The Age Of Innocence By Edith Wharton

The Age of Innocence The Age of Innocence, written by Edith Wharton, is a story told during the old New York era where a young man named Newland Archer prepares to marry his beautiful fiance but is conflicted with another woman who had just ended a disastrous marriage at europe. Now, Archer must make the life changing decision between his right to the family and his love that may cause a great rift to his life.

The Author Edith Wharton, also known as Edith Newbold Jones, was born “in her parents’ Manhattan house on January 24, 1862” and “died on August 11, 1937” due to a stroke, stated in the book Edith Wharton by William Leach. Edith was born into a wealthy, and was the only daughter to her parents’, Lucretia Rhinelander Jones and George

All she had was her father, who was always busy and had no time to listen to a little girl like her. All Edith grew up with in her thoughts were pain and disappointment. As her time had come to marry, she had three eligible men to marry. As she had prepared to marry the first eligible man, Harry Stevens, her mother had said otherwise. She has disapproved to the marriage between them and had canceled all wedding preparations. The second man was Walter Berry, a Harvard graduate. Even though they never really committed to marriage, they become the closests friends years later. The last eligible man she met was Edward Wharton. Both Edith and Edward had fallen in love but share distinctive choices, but even though with the distinctive choices, she continued her goal in becoming a writer even if her husband or her family disapproved. During this situation in her life, she ended up divorcing from Edward due to an unhappy marriage. As Edith writes The Age of Innocence, she expresses the story line reflecting her own situation as she was at a young age. She reflected a divorce due to an unhappy marriage

During this era, the individuals are described as high class individuals in which only men work in finance or in law while the women would live in luxury such as attending parties, the theater, getting their nails or makeup done, or going to tea parties. The setting of the novel also depicted how the high class, such as Newlands Archers’ class, wanted to protect their social life from a change in society. They were scared that there would be a huge difference in society but wanted to keep the society from having any differences. They were also scared that there will be foreign influences that can cause them to step down from a high class. This setting is important to the novel because it gives the atmosphere on how all the high class individuals are acting towards their young ones. They want the young ones to keep the legacy going as well educated, high class citizens by ordering them what to do and what not to do if the young ones like it or not. Children are the future to a new world, but in this case, a new world in continuing the followings of their parents so nothing in society can change so that the parents may be honor of what they have done to their