Essay on Immortality and Myth in The Age of Innocence

By noting the subtitles of human conditions under the stress of strict societal control, Edith Wharton created literature that is true to the society she portrayed. Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley probably would have liked to cause each other bodily harm, yet their society ruled that such behavior would not be tolerated. Therefore, they buried their feelings and expressed them only in subtle movements and off the cuff remarks, bits and pieces of communication that most people would overlook. However, Wharton realized that these fragments composed the only true communication and therefore composed the real story of Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley.

The Puritan society influences the morality in The Scarlet Letter, while in Ethan Frome, Ethan makes his decisions based on his own ideas of morality. The similarity in the moral sensibilities of these novels is significant because it reveals that the ideas of morality can be seen across time periods, as it was not only an issue at one specific time. In conclusion, the insight provided by Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and Wharton’s Ethan Frome reveals that the moral ideas expressed in these novels can be found across settings and time

Contemporary civilisation places immense significance upon writings that stimulate the human psyche. Weldon extrapolates upon this notion through her epistolary work Letters to Alice. The author imbues the audience with the extended metaphorical image of the “City on Invention”. This developed and intricate allegory facilitates comprehension regarding the depth of literary matter. Such complexity is explicated by the alliteration of “mind meeting mind” coupled with the sarcastic “It’s getting crowded”. The City exists as a metaphysical realm negligent of boundaries, thus exemplifying the human mind and appetite for growth. However, Weldon makes tantamount didactic statements that transcend metaphorical allusion and convey explicit points. The high modality language of “no one burns Emma” is symbolic of humanity and its inherent need to preserve and learn about the foundations of its society. Furthermore, Weldon employs a mocking tonality in “real history” to reveal her didactic perspective pertaining to literature, furthered by the authorial intrusion of “you must read”. Weldon re-enforces the relevance of literal compositions, outlining the dire need for its prevalence in society. By observing the past through an inscribed lens, humanity progresses. The written word acts as an artefact through which contemporary society may learn to better themselves by considering the nature of each

Born in 1862, Edith Wharton Newbold Jones was brought up within the graceful, wealthy yet conservative, confining circle of New York society, which fostered sexual repression and prided itself on the innocence of its young girls. Edith Wharton herself was discouraged from expressing her emotions or developing her intellect which was supposed to be very unbecoming traits in a woman. This is the reason why she stressed in her fiction the need of growth, and has shown how painful and frustrating this process can be for a woman. This process of growth and development is revealed in her major works, Ethan Frome (1911), and Summer (1917) (Balakrishnan 1).

As long as humans have lived and died, we have strived to know the meaning of life. We assume that there is a meaning or importance to life, and in doing so try to provide some permanence to our existence so that a greater machine might continue to function. It is only natural, then, for us to be interested in the concept of immortality. If there is purpose to an ending life, a life that does not end must be supremely important. This idea is exemplified throughout time in stories both historical and fictional. The Epic of Gilgamesh is one such story. Gilgamesh deals with immortality on nearly every level, and at the same time points back to mortality, trying to extract a reason for living and dying.

In the decades after the “Good War,” many attempts have been made to extol this generation in the media. Myth and the Greatest Generation: A Social History of Americans in World War II by Kenneth D. Rose, attempts to shine light on how life actually was for the generation that survived World War II, and came to be known as the greatest generation, rather than how that generation appears to us today.

Observation: I’m afraid of children my own age. They kill each other. (Bradbury 27) People in this society

The Age of Innocence, written by Edith Wharton in 1920, is a novel about Newland Archer, set in New York in the 1870s. In the beginning of the novel, Newland is engaged to May Welland, however when her cousin Ellen Olenska returns from Europe, he begins to doubt who he really loves. Due to societal norms, Newland stays with May and never consummates his relationship with Ellen, despite their growing feelings towards each other. At the time of writing The Age of Innocence, Wharton was reading Sir James George Frazer’s The Golden Bough (1914), a 14 volume work on anthropology, which consisted of myths, customs, and magical practices. This collection sparked interest for Wharton, potentially inspiring her to enlist many allusions to classical

Novelist Edith Wharton wrote her defining work, 1905's the House of Mirth, on a subject she knew all too well: the style-over-substance realm of New York's upper-crust society during the Gilded Age. Having been raised in this "fashionable" society, Wharton knew both its intricacies and cruelties firsthand. The triumphant rise and tragic fall of protagonist Lily Bart demonstrate both the "sunshine and shadow" of the Gilded Age. The House of Mirth not only exposes the reality of how "the other half live," but also satirizes and condemns their elitist existence.

Through choice of detail and diction, Edith Wharton justifies Frome’s adultery by juxtaposing the warm, charismatic nature of Mattie to the cold, barren one of Zeena. While his wife speaks in a “monotonous” (129) “flat whine” (32) her cousin’s “suffuse[s] him with joy” (44). Despite the fact that both women are frail and sickly, Zeena’s “puckered throat” and “protruding wrists” (47) disgusts Ethan, while Mattie is so “small and weak-looking that…it wr[i]ng[s] his heart” (106). Throughout the novel, Wharton’s choice of detail drastically contrasts the two women, one a vivacious, vigorous beauty, the other a walking, whining corpse. From their physical looks alone, Zeena is hard to love—sterile and dark—while Mattie—fertile and warm—is easy to. The author intentionally feeds this bias, allowing the readers to feel the same temptation that Frome has in the novel. However, he

Evidence: “The apartment was on the top floor—a small living room, a small dining room, a small bedroom and a bath. The living room was crowded to the doors with a set of tapestried furniture entirely too large for it so that to move about was to stumble continually over scenes of ladies swinging in the gardens of Versailles” (Fitzgerald 29).

The purpose of this Extended Essay is to challenge the general categorization of male as heroes in novels through one of Edith Wharton’s best novels by examining the question “How does Edith Wharton manifest the role of May Welland and Ellen Olenska in foreshadowing the plot of The Age of Innocence?” The scope of this essay encompasses two works; first a critical analysis of the character, May and second, an analysis of the character, Ellen, regarding their roles as foreteller and heroines in the novel. The unique use of Mythology by Wharton as symbols to portray her two leading female characters, in the era of the Gilded Age, is what initially drew me to write an essay on this topic. This essay thus explores Wharton’s use of mythology

Children, with bright faces, tripped merrily beside their parents, or mimicked a graver gait, in the conscious dignity of their Sunday clothes” (Hawthorne, 1) places the readers in a small village in the United States in the middle of the 1800’s with an action that lasts for several days.

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

Since the beginning of time myths and old wives tales have been a source of entertainment as well as enchantment to those of all ages. Charlotte Bronte’s characterization of Jane Eyre held such a mythological concept and appeal that it is likely several other