The Age of Innocence
In 1870s New York, a young lawyer engaged to the perfect girl falls in love with her scandalous cousin, and the whole polite world quietly closes ranks to keep him in line.
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Newland Archer has everything old New York can offer: a good family, a gentleman’s law practice and a lovely fiancée, May Welland. Then May’s cousin Ellen, the Countess Olenska, comes home from Europe after leaving her husband, and her frankness makes Archer see his world as a set of empty rituals. He falls in love with her, marries May anyway, and spends years caught between duty and longing while the family watches in silence. Wharton won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for this novel, the first woman to win it for fiction.
What happens in The Age of Innocence
On a January evening in the early 1870s, Newland Archer, a young lawyer from one of New York’s old families, watches his fiancée May Welland at the opera. Into her family’s box walks her cousin Ellen, the Countess Olenska, who has left her brutal Polish husband and come home under a cloud of gossip. To stand by the family, Archer has the engagement announced that night. When society snubs a dinner given in Ellen’s honor, the powerful van der Luydens invite her to their own, and she is accepted. Archer’s firm asks him to talk Ellen out of divorcing her husband, since the family fears scandal. Though drawn to her, he persuades her to drop it. Soon after, he rushes to Florida to beg May to marry sooner; May offers to release him if he loves someone else, but she is thinking of an old affair. Back in New York, Archer confesses his love to Ellen, who tells him she gave up the divorce for his sake and May’s. A telegram arrives: May’s parents have agreed to an early wedding. Archer marries May and finds married life dull. He meets Ellen secretly in Boston, where she has refused her husband’s offer to take her back. The Count’s messenger, M. Rivière, later begs Archer to help keep her from being pushed back into the marriage. When the banker Julius Beaufort fails and old Mrs. Mingott has a stroke, Ellen returns to nurse her grandmother. Archer presses her, and she agrees to come to him once. Instead she announces that she is going back to Europe to live on her own. At a farewell dinner Archer realizes that the family and their friends all believe he and Ellen are lovers and has quietly arranged her exit. That night May tells him she is expecting a child, and that she told Ellen two weeks earlier. About twenty-six years later Archer is a widower and a respected public man. In Paris with his son Dallas, he learns that May knew he had given up what he most wanted. Ellen, now free, expects them both, but Archer sits on a bench below her balcony and then walks back to his hotel alone.
Where and when The Age of Innocence happens
Old New York
The small, rule-bound world of Fifth Avenue drawing-rooms, the opera at the Academy of Music and the family pew, where most of the novel takes place.
Newport, Skuytercliff and Boston
The summer lawns of Newport, where Archer watches Ellen from a distance, and the van der Luydens’ Hudson estate and a sweltering Boston, where the two are briefly alone.
Paris
Where Ellen makes her own life, and where Archer, at fifty-seven, sits on a bench below her balcony.
The 1870s, with a final chapter about twenty-six years later
The story opens on a January evening in the early seventies and covers about two years, then jumps ahead to a world of telephones, reform politics and freer manners.
Chapter by chapter summary + why it matters
- 1
Book I: The Countess at the Opera (Chapters I to VI)
At a performance of Faust, Newland Archer sees his fiancée May Welland share a box with her cousin Ellen Olenska, just back from Europe after leaving her husband. To stand by the family, he has the engagement announced that night at the Beauforts’ ball. At dinner the gossip Sillerton Jackson repeats rumors about Ellen and her husband’s secretary, and Archer declares that women should be free. Soon nearly every invited guest refuses a dinner given to meet the Countess.
Why it mattersWharton lays out the rules of old New York and tests Archer’s liberal talk at once against a real woman in trouble.
- 2
The Duke’s Dinner and the Divorce (Chapters VII to XII)
Archer and his mother appeal to the van der Luydens, who invite Ellen to their dinner for the visiting Duke of St. Austrey, and society falls into line. Ellen asks Archer to call, and in her little rented house he sees New York as an outsider would; afterward he sends her yellow roses without a card. When Ellen asks for a divorce, Archer’s law firm gives him the case, and he persuades her to give it up to avoid scandal.
Why it mattersArcher repeats the conventions he claims to despise, and he assumes the worst about Ellen’s past without ever asking her.
- 3
Yellow Roses and a Telegram (Chapters XIII to XVIII)
Ellen hints that she knows who sent the roses and thanks Archer for his advice. When she escapes to the van der Luydens’ estate on the Hudson he follows, but Beaufort arrives too. Archer then rushes to Florida to beg May for an early wedding, and she offers to release him if he loves another woman. Back in New York, Medora Manson claims that Count Olenski wants Ellen back, Archer declares his love, and Ellen tells him she gave up her divorce for him and May. A telegram announces the wedding after Easter.
Why it mattersThe section turns on timing: Archer understands his feelings only after Ellen has already given up her freedom on his advice.
- 4
Book II: Wedding, Newport and Boston (Chapters XIX to XXIV)
Archer marries May at Grace Church, and on their European wedding tour May dismisses an interesting French tutor, M. Rivière, as common. At Newport, a year and a half after last seeing Ellen, Archer watches her on a pier and turns back when she does not look round. He follows her to Boston, where she has refused money offered by her husband’s messenger. Over lunch at Point Arley they admit their love, and she promises not to go back to her husband as long as he holds out.
Why it mattersMarriage makes May the guardian of Archer’s old habits, and the archery contest at Newport shows her grace and her limits in a single image.
- 5
The Emissary, the Crash and the Ferry (Chapters XXV to XXIX)
Rivière appears in New York, reveals that he was the Count’s messenger, and begs Archer to keep Ellen from being pushed back to her husband, as the family now wishes. Beaufort’s bank fails, old Mrs. Mingott suffers a stroke, and she summons Ellen. Archer, who had planned a secret trip to see her in Washington, meets her train himself. In the carriage Ellen confirms that Rivière helped her escape her marriage, kisses Archer, and asks whether he means her to be his mistress; he gets out and walks home in tears.
Why it mattersMay’s small questions show that she sees more than she says, while Ellen refuses the only kind of love that New York would allow them.
- 6
The Farewell Dinner and Paris (Chapters XXX to XXXIV)
Archer catches himself wishing May dead, then learns that Ellen will stay on with her grandmother. At the Metropolitan Museum she agrees to come to him once, but after a long talk with May she announces that she is sailing for Europe. At May’s farewell dinner Archer sees that the whole family takes him and Ellen for lovers, and that night May tells him she is expecting a child. About twenty-six years later, widowed and fifty-seven, Archer goes to Paris with his son Dallas but does not go up to Ellen’s apartment.
Why it mattersThe family wins without a single scene, and the final chapter weighs what Archer lost against what his dutiful life gave him.
Characters and how they connect
Newland Archer
Protagonist
A cultivated young lawyer who thinks himself above his society’s rules, yet marries by them and lives by them for the rest of his life.
May Welland
Archer’s fiancée, then wife
A beautiful, athletic and correct young woman who seems innocent but quietly understands far more than she lets anyone see.
Ellen Olenska
May’s cousin
A countess who has fled a cruel husband in Europe; her honesty and independence unsettle New York and win Archer’s love.
Mrs. Manson Mingott
Family matriarch
May and Ellen’s enormously stout, bold grandmother, who admires courage and defends Ellen when the rest of the family will not.
Julius Beaufort
Banker
A rich, vulgar financier of mysterious origin who pursues Ellen and later ruins many families when his bank fails.
Henry and Louisa van der Luyden
Arbiters of society
A reclusive, old-Dutch couple whose invitations decide who belongs in New York; they take Ellen up and later help see her off.
M. Rivière
The Count’s messenger
A poor, bookish Frenchman who once helped Ellen escape her marriage, carries her husband’s offer to Boston, and then begs Archer to keep her from going back.
Dallas Archer
Archer’s son
A frank, confident young architect of the new generation who tells his father what May knew and takes him to Ellen’s door.
Character Relationships who connects to whom, and the themes that bind them
Love / marriage
Family
Friendship / ally
Connection
Themes in The Age of Innocence what the novel is really about
Convention versus desire
Archer’s longing for a fuller life runs up against a society that settles everything through ritual, silence and family pressure.
Innocence and knowledge
May’s carefully trained innocence hides a shrewd understanding, and the title turns out to be ironic about everyone who claims not to know.
Women’s freedom
Archer says women should be as free as men, but when Ellen asks for a divorce he talks her out of it, and the double standard he criticizes shapes every choice.
Family and the tribe
The Mingotts and their allies close ranks to protect their name, first welcoming Ellen and then quietly removing her.
Change and memory
The final chapter shows old New York dissolving, and Archer finds good in both the old ways and the new order while mourning what he never lived.
Symbols & motifs
Lilies-of-the-valley and yellow roses
Archer sends May her daily lilies but sends Ellen yellow roses, too rich and fiery for his fiancée, marking the two kinds of love.
Faust at the opera
The novel opens and later returns to the same opera about a seducer and an innocent girl, framing Archer’s two choices in one setting.
The archery contest
May, Diana-like with her bow, wins the Newport prize, and Beaufort’s remark that it is the only kind of target she will ever hit sums up her grace and her limits.
The Cesnola antiquities
In the museum Ellen looks at broken objects labeled with unknown uses, an image of how time erases the things that once mattered most.
The Paris balcony
Archer watches a servant close the shutters on Ellen’s balcony instead of going up, a picture of the life he chooses to keep imagined.
Recurring motifs
Letters and telegrams. Short notes and telegrams carry the novel’s biggest decisions, from the early wedding date to Ellen’s departure and a returned key.
Silence and signs. Characters speak through glances, blushes and dinner invitations, so what is never said often matters more than what is.
Tombs and burial. Archer feels buried alive, imagines himself dead, and sees his society as a family vault, while real tombs and relics appear at key moments.
Important quotes
“Women ought to be free—as free as we are”
“In reality they all lived in a kind of hieroglyphic world, where the real thing was never said or done or even thought, but only represented by a set of arbitrary signs”
“I can’t love you unless I give you up.”
“I’m the man who married one woman because another one told him to.”
“It was the old New York way of taking life “without effusion of blood”: the way of people who dreaded scandal more than disease, who placed decency above courage”
“It’s more real to me here than if I went up”
The ending of The Age of Innocence, explained
The final chapter jumps ahead about twenty-six years. Archer, now fifty-seven, has been a faithful husband and what people call a good citizen; May died nearly two years earlier, after nursing their youngest child through pneumonia. New York has changed so much that his son Dallas can marry Fanny Beaufort without anyone objecting, though the text implies she was born to the disgraced banker and his mistress Fanny Ring before he married her. On a trip to Paris, Dallas announces that the Countess Olenska expects them both. He also tells his father something May said the day before she died: that the children were safe with him because, once, when she asked him to, he had given up the thing he most wanted. Archer answers that she never asked him. Dallas’s words lift a weight from him: someone had guessed, and pitied, and it was his wife. Ellen’s husband is dead, and nothing now keeps them apart. Yet at the door of her building Archer sends Dallas up alone and sits on a bench, saying that it is more real to him there than if he went up. When a servant closes the shutters on her balcony, he walks back to his hotel. Readers disagree about this choice. Some see a last failure of nerve, the same passivity that shaped his whole life. Others see a kind of fidelity: Archer protects a memory he has lived by for nearly thirty years from a meeting that might shrink it, and perhaps respects the separate life Ellen has built. The ending can also be read as May’s quiet victory, since her sacrifice and silence held the marriage together, and as Wharton’s balanced verdict that there was good in the old ways as well as in the new.
Common misreadings
MythArcher and Ellen have an affair.
ActuallyThey kiss and she agrees to come to him once, but May’s news and Ellen’s departure end it before that meeting happens. New York believes they are lovers; the novel never shows it.
MythMay is a naive girl who never knows what is going on.
ActuallyShe offers in Florida to release Archer, tells Ellen she is pregnant before she is sure, arranges the farewell dinner, and before dying tells Dallas that Archer gave up what he most wanted.
MythSomething prevents Archer from seeing Ellen at the end.
ActuallyNothing stops him. Ellen is free and expects him, but he chooses to sit on the bench and send Dallas up alone.
Test yourself
1. Which opera is being sung when the novel opens?
Christine Nilsson is singing in Faust at the Academy of Music when Ellen first appears in the Mingott box.
2. Why does Ellen give up seeking a divorce?
Acting for his law firm and her family, Archer warns her of the talk a divorce would cause, and she agrees to do what he wishes.
3. Who turns out to have been Count Olenski’s messenger in Boston?
Rivière, the French tutor Archer met in London, visits his office and admits he came on the Count’s mission.
4. What does May tell Archer on the night of the farewell dinner?
When Archer says he wants to travel far away, May tells him she is sure she is expecting a baby, and that she told Ellen two weeks earlier.
5. What does Archer do outside Ellen’s apartment in Paris?
He sends Dallas up alone, waits until a servant closes the shutters, and returns to his hotel.
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Nice work.
Newland Archer is a rich young lawyer in New York in the 1870s, engaged to sweet, proper May Welland. May’s cousin Ellen comes home from Europe after leaving her cruel husband, and everyone gossips about her. Newland falls in love with Ellen because she is honest and different, and she loves him too. But he marries May, and he and Ellen both try not to hurt her. The family quietly pushes Ellen back to Europe, and May tells Newland she is going to have a baby. Many years later Newland is in Paris near Ellen’s home, but he chooses not to go up and see her. The book shows how the rules of a small world can shape a whole life.
Compare & connect the story universe
Ethan Frome
Wharton’s short novel about a man trapped by duty in his marriage while he loves his wife’s cousin.
The Great Gatsby
Another story of New York money and a man who clings for years to an idealized woman from his past.
Daisy Miller
An independent young woman is judged by gossip and social rules she does not fully understand.
Mrs Dalloway
A safe marriage chosen long ago shapes a life lived partly in memory of the other person.
Adaptations. The Age of Innocence (1993, Film directed by Martin Scorsese).
Discussion & essay prompts for class, or your next paper
💬 Discussion questions
- Why doesn’t Newland Archer go up to see Ellen at the end of The Age of Innocence
- What does the title The Age of Innocence mean
- Did May know about Newland and Ellen
- How does The Age of Innocence explore the theme of convention versus desire?
- How does The Age of Innocence explore the theme of innocence and knowledge?
- What is the central conflict in The Age of Innocence, and how does it shape the ending?
✎ Essay prompts
- Analyze how Edith Wharton develops the theme of convention versus desire in The Age of Innocence. Support your argument with specific evidence from the text.
- Examine the significance of lilies-of-the-valley and yellow roses in The Age of Innocence. What does it represent, and how does it deepen the work’s meaning?
- How does Edith Wharton use irony to shape the reader’s experience of The Age of Innocence?
- Some readers assume that archer and Ellen have an affair. Argue for or against this interpretation, using evidence from the text.
Key questions students ask
- Why doesn’t Newland Archer go up to see Ellen at the end of The Age of Innocence
- What does the title The Age of Innocence mean
- Did May know about Newland and Ellen
- Why does Ellen Olenska give up her divorce
- What is the significance of the archery scene in The Age of Innocence
- Why does Ellen go back to Europe in The Age of Innocence
Analysis is original StoryBites commentary. The text and the quotations follow the first edition of Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence (New York and London: D. Appleton and Company, 1920), in its first impression, checked against the page images. It is in the public domain. Wharton made a few small corrections in later printings, which this text does not adopt.