The Immersion Library

‘I want to be free; I want to wipe out all the past.’

Wharton packs many enticing literary elements into this novel but, alas, I found it arduous to get through the 232 pages. She fails to leave the reader much to discover and rather lectures on the farcicle aristocratic childs-play of late twentieth-century New York and the reasons for Newland Archer’s conflict. I enjoyed reading this novel no more than reading someone’s synopsis of it.

However, I appreciate her perspective and ideas. When reading her sarcastic tone about society life, one feels compelled to ask her in equally sarcastic measure, “Tell me how you really feel?” This same tone extendeds into the characters of Ellen Olenska and May Welland. And Newland Archer’s inner-conflict manifests itself in these two women.

For me, Ellen Olenska represents the ideals of the “new land”; individual passions and freedoms superceding proper social ettiquette and discretion but supporting the freedoms of others to engage in the old aristocracy model. Newland Archer falls in love with her likely because they share this same love of the American ideal of freedom to pursue passions and break from social expectations. I ask myself if he actually loves her or if he simply admires her and wants to nurture her spirit amidst the decay of an immitated aristocracy in America.

Archer, born into the New York aristocracy, engages with May Welland who embraces the expected role of a wife. And yet in there marriage, she makes a focused effort to conceal her mind in favor of her duty. So is she the dull, witless, obedient wife that Archer sees, according to Wharton, or is she a clever, strong woman who, in the end, gets the family and life she wanted?

While Archer struggles with his affinities for both the new passionate freedoms and the old comfortable aristocratic obligations, both women guide him with a soft but firm hand. In a sense, they keep him rooted between two opposing forces. Because of this, he never gets close to either which makes me wonder if he would describe himself as happy. At the end, others would likely envy his life and imagine him the happiest person in New York. But what would he say?

Perhaps this is the American story of making the best of one’s lot in life as opposed to the traditional propogandic romanticism of individual control over one’s destiny in the “new land”. Perhaps this is the story of America kidding itself into thinking the “new land” is any different from the old. Or perhaps we learn that whatever path we choose, we can’t have it all.

The day was fresh, with a lively spring wind full of dust.