On The Representation Artistry In The Age Of Innocence

The Age of Innocence is one of the best successful fictions of Edith Wharton. She depicts the stiffness and hypocrisy of 1870's old New York upper-class society with exquisite style. Since Wharton spent her adolescence in it, there is a close link between the story and her true life, which lays out a vivid genre painting before us. In this fiction, Wharton exerts the skillful representation artistry to mold a series of characters, during which the typical one is archetype of such characters as May Welland, Newland Archer and Catherine. While Wharton depicts the female characters who belong to the same class with her, she gives the serious reflection to their social position and the cultural marriage system wisely and somewhat ironically, which expounds the durance and suppression the patriarchy society gave them and how the subordinate groups try to acquire their own power. They obtain the power by hiding their true thinking and showing the innocence and ignorance, and then protect them and aim at their destination. Besides, Wharton uses the general principles of realism regarding narrative mode and point of view throughout the whole story and designs Newland to be the center of consciousness, so the reader can deeply understand the hypocrisy of old New York society through Newland's eye because he himself belongs to the upper-class in New York. At the same time, narrative elisions are used frequently in the story to leave the blankness to the reader, which forces them to use their various understanding to fill them, so an unexpected effect is reached. Because of all the representation artistry, it gained a huge success and is undoubtedly worth the Pulitzer prize.