Examples Of Ellen Curtain In The Age Of Innocence

The Sheer Curtain
In The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, Ellen Olenska is unmistakably alienated by the society in which she resides. Ellen not only defies traditional New York values, but those of the upper-class as well. Initially, Newland Archer is concerned that Ellen’s arrival in America will cause his future bride’s family to lose their social status. However, Newland is soon fascinated, and ultimately enamored, with Ellen because she is a breath of fresh air from the rigid and flawed society in which he lives. Ellen openly disregards the rules of the upper-class, demonstrating the distinction between the European and American cultures. Through Ellen’s alienation, Wharton reveals the shallow nature of New York society, and demonstrates

that the moral (ostensibly) values of society are rooted in climbing up and then maintaining one’s place on the socioeconomic ladder. The reader learns through Newland’s character how society is -- or is not -- able to deal with change.
The novel is set in New York City in the 1870’s, which was the Gilded Age. The Gilded age was marked by political scandals, dishonesty in corporations and unprincipled land speculation. It was a time filled with greed and corruption, with surface glitzy wealth. To “gild” means to cover thinly with gold. On the outside, America seemed to be covered in gold; but once the surface was scratched, it was just as tainted as any other country, perhaps even more. The title of the novel is an ironic reference to the polished and innocent conducts of New York society’s veneer when contrasted with its true inner workings.
Ellen returns to New York after separating herself from her husband, a Polish Count. From the beginning of the novel, it is clear that Ellen stands out in a crowd. Ellen wears an “unusual dress” and “seemed quite unconscious of the attention it was attracting” (29). Her clothes are more revealing than those of the other women in the society. As society felt, “Few things seemed…more awful than an offence against ‘Taste,’ that far-off divinity of whom ‘Form’ was the mere visible representative” (34-35). Ellen refuses to adopt the customary ways of dressing, and is therefore ostracized. In addition, there is much discussion of the way that Europeans are educated as compared to the way Americans are educated. The narrator makes it clear that people find it strange that “the little girl received an expensive but incoherent education, which included ‘drawing from the model,’ a thing never dreamed of before, and playing the piano in quintets with professional musicians” (79). Ellen is isolated in part because she was raised in a European setting where she was taught she could learn and aspire to greatness, as opposed to simply aspiring to marriage.
There is much controversy surrounding Ellen’s decision to leave her husband.

When Ellen decides to divorce her husband, the other members of her family are terrified of the scandal and disgrace that this will cause. While the society sees living apart as something that can eventually be accepted, divorce is unacceptable. When Archer and Mr. Letterblair are discussing Ellen’s desire to divorce, Mr. Letterblair asks Archer if he would like to “marry into a family with a scandalous divorce-suit hanging over it” (118). While divorce is never acceptable in high-class society, affairs are viewed differently depending on gender. When people suspect that Ellen may have had an affair with her husband’s secretary, they say that her family should not be “parading her at the Opera” (35). However, when Newland has an affair with a married woman, it is seen as “the kind that most of the young men his age had been through” (115). The narrator explains that the belief was “when ‘such things happened’ it was undoubtedly foolish of the man, but somehow always criminal of the woman”

(115).
Newland initially sees his engagement to May as something to be proud of.

He is excited about a traditional marriage in which May will essentially be a student to whom he teaches the ways of the world. The narrator says, “He meant her (thanks to his enlightening companionship) to develop a social tact and readiness of wit enabling her to hold her own with the most popular married women of the ‘younger set’”. Marriage is meant to be a relationship in which the husband teaches the wife, and Ellen is an outcast because she is independent and thus does not fit within that construct. Newland sees the sexual inequality inherent in high-class society, and he struggles to maintain his social commitment to May due to his love for Ellen. Since Ellen does not fit in the society, Newland is expected to keep himself at a distance from her -- there is no place for their love in the critical New York

society.
Ellen and Archer ultimately decide to not consummate their love because of their fear of tarnishing the family name. Due to the fact that she has been alienated, Ellen comes to understand that she and Newland can not be together under any circumstances. Newland at one point confesses his love to Ellen, saying “I want—I want somehow to get away with you into a world where words like that—categories like that—won't exist. Where we shall be simply two human beings who love each other, who are the whole of life to each other; and nothing else on earth will matter” (306). Ellen knows, however, that society would never let that happen. Ellen laments, “Oh, my dear—where is that country?” (306).
Despite the fact that Ellen has been alienated, her mark has been left on many people, the most obvious of whom is Newland. Newland had lived a typical high-class life, going along with all of the conventions of that class. When he meets Ellen, however, she gives him an idea of what it is like to be different and interesting -- and there is nothing he can do to forget how alive he feels when he is around her. When Newland and Ellen are talking about their inability to start a life together, Newland cries “What's the use? You gave me my first glimpse of a real life, and at the same moment you asked me to go on with a sham one” (260). Through Ellen, Archer's horizons have extended beyond the constricted scope of New York society life.
While Ellen’s family originally attempted to take her in in her time of need, towards the end of the novel her family wants to get rid of her in order to inhibit any more damage to their reputations. When May begins to suspect that Newland and Ellen are more than friends, May tells Ellen that she is pregnant before she is certain. Ellen herself has learned that she will always be an outsider in the New York society, and she she expresses her belief that “The real loneliness is living among all these kind people who only ask one to pretend!” (96-97). Ellen is unable to live in a society that insists that she constantly pretend to be someone she is not, and this ultimately leads to her decision to leave the high-class society.
The end of the novel reinforces the idea that old habits do in fact die hard. After May dies, Newland’s son Dallas brings him to Paris to visit Ellen. While his son goes to visit Ellen in her apartment, Newland stays outside and cannot bring himself to visit Ellen. Eventually, Newland “got up slowly and walked back alone to his hotel” (377). The ending reaffirms that the people of New York society feel the need to alienate Ellen and refuse to associate with her due to her differences, and her refusal to be sucked in to their shallow world of fake appearances.