From Pierpont’s analysis on Wharton’s writing style and its connection to her personal life, I expected Wharton’s writing to be vividly depressing and condemning of love, monogamy, and heterosexuality. Having previously read Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, I have already managed to get a sense of her writing style. Like Ethan Frome, The Age of Innocence displays a recurring theme of infidelity and one might even push to say that it is a theme of following one’s desires. For instance, Newland manages to fall in love with his fiancée’s cousin, Countess Ellen Olenska, that has recently come to New York City from Paris. The book goes on to display Newland’s denial in an attempt to re-convince himself that his love should be for his fiancée. He announces his engagement to May at the Beaufort’s ball to stop gossip and later flees to where May’s family is vacationing in order to prevent himself from succumbing to temptation when he realizes that his love for the Countess is real after having to dissuade her from proceeding with her divorce.
After discovering Pierpont’s thorough history of Wharton’s love life, I could not help but notice that The Age of Innocence paralleled Wharton’s life. Perhaps the most obvious reflection of Wharton’s love life was the Countess moving to New York City after a failed marriage in Paris, except with Wharton, she fled in the opposite direction. In addition to this, the Countess expresses her atypical views concerning the hierarchical society in New York City. Essentially, this was moreso Wharton’s ideas expressed through Ellen’s character. At the age of sixteen, Wharton had even produced a 30,000 word novella that mocked high society, so it was not uncommon for her to do this. Considering Pierpont vaguely implied Wharton’s feminist views, it was unsurprising to see how The Age of Innocence reflected this. In a nutshell, the book was about a woman that did not feel as though she should be confined to following convention whether it be in regards to love or to the roles expected of women in high society.
