The Blind Self-Destruction of Romanticism and Character 

in “The Age of Innocence”

            Edith Wharton’s “The Age of Innocence” is a tale of the blind self-destruction of romanticism in a realist class society. In the 19^th and early 20^th century the themes of romanticism and realism are being combined and played with in literary works. With completely different notions, realist and romantic characters clash and wage war until the finale. This usually ends with the romantic’s blind self-destruction for someone he loves or an idea to which they feel impassioned. Such is the case with Newland Archer who, despite his beliefs of being knowledgably beyond society, in the end cannot contend with his realist wife.

            Through the story is the running theme of Faust. We first meet Newland Archer at an opera’s production of Faust. Like this character, Archer prides himself on being an intellectual scholar tired of the dystopian society he lives in. He initially views May Welland, his eventual wife, as an innocent life that he can initiate into his world of what he considers the realities and familiarize her with the great literatures read by a Switzerland lake so that she could develop an intellectual wit to hold her own amongst the married woman and attract male attention before playfully discouraging it. He has wildly romantic notions of sweeping his wife off her feet for private literary readings and playful flirtations, of being her savior from her old ways and teaching her to become worldly in knowledge.

All of his plans are laid ready until the mesmerizing Ellen returns to town and she is everything that May is not. She has separated from her Polish husband, taken up a paramour with secret rendezvous in European apartment flats. She is the Helen of Troy, the Aphrodite to his Faust. With Ellen, he is at first shocked at her nerve but soon finds it endearing and passionate. Like Faust, he makes a deal with his devil for knowledge and worldly pleasures. She is more than he could ever create May to be.

While Archer is distracted chasing Ellen, May is left to her own devices. He doesn’t see how she is becoming a perfect society lady, growing colder and more calculating each day. Enamored by his romantic ideas, he believes May is a blank slate that he can set aside and simply pick back up later to continue her growth. But she is not as innocent as he believes. Archer is unknowingly grooming his demise. He loathes the New York society for their treatment of Ellen and new ideas. He has intellectual curiosity and seeks passion but lacks the intensity that drives Faust to actually experience the great damnation or redemption of classical or Goethe’s Faust. He becomes roped to the very idea that he despises but lacks the strength and passion to break free of May’s hold.

Archer, too emboldened with his passion, unsuspectingly allows himself to be reeled back in and tethered like an unruly dog. His own desire and pursuit for romanticism has created the very thing that could hold him back. Left to her devices, May becomes increasingly aristocratic forming to the ideals of the surrounding society. This illuminates the relationship between literary themes. The ideas of romanticism and realism cannot exist without the other. But neither can they both exist together. Romantic characters cannot contend in a realist society. Their notions of love and life cannot fit into the strict parameters of realism. On a character level, this novel represents the ability for blind self-destruction and illustrates the outcome of societal conformity and destruction of dreams and, eventually, of the self. In the end Archer couldn’t bear to meet Ellen, the girl whom, years before, he would have given his life.

"The Age of Innocence" Annotations

Fracasso,  Evelyn. “The Transparent Eyes of May Welland in Wharton’s ‘The Age of Innocence.’” Modern Language Studies. 21.4(1991): 43-48. JSTOR. Web. 3 Dec. 2012

The author addresses the purpose or necessity of May Welland in Wharton’s “The Age of Innocence.”  Many critics argue the uselessness of the stagnant character. Fracasso states that it’s May’s very expressive eyes, not words, that within readers can witness character growth and movement beyond the original young and innocent virgin girl. Through her eyes one can see that she has been seriously misunderstood by her fiancé and eventual husband, Newland Archer. He sees nothing profound in her serious eyes filled with “bright unclouded admiration” or her “eyes of such despairing clearness.” May begins the novel as the young girl at the opera in a white dress, an innocent blush across her cheeks and eyes dropped and moves to the end with her transparent eyes with their “unnatural vividness.” Through these expressions once can see May’s growth and her silent fierceness that manipulates Newland without his knowledge. Fracasso’s idea gives “The Age of Innocence” new meaning through the silent but forceful May Welland.  

Moseley, Edwin. "The Age of Innocence: Edith Wharton's Weak Faust." College English 21.3 (1959): 156-160. JSTOR. Web. 5 Dec 2012.

Moseley compares the three main characters in “The Age of Innocence” to characters of myth, Newland as Faust, May as Diana, and Ellen as Helen of Troy. These references provide the story with a greater insight, not provided in the novel, into the characters. But Wharton’s  Faust is no match for her Diana. As much as Newland would like to live the intellectual and fierce romantic life of Faust that is not the case. He lacks the tenacity to break away from the society and life that he mocks and is continually drawn back by his Diana who can hit any target.

A Frontier Education in "My Antonia"

            Willa Cather, in "My Antonia," presents a strong idea of the importance of a good education. Without knowledge one cannot form a successful future to support themselves. Through the duration of the novel, the reader follows the growth of a young Jim Burden. He attends school and continues to college to become a lawyer while country girls, like Antonia, work on farms or as housekeepers. As Jim grows and advances, Antonia appears flat and stagnant. She seems to simply shift from one hard labor to the next with no hope of rising. But in fact, it is Antonia who receives the greatest knowledge as she builds a prosperous farm and family, far surpassing Jim's study of Latin and literature. Cather shows how a formal education will find you employment but it does not grow the mind or fully complete the soul. Antonia ends the novel a mature and happy adult, content with everything in her life while the educated Jim is still a boy searching for adulthood and his place.
           Compared to her, Jim's progression appears to be a successful arch. He begins as an orphan moving to his grandparents on the wild prairie. He arrives as a lost child and is spared from the labor of the farm, spending his days running errands or teaching English to his Bohemian immigrant neighbors, Antonia and her sister. Unlike what the title suggests, Jim Burden is written as the romantic hero. He is set up with one task; to teach Antonia. This is the one goal he fails.
           After Antonia's father dies, she is sent to work in the fields and Jim is moved into town to start school. While Jim studies Antonia is plowing fields. When he is in class she is hired out as a hand on neighboring farms. Antonia was understanding what it was to be an adult, working as hard as any man, and learning what it meant to work hard and discovered the pleasure of the fruits of her labor. By the time she was sixteen, Antonia knew what she could accomplish through her own strength and had gained a skill to start a future.
           It would take Jim 20 years after graduation to return to his Antonia. They are both married; Jim to a society woman and Antonia to a Bohemian immigrant. Jim is still a boy at heart and Antonia remarks on how he has stayed quite the same. His figure is free from signs of age or wear while she is older, hair grizzled, and some teeth missing, but still the same girl. "She was there in the full vigor of her personality, battered but not diminished" (Cather 244). He admires how well Antonia raised her boys; "straight, well-made fellows, with good heads and clear eyes" (Cather 253). He decides he could stay and slip easily into this family. "There were enough Cuzaks to play with for a long while yet" (Cather 272).
         Antonia is the essence of life and the fertility of the frontier. She used the knowledge from working the land as a child to build a thriving farm for her family. This is not to say that Jim is not educated of as successful. As a lawyer he gained great standing and built wealth, but he was never a man, happy with his success. Through her own education, Antonia has matured beyond Jim and is content with where life has led her, never once looking back at what she could have been if she had followed Jim to school. Life is not just about going to school and gaining book smarts, it is also about working hard to grow a future with which you can feel accomplished.

"My Antonia" Annotations

Hicks, Granville. "The Case Against Willa Cather." English Journal 22.9 (1933): 703-710. JSTOR. Web. 29 Nov 2012.

Hicks argues that Willa Cather is unable to write beyond nostalgic romanticism or progress successfully as a contemporary author. He presents Cather’s romantic Prairie Trilogy, “The Song of the Lark,” O Pioneers!,” and “My Antonia,” and compares them to her later works stating that her attempt to study the current more modern frontier life left her novels with uninspiring examples and representing her own aversion and dislike of nonromantic themes. He allows the beauty of her Nebraskan descriptions in "My Antonia" and her use of heroism with the piety of pioneers. She does not ignore conflict and hardship when painting her romantic tales which he concedes makes this trilogy an American classic. But she could not continue writing of the Nebraska of her past while the frontier moves forward. Hicks allows that she is not the only contemporary author to not succeed in a more modernism movement and fall back upon romanticism ideals. When one cannot move forward, flight is the only option left. He concludes, though, that this move is the ending of most authors, Cather included. "Flight is destructive of artistic virtues" and by not being able to move forward, she was left behind. This will deprive generations of her literary potential found in her Prairie Trilogy and overtime could push even them to the sidelines.

 

 

Rosowski, Susan J. "Discovering Symbolic Meaning: Teaching with Willa Cather." English Journal 71.8 (1982): 14-17. JSTOR. Web. 26 Nov 2012.

Willa Cather's novel "My Antonia" was written to teach. Through her use of universal themes, her passion and attention to detail Rosowski writes how Cather is able to gather an audience and teach her readers about perceiving depth and enticing the mind for continued discussion and literature advancement. Rosowski details how Cather’s own background gives her incite and an ability to show small wonders in new territory. Her story is not only about a young boy and girl growing up together but about the progression of life and maturity. Antonia begins to take on the role of the life and fertility of the frontier. She is desire and accomplishment. Readers can associate her to people and ideas in their own lives until she is no longer just Jim's Antonia. Rosowski concludes that Willa Cather's "My Antonia" is not simply a novel. Her tale teaches generations about great literature and entices future reading. The reader is required to think deeply and read past the simple episodic tale of a boy and a girl. She allows "the teaching of universal symbols" and depth of character for her own novels as well as other authors.

Annotations over "My Antonia"

Dahl, Curtis. "An American Georgic: Willa Cather's "My Antonia"." Comperative Literature 7.1 (1955): 41-53. JSTOR. Web. 15 Nov 2012.

            Dahl states that “My Antonia” embodies the main themes found in most Cather novels. The most prominent are Cather’s desire illustrate her own Nebraska background and use and understanding of themes found in the poet Virgil’s works.  Like Virgil, Cather writes of the simplicity not of a grand subject matter. She describes the simple life of farming in Nebraska, staying true to her roots. Dahl states that all the great literary art comes from the beautiful, simplicity of the earth’s fertility as seen in Lena Lingard and Antonia. He argues that Cather interprets Virgil’s writing and uses his them of “the ageless struggle of man with the earth is the most fully satisfying way of life.”

 

Feger, Lois. "The Dark Dimensions of Willa Cather's "My Antonia"." English Journal 59.6 (1970): 774-779. JSTOR. Web. 14 Nov 2012.

            Despite how the novel “My Antonia” first appears, it is not a simply a tale of the roots, and values of pioneer family life, but, as Feger argues, of violence, the denial of human life, and of life’s ultimate futility. She describes through the opening scenes of Jim’s parents death, the subsequent suicide of Mr. Shimerda, the rattlesnake fight, and the lightning storm the darkness and violence that follows the young protagonist. His love for Antonia is blinded by the darkness of their life and he flees to Harvard and to the East. Feger also questions the insertion of the unhappy stories of Pavel, Peter, and the wolves or the suicide of the Norwegian man. She states that they all raise disturbing questions of loss, violence, deception, and death that are faced by Jim and Antonia. The novel closes in the same manner that it began, hiding it’s pessimism about life with the old, innocent, country life.

 

"Three Lives" Annotations

Wu, Yi-Ping. "Stein's MELANCTHA." The Explicator. 66.3 (2008): 178-180. Web. 3 Nov. 2012.

Wu argues many critics view Stein’s “Melanctha,” praised for undermining the current American realism, as serving her interest in defining her own “American Whiteness” and will only see her corroborating in white racism. She claims there is compatibility between race awareness and modernism that is overlooked. The characters of Melanctha correspond to Stein’s own expatriate self which allows her to cross the color line and embody the characteristics of another race. She challenges Americans’ view on their culture through her ease of crossing across the line, canceling the differences between each race. As Wu states, Stein’s use of black literary expression allows her and her readers to gain a new understanding of true American identity.

Wilson, Mary. "Stein’s THE GENTLE LENA." The Explicator. 64.2 (2006): 89-91. Web. 8 Nov. 2012.

Wilson disputes the belief that Stein’s “The Gentle Lena” is not “a softer portrait of a tragically submissive wife who dies in childbirth” but of a will-less and passive young woman. Lena is described as gentle and pleasant, with an inbred lack in understanding and self-knowledge. Wilson conceives Lena to be not only unaware of this quality but also of a deep dislike of her own self. As the story proceeds, Lena is slowly slipping from the center focus until, at the conclusion; no one knew what had become of her. Lena’s tale is not of a submissive, writes Wilson, but of a redirection of will. She has not denied herself, she just simply is lacking. 

 

Escaping the Bonds of Society in “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”

The Adventures Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, sits securely in the heart of American Literature. To the casual reader it is the epitome of a young boy’s want of adventure through and to discover the unknown and so it is, to an extent. But more so than that, the novel is a guide book to escape from an immoral and overly complicated society.  Compared to the conflicts of nature, issues that are necessary for survival, society is an over exaggerated web of immoral social codes. Through the novel Huck searches for a sanctuary; a place where he and Jim can go to be free from slave laws, his father, and the complicated society rules that he does not understand. But in the end, after witnessing many towns, he discovers that there is no such place for him other than the river.

Huckleberry Finn is given multiple opportunities for a family and societal life. After freeing himself from his father, he is adopted by the widow Douglas and Miss Watson where he is taught to be “sivilized.” Huck enjoys going to school and learning how to read and write but is displeased with his education in manners and social conduct. He does not understand why he must always be clean and pressed, why he must grumble (pray) over his food before he can eat, and religion, why he must learn about Moses when he has already died. He feels a deep sense of loneliness in the house with only the rules and two women to keep him company. His only consolation is Tom Sawyer who told him if Huck stayed he could be a part of his band of thieves.  

Huck struggles to find a group that he can belong with, because society has taught him that he must belong to someone. But after escaping from his father again, he decides flee and search for his own place to live. He discovers that his new traveling companion, Jim, has run away from Miss Watson and is torn about what to do. His first response is like that of his society; to turn him in and have him returned to slavery. The more distance he puts between himself and his home town the more he realizes that their thinking is incorrect. On the river he is able to create his one morality and learns that he has been struggling with ideas that are immoral and unnecessary. On the river his only concerns are finding food and shelter and enjoying his free time on the raft.

Huck makes another attempt during his short stay with Tom’s Aunt Sally, feeling genuinely guilty for making her worry about him. But in the end, Tom’s ploy to free an already free Jim proves too much for Huck. He realizes that despite Tom’s boisterousness and love for adventures, he is rigidly in line with the moral and social codes Huck antipathies. Tom’s treatment of Jim shows only slight improvement to slave owners. He treats Jim as a plaything for his adventure not as a man who is suffering. His last link to this possible life is cut and he sets off for the simpler life he and Jim had enjoyed. In consequence, the reader will gain a new look on the society they are a part of and gain a deeper understanding and respect of our predecessors way of life. Our lives today are fast pace which leads to conflict. Instead, like Huck, we need to slow down and enjoy the journey.