In the literary criticism, “The Pharisees of Old New York in Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence,” the author Samantha De Vera starts by pointing out the negatives of the hypocrisy of Old New York by comparing its societal norms to the Pharisees. As the author compares Pharisees of the past to life in Old New York in terms of reviewing the hypocrisy of the right way to act and communicate in the novel, this criticism can be categorized as Historical Criticism. The author then goes on to explain Pharisees and how they are labeled as hypocrites in the New Testament, who follow the Torah but boast their righteousness at the same time. De Vera also claims that the lifestyle in Old New York forces the protagonist in the novel to stick to the norms