland begins his affair, he believes her to be completely innocent and unaware, while she is actually completely aware of his affair with Ellen and chooses to act ignorant. Newland believes that she was innocent “and she had died thinking the world was a good place, full of loving and harmonious households like her own” (226). His thoughts that she died innocent is ironic because Newland was the innocent, oblivious person in this situation because he was unaware of May’s knowledge of his affair.
Pizer, Donald. "The Naturalism of Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth." Twentieth Century Literature 41.2 (1995): 241-8.
Churchwell, Sarah. "The Death of Innocence." New York Times 18 Aug 2008, n. pag. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.
In The Age of Innocence, women are viewed in a white light of innocence. Promiscuity was excusable, even expected of men, but for women sexuality was a part of the criteria to be accepted into society or find a husband. Women were expected to be loyal to their husbands, accept restrictions, and never divorce. Archer sees May exactly as he is expected to, as a pure young woman in need of guidance. However, May had powers of her own that weren’t taken into account by Newland. May had her loyalty, duty, and most importantly, her pregnancy. May had been aware of Newland’s desire to be with Ellen for some time. New York society never would have approved of his choice to do what would make him happy, but May takes matters into her own hands in her final fight for Newland. May reveals that she is pregnant, and this piece of news immediately eliminates Archer’s choice to leave May. Finally, Newland cannot gather up the courage to go against the morals of New York society. He has no choice but to put the interests of his family above his own desires once again. The idea of a female character revealing her intuition and shred of social power ultimately forces Newland, and the reader, to question who is really in
In her lifetime, Edith Wharton experienced the restraining nature of societal expectations against her attempts to establish her individual identity, in both her sexuality and publication of her written works. Wharton specifically has an excellent opportunity to criticize the expectations placed on American women during the Realist era because she emigrated to France and experienced a radically different system to that of America’s. This enabled her to more clearly contemplate how society limited and impacted the personal development of women without Wharton being restricted by her knowledge of solely the American social system. The struggle with societal expectations establishes itself in her novella Summer, in which Charity Royall faces the
The. Detroit: Gale, 2002. http://www. Literature Resource Center -.
The title of Edith Wharton's novel The House of Mirth waxes poetic irony in the case of the old money society of turn-of-the-century New York. The individual as part of the collective of society which seeks to oppress individuality is representative of the "house" in the novel's title. To remain ignorant and play by the "rules," therein lies the "mirth." Clearly, the victimization of the story's heroine, Lily Bart, by the elite social "set" she associates herself with illustrates Wharton's disdain for the rigidity of this society against the individual. Lily is, at first, an example of the collective society she is a product of; however, as she finds herself being victimized for embracing individuality, a metamorphosis of her character takes place through an internal struggle over the faults of her external world, leading to her discovery of the truth and the loss of her innocence.
Like Alice, who divorced was twice. Another example of how Edith and this particular story is compares to her life is Alice’s daughter is sick with typhoid and when Edith was 10 she suffered from typhoid fever and almost died. Also like Lily and most children her age Edith Wharton also had a governess. Wharton’s main concept in the story was the theme of divorce and survival of the fittest. By having the other two men being around the current marriage and dealing with some of struggles of divorced and being able to survive New York’s
Vol. 6. What is the difference between a'smart' and a'smart'? Detroit: Gale Books, 1984. 32.
The irony is also an example of showing character appeal. He is showing his attitude toward the society. As the reader reads his humorous and satirical essay, the reader would notice that there is irony everywhere. One example is when the Mark Twain discussed on page 7 paragraph 3 “Be respectful to your superiors, if you have any, also to strangers and sometimes to others.” (7). Even though he is telling the youth to respect your superiors. He also tells the youth that if they are ever offended or think you were offended, hit them with a brick. With that said how is the youth supposed to respect their superiors? Also, he mentions that in paragraph 3 “yes, always avoid violence; in this age of charity and kindliness, the times has gone by for such things,” (7) but he says hit people with bricks. Another example of irony is on page 7 paragraph 5 “you want to be very careful about lying,” (7) but he doesn’t tell the youth not to lie at all. Unlike most elderly people if they were giving advice. Which is very ironic how he is trying to let the youth know that it is appropriate to lie, but don’t get caught. Also, this is what brings me back to the quote “truth is mighty and will prevail.” If the youth are good liars, would this quote be truth? Can the truth over power a lie? That is what Mark Twain is trying to say, with good practice how would you ever get caught? He also refers to the lying