The Age of Innocence

Countess Ellen Olenska is the cousin of Archer’s betrothed, May. Orphaned in childhood, Ellen became the protégée of Medora Manson, an eccentric and artistic woman who loved to travel. Ellen then married Count Olenski, an abusive man who kept her in old-world European splendor but was cruel and unfaithful to her. Ellen has not lived in New York since she was 18, speaks English with an accent, and wears glamorously revealing clothes. While Ellen’s family initially condones her separation from her husband, they see her as disgraced and thus disapprove of her being seen in public—Old New York demands a veneer of virtue and propriety. Rather than obey this old-fashioned dictum, Ellen sets up a European-style salon where gentlemen visit her. Partial to gracefully intimate gestures, Ellen often touches Archer’s arm when she wants to gain his attention, in a manner that is be over-familiar in America and thus deeply erotic for Archer.

While Ellen’s self-presentation reads in America as bohemian and almost indecently flirtatious, the novel shows readers many sides of her character. Ellen is kind and nurturing to her family. She also refuses to become Archer’s mistress despite his declarations of love, declaring that they must not descend into a torrid affair and disappoint their family.

Ellen often insists on her independence. However, to be truly independent would be mean getting divorced from Count Olenski—something that although legal carried the connotation of depravity and shame in the 1870s. She is therefore in financially precarious limbo, vulnerable to the advances of men like Beaufort, who wants her for his mistress, and unable to formally be with her beloved Archer. When May reinforces her claim to Archer with a pregnancy, Ellen decides to set up on her own in Europe with her grandmother’s money. Ellen’s social skills thrive in Paris, where her salon becomes a social destination and she is able to help others, like Fanny Beaufort. 

May is Archer’s tall, blonde fiancée. Archer’s choice of the prim and proper May indicates his wish to live within Old New York’s expectations following his dalliance with Mrs. Thorley Rushworth. However, Archer struggles to get close to May, who adopts her family’s views as her own and always says the socially correct thing instead of stating how she really feels. Archer thus has the sense that May has been trained out of a personality and that she possesses an innocence that refuses to look at the world as it is. May is repeatedly compared to the Roman goddess Diana, patron deity of chastity and hunting, thus indicating that she is cold and unreachable, especially in contrast to Ellen’s flirtatious femininity. When Julius Beaufort compliments May’s prowess in sports, he alludes to the fact that she lacks sex appeal.

However, May is not nearly as naïve as Archer believes her to be. When Archer presses her to advance their wedding date, she initially objects, stating that she is aware of his affection for another woman—an understanding that shows a new dimension to her personality. Archer adores this glimpse of a frank, realistic May; however, her upbringing tamps down the impulse to be truthful, steering her towards the bland insincerities that Archer deplores. While May loves Archer, she loves Old New York and its customs more.

Throughout their marriage, May never directly names Archer’s passion for Ellen, even though she is fully aware of it. Instead, May is strategic in her plans to keep her husband, even when she can read Archer’s extreme antipathy for her, such as at the moment when he wishes her dead. Eventually she outwits both Ellen and Archer by telling Ellen about her pregnancy even before it is a sure thing: May knows that Ellen would never have an affair with Archer while May is pregnant, and Archer would never leave May now that he will become a father. Having securely built for herself the family she wanted, May ignores signs of social change, preferring to see the world according to her ideals. 

May and Ellen’s grandmother, the Mingott family matriarch, is obese and outspoken. Grandmother Mingott was into an obscure but ambitious Staten Island family and rose socially through marriage to the Mingott clan. Catherine sees Ellen as a kindred spirit—the only one who inherited her grandmother’s audacity and willingness to stand out in her tastes and actions. Catherine admires Ellen’s free-thinking nature, even as she periodically wishes Ellen would help the family by returning to Count Olenski for appearances’ sake. Nevertheless, Mrs. Mingott twice wishes that Archer had married Ellen. The blessing of this intelligent, independent-minded grandmother alludes to the fact that Ellen and Archer’s union may have been somehow providential.

Mrs. Mingott’s wealth gives her an unusual amount of power in a patriarchal society—becoming the widow of a rich man was typically the only way for an upper class woman to become financially independent. Her resources allow Mrs. Mingott to grant Ellen an independent European existence rather than re-enter the “cage” of unhappiness with Count Olenski (Location 3868). 

May’s mother Augusta Welland is the symbolic custodian of Old New York; she lives with eyes “bandaged” (Location 1049) to a reality that is more complex than her idealized notions. Archer wants to rescue May from becoming an old innocent like this; however, after their wedding, he realizes that May wants to be just like her mother, even down to copying her married woman’s mannerisms. Chiefly, Archer notices that May attempts to placate him and deal with his caprices in the patronizing manner that Mrs. Welland deals with her husband. 

Mr. Welland is May’s passive, hypochondriac father. To Archer, this man, who retreats to Florida in winters and who is at the beck and call of his wife, is completely emasculated—something Wharton underscores by highlighting Mr. Welland’s lack of physical vigor. Archer fears becoming similarly emasculated when May treats him like her mother treats her father, as he realizes that her “pressure was already bearing on the very angles whose sharpness he most wanted to keep” (Location 2610). 

Archer’s widowed mother Mrs. Archer is old-fashioned and solitary in her habits. Her dull, introverted existence with her unmarried daughter Janey makes them respectable figures in Old New York. They possess a “drooping distinction” (Location 429) for their preference of frugality over flashy finery and their suspicion of social change. They side with the Wellands against Archer when he defends Ellen from being sent back to her husband.

Julius Beaufort is a corrupt banker who has become fabulously wealthy. Although Old New York does not approve of his obscure social origins (a phrase that is typically used as anti-Semitic coded language), his lack of effort to conceal his mistress Miss Fanny Ring, or ill-bred manners, it cannot resist his luxurious ballroom. Thus, society hypocritically tolerates him until the scandal of his financial ruin.

Beaufort’s presence in Ellen’s life further damages Ellen’s reputation. He is predatory towards her, following her to her countryside refuge with the van der Luydens to convince her to be his mistress. Beaufort shows the threat faced by women who have separated from their husbands, as their sexual experience makes them appear sexually available. Beaufort’s advances also catalyze Archer to court Ellen: Archer cannot help feeling a sense of manly competition with him.

Regina Beaufort, née Dallas, is from an old, established South Carolina family. A “penniless beauty” found by Medora Manson (Location 235), she married Beaufort to benefit from his wealth, while he profited from her class status. Beaufort treats her almost as a pampered pet: Despite her material comforts, Regina is powerless to stop Beaumont’s womanizing and the dictates of society indicate that she must stick by him when he is ruined. No one in the Mingott family sympathizes with Regina’s plight except Ellen, who is also married to a bounder. 

The eccentric Medora Manson is Ellen’s aunt and guardian. The Mingotts often blame Ellen’s unconventional views on Medora’s European travels, many husbands, and decision to allow Ellen to wear black for her coming-out ball. Medora is a disloyal agent of chaos: She is the means through which Olenski resumes contact with his wife and asks her to return to him. Medora is a foil to Ellen: While Medora is imprudent, Ellen grows respectable and independent.