How Is Newland Presented In The Age Of Innocence

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Newland comes from one of New York City’s wealthiest families and is a well-respecteNewland Archer is the main character and protagonist of The Age of Innocence. Newland comes from one of New York City’s wealthiest families and is a well-respected lawyer who values tradition. He is described as having an amateur interest in the arts when Edith Wharton states “He had dawdled over his cigar because he was at heart a dilettante, and thinking over a pleasure to come often gave him a subtler satisfaction than its realization” (Chapter 1, page 4). What makes him novice is the fact that he is much more intellectual than most men his age. Newland follows the conventions that go along with being a young man in society “such as the duty of using two silver-backed brushes with his monogram in blue enamel to part his hair, and of never appearing in …show more content…
While Newland remains a product of the society that moulded him into what he is, his intelligence surpasses that of many other men and even allows him to question society. In 1870’s New York, women were oppressed and not expected to have affairs or request divorces but remain chaste until marriage. Newland speaks out against this despite his upper role in the patriarchal power dynamic stating “Women ought to be free-as free as we are” (Chapter 5, page 36). Newland goes against society in his affair with Ellen, as he struggles with the longing to achieve ultimate happiness and true love. Newland fantasizes about what he could have with Ellen stating “I want somehow to get away with you into a world […] where we shall be simply two human beings who love each other, who are the whole of life to each other; and nothing else on earth will matter” (Chapter 29, page 247). While Newland does challenge his society’s beliefs and values, he ultimately allows them to control his
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