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Both Daisy Miller by Henry James and The Age of Innocence, based on the novel by Edith Wharton are either social commentaries or love stories set in corrupt society. The male leads, Newland Archer and Winterbourne, help to show, assuming the goal is commentary, the dishonest and frivolous nature of society. Newland and Winterbourne’s stories and characters run on corresponding motives, as they are the offspring of that society.
Each character has an affair. Winterbourne’s is subtle, presented more as his single interest, but it is told that his presence in Geneva (at both the beginning and end of the novel) is for the purpose of “’studying,’” but “when certain persons spoke of him they affirmed that the reason of his spending so much time at Geneva was that he was extremely devoted to a lady who lived there—a foreign lady—a person older than himself (Part I.)” As Winterbourne is “extremely devoted,” then his time with Daisy must be considered an affair, whether or not it amounted to anything more than flirtation. Newland’s affair is more obvious, as both May, his wife, and Ellen, his secret love, play major roles in the story.
However, it is difficult to assign blame to either man for his affair, for each is a paragon gentleman who cares deeply about the honor of the women in his life. Winterbourne is bound by his gentleman’s manners to preserve the societal position of Daisy. In Part II, when Daisy is walking on the streets of Rome with two gentlemen, Winterbourne shows that he does care for Daisy’s honor:
“’Does Mr. Winterbourne think,’ she asked slowly, smiling, throwing back her head, and glancing at him from head to foot, ‘that, to save my reputation, I ought to get into the carriage?’
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...e were safe with you, and always would be. Because once, when she asked you to, you gave up the thing you wanted most.’” However, though both men’s affairs are known, they are never openly criticized.
Both Newland and Winterbourne are rich, proud men who have been involved in affairs. But yet, we perceive them both in a positive light. We see Winterbourne as a man carried along for an exciting journey through his affection for Daisy, and Archer as the finest gentlemen torn between two women. The attitude that is allowed by the authors suggests that men are permitted affairs, while women require the protection of the men that might betray them. High society, at the time, was polite, charming, and secret. No one spoke ill of another publicly, though each and every member of society was allowed, and seemingly encouraged, to make their own assumptions.
In Edith Warton’s novel, The Age of Innocence the main character Newland Archer has a complex personality that is filled with hidden desires and ideas; some of these ideas are controversial in the society that he lives in. The arrival of Ellen Olenska and the harsh realization of living in a boring society help expose these unseen traits.
The time and way people are brought up in society makes a huge difference on how they will climb up the social scale in life. In the classic novel House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton and Call it Sleep, by Henry Roth the main characters experience totally different upbringings into society. While Lily Bart is brought up into a high class society, David is born into an immigrant family in a part of the city, which has similar people as his own country. The two characters in the novels both have different and some similar views on how to climb up on the social scale. Although they would give different advice to each other on how to climb the social scale, and have different views on life, one thing that would be common would be to have money.
Both “ Young Goodman Brown” and “ The Most Dangerous Game” have themes of a loss of innocence, yet each store employs a different way of getting there. The exact meaning of this loss of innocence also differs in each story. In “ Young Goodman Brown”, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, shows us a man that loses his innocent view of the world. By the end he is a man with now hope and no faith. In “ The Most Dangerous Game”, written by Richard Connell, we watch as a man falls from a powerful hunter into a savage murderer.
Edith Wharton was the author of The Age of Innocence, a novel published in 1920. In the book, many topics were considered, such as divorce, the empowerment of women, and the lifestyle of the wealthy. The inspiration for these motifs occurred throughout her life. Although Edith Wharton’s work was not well-received, the topics included in her writings held many truths about upper-class society in the late 1800s; therefore, Edith Wharton was influenced by her past and societal experiences.
reveals the struggle daisy must encounter of being a married woman who longs for another man.
However, it is not long before Winterbourne feels a need to place her within the rigid expectations proper to her class and gender. He begins to find her disposition towards conversation and acknowledgment to having a great deal of gentlemen's...
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton is a book that gave the word “love” many other meanings, such as impossible, meaningless and incomplete. There were many unbearable obstacles that Countess Ellen Olenska, one of the main characters, had to face because of love. She was treated badly by many people and always longed for love but never obtained it. With everyone cursing her, betraying her and hurting her, there was one person who was always there for her. Newland Archer wasn’t only sympathetic towards her; he also began to fall in love with her. The love she always wanted. He was the man who truly cared for her and always helped her make decisions. Out of all the selfish people in New York who degraded her, including her very close relatives, Newland Archer was one person who was there to listen to her problems and helped her solve them.
Daisy knows very well that tom is cheating on her, but doesn’t care because it's more convenient to stay in her unhappy marriage. Even though she wants to be with Gatsby, she wants to keep her social status and being with Tom makes this all the easier. Now, this is quite the opposite of Myrtle. She has a loving husband who would do anything for her, but her social status is all she cares about. Myrtle is willing to hurt George and ruin their marriage in order to climb up the social ladder. Neither of these women have respect for themselves. Both Daisy and Myrtle allow Tom to treat them
" Like many people do in first impressions, Winterbourne feels the need to label Daisy right away." In the beginning, the stereotype seems to fit." Daisy is young, unsophisticated, chatty, and brags about all the society, especially the gentlemen"s society she had in New York (1562). " She enjoys teasing and getting reactions out of people just for the sake of it." For example, the second time she and Winterbourne meet, late one evening in the garden, she asks him if he wants to take her out in a boat on the lake."
Daisy had little social etiquette and was extremely spontaneous. She cared little about what the European people thought of her because she was not fond of European culture and saw nothing wrong with her behavior. Winterbourne was completely opposite of this. He was very civilized and exceedingly polite. Winterbourne was greatly influenced by other people’s opinions of him, especially the women in his life. As the story unraveled, one could see how intrigued Winterbourne was by Daisy’s beauty. He stated that he “hadn’t for a long time seen anything prettier than his fair country woman’s features.” Daisy’s prettiness was a recurring theme throughout the novella. Mrs. Costello’s negative views of Daisy fall partly unheard by Winterbourne because he finds Daisy too beautiful for any of those things to be true. In part, he believed her innocence was to blame for her behavior. Daisy was unaware of how a big of scandal her behaviors appeared to
Tom Buchannan, Daisy’s husband, has two mistresses throughout this story. He has Daisy, and Myrtle Wilson. Given the situation Tom is in he will not come out completely happy, he must lose one if not both of his women. When Myrtle was hit by the car Tom was in shock, he had just lost his mistress. After the bystanders at the scene describe the automobile that murdered Myrtle, Tom recognized that vehicle, as Gatsby’s. Little ...
In the late 19th century both American and European encountered gender inequality; the males being higher up the hierarchical. During the time period it was exceedingly inappropriate for an unmarried woman to socialize with the opposite gender without the presence of a chaperon. In the novel, “Daisy Miller”, Daisy continuously contravenes these simple European social requirements. It was quite apparent that Daisy Miller death was brought upon herself because she refused to go by European social standards and neglected the warnings.
Matriarchal Figures in The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde and Persuasion by Jane Austen
Jane Austen’s works are characterized by their classic portrayals of love among the gentry of England. Most of Austen’s novels use the lens of romance in order to provide social commentary through both realism and irony. Austen’s first published bookThe central conflicts in both of Jane Austen’s novels Emma and Persuasion are founded on the structure of class systems and the ensuing societal differences between the gentry and the proletariat. Although Emma and Persuasion were written only a year apart, Austen’s treatment of social class systems differs greatly between the two novels, thus allowing us to trace the development of her beliefs regarding the gentry and their role in society through the analysis of Austen’s differing treatment of class systems in the Emma and Persuasion. The society depicted in Emma is based on a far more rigid social structure than that of the naval society of Persuasion, which Austen embodies through her strikingly different female protagonists, Emma Woodhouse and Anne Eliot, and their respective conflicts. In her final novel, Persuasion, Austen explores the emerging idea of a meritocracy through her portrayal of the male protagonist, Captain Wentworth. The evolution from a traditional aristocracy-based society in Emma to that of a contemporary meritocracy-based society in Persuasion embodies Austen’s own development and illustrates her subversion of almost all the social attitudes and institutions that were central to her initial novels.
The dominant image concerning Daisy throughout the entire work is that she seems to be frank and thus never tries to conceal her inner mind like the typical European girls with a view to arresting attention from men. However, that prevailing image is bound to be changed by the last twist of plot. At the moment of death, Daisy's wish is that Winterbourne should know that she is not engaged with that Italian guy. Then, why? Actually, it is quite ambiguous; none the less, her wish can be interpreted as her desperate trial to overcome the European prejudices against shallow American culture. In other words, behind her vulgarity and innocence, there is a fundamental desire to appreciate and enhance one's dignity even in love affairs, which is not vulgar at all, and which makes Winterbourne study