Tammy’s Reviews > The Age of Innocence > Status Update

They come from Dutch and English merchants who came to the colonies to make a fortune. They were involved in founding the country but with neither rank nor status. They are not the privileged beings at Washington Square who came from aristocracy. Some have faded away like Mr. and Mrs. Henry van der Luyden, the last of their kind. There’s a whole lot of connections here that would be a footnote had Tolkien done it.

The social pyramid is slippery (like the presents in TCP). At the base are plain people and at the top is high society. Enough people have married into the top that eventually things will loosen up. The dynamic is not unlike Harry Potter in the situation between muggles and pure-blood wizards. His mother avows that Newlands, Archers, and Mingotts are not at the top and there is no such thing as New York aristocracy.

The society there is so insular that everyone knows everyone’s social calendar and nobody has anything to do the night of the dinner, which adds to the insult. Of course, the recipients of the invitation felt equally insulted. The Mingotts took it in stride but May’s mom talked to Newland’s mom talk to Newland and he asked her to look up some ancient relatives which meant he got dragged into it.

He is even aware that these thoughts started when Ellen arrived. Instead of enjoying pure thoughts, he’s wondering about scandal. He grumbles and says, “Hang Ellen Olenska!” Catherine the Great’s hand shines in the guest list, the little inner circle of friends. Only the Beauforts and the Jacksons accept. Everyone turns them down with “regretted that they were unable to accept” instead of “previous engagement.”

Then he wonders if the facade of purity is all made up and artfully produced so that the lord wants to exercise his pleasure in smashing a mirage made of snow. What is below the snow, fire or ice? In fact, it does not bother him that he is not offering a blank page to her because someone needs to be worldly wise. He goes so far as to wonder why she needs to have a blank page (today this is true).

Newland believes they live in a symbolic world in which nothing is said but acted in ways that have meaning, needing no explanation and some of it goes back to the symbolic literary world! The girl is the picture of innonence who will be suddenly plunged into the “facts of life.” In May’s case, she is already making progress in understanding Tennyson to make her more sophisticated. He hopes she will awaken to joy.

He worries that, rather than having a melding of heart and mind, it will be an association of material things and social engagements. His friend who is the high priest of form dallies married women and his wife is so well-trained in holding it all together that she averts her eyes and ignores it. He hopes he is not an ass like his friend and May is not a simpleton like his friend’s sife. Again, pride.

The unfairness of her situation has pushed him to defend a behavior he would not condone in his future wife. May won’t need to because he is not a blackguard like the count. More pride. He feels a twinge of guilt: she has no past to hide, but he does. Perhaps, he is the blackguard. What happens if they tire of each other? None of his friends are thrilled about their marriages. Her training might force him to settle.

She knows nothing and expects everything and marriage is a voyage on uncharted seas (chaos). His mind drifted to Ellen’s situation and women’s rights. Since she was lowborn and he was a count, she had even fewer rights. Such marriages were almost impossible to dissolve and the wife and children saw few benefits long-term. Proper women who are wronged never claim their rights that kind men are willing to concede.

Ch. 6 After Jackson leaves and the women retire, Newland walks upstairs to his study where he is surrounded by books and photographs. The one piece of artwork mentioned is a sculpture “The Fencers” which goes well withthe verbal fencing he just did with Jackson. He looks at a photograph of his beloved and thinks of himself as her future custodian! She is the innocent he must protect.