Age Of Innocence

2 Pages 568 Words

One critic has called the final chapter, “A sentimental endorsement of the tribal code.” Evaluate how effective you think Chapter 34 is as the concluding chapter of the novel.


Wharton’s story of the upper classes of Old New York, and Newland Archer’s impossible love for the disgraced Countess Olenska, perfectly captures an era when upper –class culture and ‘society’ had rules as rigid as any in history. The city in which the story is set is a well–defined and tightly–knit community; New York was much smaller both geographically and socially. The novel makes clear, the strict code of conduct, which was maintained but we can see how this determined the behaviour of people in the society.

This critic has implied that New York society has made no change or progression and that by the end of the novel it is still sticking to the ‘old’ traditions but this contradicts the important theme of change in the novel. Wharton herself stated in her autobiography,

“The first change came in the eighties….there were fewer differences than between my father and the post-war generation of Americans.”

We can see that any change in society remained static for years but in the last chapter many things have changed as the years have passed. May is dead, and their three children are grown. New York society, too, has changed. For instance, Dallas is engaged to Julius Beaufort’s daughter, Fanny. Their engagement would have shocked the old society, but now no one remembers Beauforts financial scandal.

‘The Age of Innocence’ concerns itself with change but also with the consequences of the failure to change, in both personal and cultural terms. Wharton began the novel with a critical and sarcastic tone towards New York’s society. She humoured over their ‘Tribal code’ although remained subtle in doing so,

“..conventions on which his life was moulded : such as the duty of using two silver-backed brushes...