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How Does Edith Wharton Use Feminism In The Age Of Innocence

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Edith Wharton’s “The Age of Innocence” portrays a world of strict moral and social conduct through the feminism lens. Wharton’s characters are expected to live their life just as what is expected of them. Individualism is not an option for the characters in the novel. They are expected to think, act, and even dress a certain way, especially the women. Edith uses two cousins, Ellen and May, as the major concern in her novel. The women characters are depicted as both victims of their own life as well as conspirators that determine their own fate. Edith presents two women characters to show two contrastive approaches to life and the world they live in. One lives her life by the rules and norms. The other lives her life just the way she wants. …show more content…

The world of the characters in “The Age of Innocence” revolve around their image in the society’s eye. The characters live terrorize by the possibility of being excluded. They are the upper class of New York in the 1870’s and they want to maintain the image they have created for their class, family name, and themselves. They live in a world in which appearance is everything, one in which certain families have all the wealth and are above everyone else, and in a world in which everything is governed by rules. The way you dress is governed by rules or expectations. The person and family you marry into is also governed by rules or expectations even if you are not completely in love or completely sure about marrying that person. This is what happened to Newland Anchor. He was expected to marry May because she was the perfect product of Old New York’s society. Despite how “perfect” May was, Anchor was not sure of his marriage with her. “That terrifying product of the social system he belonged to and believed in, the young girl who knew nothing and expected everything, looked back at him like a stranger through May Welland's familiar features; and once more it was borne in on him that marriage was not the safe anchorage he had been taught to think, but a voyage on uncharted seas” (Wharton pg.

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