History Literature / TheAgeOfInnocence

* BeingGoodSucks: [[spoiler: Newland and Ellen, are perfect for each other but for circumstances. Both of them know it's all bunk but both of them are too nice to hurt other people's feelings to actually consummate their relationship, and Ellen walks away from his life, [[SadisticChoice refusing to force Newland to choose]] between her and walking out of his family. In the end, Newland ends up being shackled to a disappointing marriage all because he was too nice a person to walk away]].

* UnresolvedSexualTension: Between Newland and Ellen throughout most of the story.

The novel was adapted into film versions in the 1920s and 1930s, but the definitive version is the 1993 adaptation, directed by Creator/MartinScorsese and starring Creator/MichellePfeiffer, Creator/DanielDayLewis, and Creator/WinonaRyder. This version is remarkably faithful to the novel, with whole passages and dialogue translated from page to screen. It won an UsefulNotes/AcademyAward for Best Costume Design (Gabriella Pescucci) and is regarded as an exceptional recreation of old New York high society. Scorsese called ''The Age of Innocence'' by far [[https://lwlies.com/articles/the-age-of-innocence-martin-scorsese-most-violent-film/ his most violent movie]]. Considering his filmography, it's quite the statement.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_age_of_innocence_553243085_large.jpg]]

* WorldOfCardboardSpeech: Newland Archer [[spoiler:to his son Dallas/Ted (book/movie), in the film's final lines]]
--> '''Dallas/Ted:''' What should I tell her?
--> '''Newland Archer:''' Don't you always have something to say?
--> '''Dallas/Ted:''' I'll tell her you're old-fashioned and you insist on walking up three flights instead of taking the elevator.
--> '''Newland Archer:''' (pause) [[SelfDeprecation Just say I’m old-fashioned]]. That should be enough.

* YourCheatingHeart: The heart of the story is Ellen and Archer's emotional affair. The irony is that everyone in New York society, including his wife, believes the relationship is physical as well, the one thing they have either refrained from or been unable to achieve. Meanwhile, we learn Ellen left her husband because he was unfaithful to her (it's implied his lovers included men as well as women) and that she herself fled into the arms of another man, while several other characters are revealed to have mistresses and none of them would have especially bothered if Newland had kept Ellen as his mistress discretely. Newland's [[spoiler:sincere love for Ellen however and his temptation to abandon it all to live with her, albeit as social pariahs, threatens the social fabric of their middle-class world which is why they quietly conspire with May to force them apart]].

The story follows Newland Archer, a lawyer who is engaged to May Welland. Both of them are part of the high society of 1870s New York, its circle of richest and oldest families. High society at this time was highly ritualized and snobbish and it faces a challenge with the arrival of Countess Ellen Olenska. Ellen was a cousin of May who married and settled in Europe, but returns fleeing a bad marriage. The worldly Ellen is the exact opposite of the well-bred May, and Newland who seems himself as more refined and sensitive than his fellow New York jet-setters becomes infatuated with her and begins questioning whether he should risk it all, break his engagement with May, and be with Ellen instead.

-->'''Ted''': She said she knew we were safe with you and always would be because once when she asked you to, you gave up the thing you wanted most

--> '''Newland Archer''': (pause) [[SelfDeprecation Just say I’m old-fashioned]]. That should be enough.

* CoolTrain: Newland Archer takes the [[http://images2.bridgemanart.com/cgi-bin/bridgemanImage.cgi/400wm.PNP.9499420.7055475/246770.jpg Fall River Boat Train]], then the most luxurious train in the world, from New York to Boston.

** Archer's mother attends his wedding where she "sat weeping softly under her Chantilly veil, her hands in her grandmother's ermine muff".

* ShipperOnDeck: Catherine, Ellen's "Granny," doesn't even try to hide how she feels Newland Archer and Ellen should have been married from the first. Every time he goes to see her, she pretty much asks him point blank why he and Ellen aren't married yet.

--> (narration)"In reality they all lived in a kind of hieroglyphic world, where the real thing was never said or done or even thought, but only represented by a set of arbitrary signs"

--> '''Dallas/Ted''': What should I tell her?
--> '''Newland Archer''': Don't you always have something to say?
--> '''Dallas/Ted''': I'll tell her you're old-fashioned and you insist on walking up three flights instead of taking the elevator.

--> '''Newland Archer''': (pause) [[SelfDeprecation Just tell her I’m old-fashioned]]. That should be enough.

--> '''Dallas/Ted''': I'll tell her you're old-fashioned and you insist on walking up five flights instead of taking the elevator.

* TimeSkip: The epilogue shifts from 1870 to [[spoiler:Paris on the even of the First War, at the end of La belle epoque. We get a glimpse of motorcars in the street]].

The novel was adapted into film versions in the 1920s and 1930s, but the definitive version is the 1993 adaptation, directed by Creator/MartinScorsese and starring Creator/MichellePfeiffer, Creator/DanielDayLewis, and Creator/WinonaRyder. This version is remarkably faithful to the novel, with whole passages and dialogue translated from page to screen. It won an UsefulNotes/AcademyAward for Best Costume Design (Gabriella Pescucci) and is regarded as an exceptional recreation of old New York high society.

Scorsese called ''The Age of Innocence'' by far [[https://lwlies.com/articles/the-age-of-innocence-martin-scorsese-most-violent-film/ his most violent movie]]. Considering his filmography, it's quite the statement.

Scorsese called ''The Age of Innocence'' by far his most brutal movie. Considering his filmography, it's quite the statement.

Scorsese called ''The Age of Innocence" by far his most brutal movie. Considering his filmography, it's quite the statement.

* AdaptationDyeJob: In the book, the "perfect" May is repeatedly described as blonde and blue-eyed, but in the movie, she is played by the dark-haired Winona Ryder. Similarly, the family outcast Ellen is dark-haired, but played by the blonde Michelle Pfeiffer.

* ChekhovsGun: In the final scene (shot in Paris and set around 1920), Newland, aged and wizened, leaves a broken man after watching uselessly the balcony of Ellen's apartment. He passes by two typical [[TheRoaringTwenties 1920s]] classic cars. As he fades into the background, both cars stay in the scene and a third [[TheEdwardianEra Edwardian Age]] car passes by. None of the three plays any role in the film, they might have been just as well left out. His disappearance as the cars fill the spot was symbolic, to show [[FishOutOfTemporalWater he was out of his time, a relic of a bygone era,]] while the new age of automobile, airplane, radio and jazz was unfolding.

* DomesticAbuse: Aside from being unfaithful, it's hinted that Ellen's estranged husband Count Olenski was also abusive to her.

* DoubleStandard[=/=]{{Hypocrite}}: Of social standing, more than gender. Because they never approved of Ellen's marriage or even Ellen herself, New York society is thoroughly unsympathetic to her regarding her husband's infidelities and her decision to leave him, as demonstrated by the snubs she receives--not inviting her to social events, refusing en masse to attend a dinner in her honor. May, on the other hand, is a beloved [[TheIngenue Ingenue]] and when she suspects Archer and Ellen of having an affair, society's love of her and dislike of Ellen cause them to instantly rally around her and help her do everything she can to separate them and save her marriage. This is foreshadowed earlier in the book when at least two men who are known to have mistresses condemn another character for his infidelity because his mistress isn't of the proper social class.

''The Age of Innocence'' is a novel by Edith Wharton. Originally published in 1920, the book won a PulitzerPrize in 1921. A member of New York High Society, Wharton had formerly criticized that world extensively in her novel ''The House of Mirth'', yet looking back at that world after UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, she felt compelled to revisit the setting and write something less critical (at least by her standards).

--> '''Newland Archer''' Don't you always have something to say?

--> '''Newland Archer''' : (pause) [[SelfDeprecation Just tell her I’m old-fashioned]]. That should be enough.

* TheNarrator: The movie has one intermittently discuss what it going on.

* GoodBadGirl: The crux of Ellen's conflict with New York society. She is a kind woman, but she also shacked up with her adulterous husband's male secretary for a year after leaving him, and wishes to divorce him to she can marry someone else. Since New York society believes that [[MadonnaWhoreComplex women can only be all good or all bad]], they've branded her as "bad" due to her technical infidelity and won't give her another chance.

* EndOfAnAge: [[spoiler:The New York of the 1870s was already a bygone era in the year of the book's publication. At the end of the novel, Newland reflects on how, despite being 57, so much has changed in the last four decades since he last saw Ellen and that he's already out of place despite being in his middle ages. He notes that the values and mores that had prevented him from being with her weren't really there anymore and yet at the same time he was "old-fashioned" and not really suited to the new era]].

* CulturalRebel: Most of New York's high society are superficial, with poor taste in art, culture and conversation and care mostly about gossip. Newland Archer reads English and French literature, collects Japanese prints and is highly knowledgeable. This leads to his love for Ellen, who represents his imaginative ideal(but who herself is fleeing the world he wants to be a part of, being less romantic than he is). [[spoiler: In the end, his failure to break away or make the world around him adjust to his desires lets it being crushed.]]