LITERATURE PAPER ONE REVISION LECTURE A HOUSE order IN THE AGE OF INNOCENCE JC1 JC2
reminders O U R F I N A L
Tips and basics i. Study, remember, apply a range of methods but only pick out what’s relevant. ii. Highlight, highlight and... highlight. Today’s lecture is ‘useful’ if you know how to use it. iii. Identify PERSPECTIVE: narrator or character iv. Always provide EVIDENCE. Always! v. Have a THESIS that tackles Wharton’s purpose.
T H E O L D N E W Y O R K ‘ C I T A D E L ’ U N D E R A T T A C K
O P E R A ‘ S O C I A B L E O L D A C A D E M Y ’
MANNERS CUSTOMS CONVENTIONS TRADITIONS MORES
CONTROL ‘MOUTHPIECES OF REMOTE ANCESTRAL AUTHORITY’ (44) JUDGEMENT A ‘RELENTLESS CHORUS’ OF CRITICISM (224)
PAG E 3 9 VAN DER LUYDENS ARCHERS MINGOTTS CHIVERSES PLAIN PEOPLE ny P Y R A M I D
A N I N S U L A R CLAN P R E S E R V A T I O N O F ‘ O L D W A Y S ’
S U R V E I L L A N C E A N D S C R U T I N Y
PURITAN V A L U E S
His mother still insisted: ‘...people like the Countess Olenska, who have lived in aristocratic societies, ought to help us to keep up our social distinctions , instead of ignoring them.’ (213) MRS. ARCHER plays the role of moral arbiter in the novel, particularly in relation to the family.
scandalous distasteful (81) (76) family finance ELLEN’S DIVORCE SUIT CH 11- 18 social extinction dastardly BEAUFORT’S DISHONESTY (212) (221) CH 26- 27
a society wholly absorbed in barricading itself against the UNPLEASANT (80)
Better keep on the surface , in the prudent old New York way , than risk uncovering a wound... (91) But on condition that they don't hear anything unpleasant . Does no one want to know the truth here, Mr. Archer? (63)
SOCIAL FORM APPEARANCE MANNERISMS INVISIBLE DEITY OF ‘GOOD FORM’ (149)
RITUALS CH 1, 3, 13, 21, 32 FUNCTIONS CH 8, 19, 26, 33
N E W P O R T A R C H E R Y C L U B SPECTACLE A number of ladies in summer dresses and gentlemen in grey frock-coats and tall hats stood on the lawn or sat upon the benches; and every now and then a slender girl in starched muslin would step from the tent (Ch 21, 168).
As a kind of outsider, [Wharton] felt she could see more deeply into the American soul... As a young woman, she had [rebelled] against her society's prejudices and conventions, its narrow-mindedness, its insistence on ignoring all things “unpleasant.”
S O C I A L O B S E R V A N C E S A N D INHIBITIONS A RCH E R’ S LO S IN G S T R UGGL E AGAI NS T T HE T RI B E
ARCHER MUST ACCEPT HIS FATE AS A PRISONER IN THE CENTRE OF AN ARMED CAMP ( 2 7 7 ) AND THUS CONFORM TO ITS EXPECTATIONS AND MORES
MAY PEACE, STABILITY... AN UNESCAPABLE DUTY (170) ELLEN SO WARM, SO RICH, SO INEFFABLY TENDER (114)
visceral DICTION ‘ blood in his veins.’ ‘ heart beating insubordinately’ ‘ thrill of a caress’
W A N D E R I N G I N T H E OUTSIDE A R C H E R ’ S ‘ Q U E S T F O R L O V E A N D T R U T H ’
New Woman CHALLENGES NY’S TRADITIONS EMBODIES ‘ PASSION ’ AND ‘BEAUTY’ A SOCIAL AND ROMANTIC THREAT CATALYST TO ARCHER’S GROWTH
A B R O W N S T O N E E X I S T E N C E A S UNIFORM ‘DOLLS’ (68) ‘ B U R I E S ’ & S T I F L E S A R C H E R
A B A N D O N FANTASY A C C E P T REALITY
DIGNIT Y OF A duty
Not merely ‘a dull association of material and social interests’ (36) sacrifice Marriage is one long (171) Archer finally recognises that real life is no di ff erent.
TRIBAL E L I M IN ATION
MAY & ELLEN Only the day before he had received a letter from May Welland in which, with characteristic candour , she had asked him to “be kind to Ellen” in their absence. “She likes you and admires you so much— and you know , though she doesn't show it, she's still very lonely and unhappy. I don't think Granny understands her, or uncle Lovell Mingott either; they really think she's much worldlier and fonder of society than she is. And I can quite see that New York must seem dull to her, though the family won't admit it.
MAY & ELLEN I think she's been used to lots of things we haven't got; wonderful music , and picture shows , and celebrities —artists and authors and all the clever people you admire. Granny can't understand her wanting anything but lots of dinners and clothes— but I can see that you're almost the only person in New York who can talk to her about what she really cares for.” (Ch 13, p98)
NARROW NEW YORK In obedience to a long-established habit , the Wellands had left the previous week for St. Augustine, where… they always spent the latter part of the winter. Mr. Welland was a mild and silent man, with no opinions but with many habits. With these habits none might interfere; and one of them demanded that his wife and daughter should always go with him on his annual journey to the south. To preserve an unbroken domesticity was essential to his peace of mind; he would not have known where his hair-brushes were, or how to provide stamps for his letters, if Mrs. Welland had not been there to tell him. (Ch 13, p96)
SOCIAL FORM But a big dinner, with a hired chef and two borrowed footmen, with Roman punch, roses from Henderson’s, and menus on gilt-edged cards, was a different affair, and not to be lightly undertaken. As Mrs. Archer remarked, the Roman punch made all the difference; not in itself but by its manifold implications —since it signified either canvas-backs or terrapin, two soups, a hot and a cold sweet, full décolletage with short sleeves, and guests of a proportionate importance . (Ch 33)
ARCHER’S DILEMMA Through all his confusion of mind he had held fast to the resolve to say nothing that might startle or disturb her. Convinced that no power could now turn him from his purpose he had found strength to let events shape themselves as they would. But as he followed Madame Olenska into the hall he thought with a sudden hunger of being for a moment alone with her at the door of her carriage.
ARCHER’S DILEMMA “Is your carriage here?” he asked; and at that moment Mrs. van der Luyden, who was being majestically inserted into her sables, said gently: “We are driving dear Ellen home.” Archer's heart gave a jerk , and Madame Olenska, clasping her cloak and fan with one hand, held out the other to him. “Good-bye,” she said. “Good-bye—but I shall see you soon in Paris,” he answered aloud— it seemed to him that he had shouted it. (Ch 33, p280)
BON VOYAGE bonne chance! FIN.
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