An Analysis Of Ethical Relationships In The Age Of Innocence

Edith Wharton (1862-1937), an outstanding female writer in America in the end of 19th century and the beginning of 20th century. Her works won an important place in the history of American literature. She was good at showing the influence of society and moral views to characters’ fate.The effect of moral conflicts and social conventions are displayed in her words in simple words. As her masterpiece, The Age of Innocence received extensive attention and gained the Pulitzer Prize for literature the next year after its publication, which made Wharton to be the first female to gain this honor. This novel was created after WWI, but the background of the story was set in the Old New York in 1980s. Through depicting the romantic affairs between a young lawyer, Newland and a couple of cousin sisters, the upper class life in Victoria time was shown vividly to readers. As describing the social manners, Wharton also endowed her ethical ideas in her works. In her works before WWI, Wharton paid more attention to establish individual ethics, but in in The Age of Innocence, she yearned of the stable ethical system, which shows Wharton trying to find a balance between individual ethics and collective ethics. This paper will apply the theory of ethical literary criticism to analysis the ethical relationships in The Age of Innocence, and discuss the author’s ethical ideas.This paper can be divided into three parts:the introduction, the main body and the conclusion.The first part is the introduction which introduces Edith Wharton’s life experience and her works. The research of The Age of Innocence at home and abroad will be introduced. Except these, the writing purpose and the necessity of this paper can also be seen in this part.The second part is the main part of this paper, which includes four chapters.Chapter Ⅰ is the theoretical framework. It details the theory of literary criticism and the forming of Wharton’s ethical ideas. Firstly, the theory of literary criticism is introduced in three aspects:the concept and main content; the terms of literary criticism and their application in literature works; the last aspect was its development in China and the feasibility to apply it in western literature works. This chapter also introduce Wharton’s ethical view. The forming of her ethical views was influenced by the social ethical environment at that time when the author experienced the transformation period of the old ethical view to the new. At the same time, her ethical views also had the religious orientation because she was born in the upper society.Chapter II analyzes the ethical relationship between man and society in The Age of Innocence, in which the prevalent ethical ideas are introduced here. This ethical environment has effect on the characters’ fate. Through interpreting the family ethics, consumption ethics and the position of female in family and society, it can be seen that in society with strict social class like New York, the restrictive function of ethical environment decided character’s fate. Through the analysis of three main characters in the novel, it is clear that it is hard for individual power to win the collective will.Chapter III explains the novel from the aspect of man and others. In the process of contact, human beings are bound to build some ethical relationship, which also bring one social responsibilities. In this chapter, the ethical relationship between Newland and May is analyzed, who build their ethical identities through marriage. Their combination seems perfect in New York but this cannot narrow their gad in spirit. While Newland’s ethical identity also decides that his love with Ellen will not realized because the break of ethical identities will cause chaos, especially in New York where the ethical system is more stable. This is the main content of the second part in this chapter.Chapter IV pays attention to the ethical relationship between man and self. The interpreting of the ethical predicament of Newland and Ellen can help to have a better understanding of the psychological states when they made their choice. In the end, Newland gave up his pursuit of freedom and love in order to maintain a complete family and he spent his rest life in peace and stable. While Ellen still divorced with her husband, she had no place in New York and live alone in Europe. Their compromise was for the whole family’ reputation and social stability.The third part is conclusion which summarizes the above analysis and points out the main idea and meaning of this paper. In the transformation period of America society, the writing purpose of The Age of Innocence was not only the record of the social customs in the Old New York, but to provide a direction to the transformation of ethical structure. The individual’s ethical desire cannot be ignored, but the realize of individual desire must under the guidance of social ethics standard.The combination of individual ethical pursuit with collective ethical standards is the only way to realize individual value. This point is important to our country which is experiencing the transformation period.