ipl-logo

Theme Of Allusions In The Age Of Innocence By Edith Wharton

1930 Words8 Pages

Many authors, no matter the context, use allusions to help strengthen their point or illuminate a certain aspect of the text that they wish to be more noticeable; Edith Wharton is such an author, and her novel The Age of Innocence is no exception. From the allusions that even the most casual reader could pick up (for instance, when Wharton references certain areas in New York City, such as Broadway or Washington Square) to the historical and biblical allusions littered throughout the book that sometimes require a reader to look up information, every single allusion Wharton selects to use in the novel is well thought out and chosen for a specific purpose. This careful thought is especially clear with her multiple allusions to Pompeii and her referencing of the Bible passage Jeremiah 2:25. By incorporating these two specific allusions into the text at different points in the novel, Wharton further emphasises the theme of doomed love and also comments on whether or not it is truly possible to love someone in a society which is strictly controlled by an obscene amount of rules and rituals.
On August 24th in the year 79 A.D., Mount Vesuvius erupted over a …show more content…

Manson Mingott, saying that “the immense accretion of flesh which had descended on her in middle life like a flood of lava on a doomed city had changed her…” (22-3). This is the first time we as readers are introduced to Mrs. Manson Mingott, and from the start it is evident that she is a larger character than most others in the book, both physically and in personality. The fact that Wharton refers to Mrs. Manson Mingott as being buried underneath her own flesh is telling only when considered in the context of the other allusions to Pompeii, where Pompeii represents society and its rules. Despite the fact that Mrs. Manson Mingott tries to defy society’s rules, she is just as trapped by the confines of society as anyone

Show More
Related

Structure And Symbolism In Elizabeth Alexander's 'Nineteen'

1297 Words | 6 Pages

Teenagers have always sought to be their own person, forgoing rules and even recommendations in favour of self-determination. While an honourable undertaking, this path to self-discovery, leads them to experience new ordeals, where mistakes will be made. To reassure us that these mistakes are not necessarily bad, Elizabeth Alexander, in her poem "Nineteen", illustrates how youth 's desire for freedom¬ and to escape from their reality allows them to grow into adulthood and leads them to make choices that will impact their perception of the world. This theme will be analysed through structure, symbolism and contrast.

Read More

Bless Me Ultima Good Vs Evil Analysis

748 Words | 3 Pages

An occurring location in the book is Rosie’s House which is a brothel and is supposed to represent the root of sin and juxtaposes Antonio’s innocence. An example of this is in one of Antonio’s dreams in where his brothers are drawn into Rosie’s house. “The water wet her blouse and the thin cotton fabric clung around the curve of her breasts. No! I shouted in my dream, I cannot enter, I cannot think those thoughts.

Read More

Allusions In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

800 Words | 4 Pages

Literary allusions are an author taking another's work and refrencing it in their own work. It is not that literary

Read More

The Girl With Charlotte Smith Analysis

1045 Words | 5 Pages

Indeed, we see how as the narrator devotes an increasing amount of time with Charlotte, he becomes detached from his surroundings: he ignores his friends’ promptings and eventually progresses to a point where he is unaware of both time and location, that only today in introspection can he “recall that [they] were in [his] room” the day Maurice returns (197). Towards the end, the narrator describes how his clothes and Charlottes’ becomes “indistinguishable”, being “thrown over every chair” in the study room (191). Isolated and devoting so much time in this “cocoon” of the relationship, the narrator seems to lose part of his rational and orderly self and becomes more similar to the disorganized and anti-social Charlotte. The descriptions of Charlotte’s room and the imagery of the “cocoon” highlight this sense

Read More

Morality In Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome

642 Words | 3 Pages

In Edith Wharton’s most remarkable novel, Ethan Frome, the main character, Ethan Frome, is in love with a prohibited woman… his wife's cousin. His wife, Zeena, is a sick woman who has a villainous essence to her and an irrevocable hold on Ethan. Mattie Silver is Zeena’s cousin and the woman Ethan is infatuated with. Through Ethan’s eyes, Mattie is described as youthful, attractive, and graceful basically everything Zeena isn’t.

Read More

Imagery And Symbolism In The Age Of Innocence By Edith Wharton

1293 Words | 6 Pages

Imagery and Symbolism Edith Wharton creates the novel with a high percentage of imagery and symbolism in one. Some ways she combines both imagery and symbolism together is by a flower. Wharton states, “He had never seen any as sun-golden before, and his first impulse was to send them to May instead of the lilies. But they did not look like her - there was something too rich, too strong, in their fiery beauty”(Wharton).

Read More

Hamlet And The Handmaid's Tale Comparison

1629 Words | 7 Pages

Literature, through the course of time, has changed in drastic ways. It has now moved away from Shakespeare’s iambic pentameter to broader horizons, but similarities can always be found. William Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale were written almost

Read More

Othering In Edith Wharton's The Age Of Innocence

3463 Words | 14 Pages

As a text seemingly disparate from Edith Wharton’s other novels, scholarship surrounding Summer has tended to focus on gender and power constructions between Mr. Royall and Charity Royall. Recent scholarship, however, has focused on the social and cultural aspects of Summer. Elizabeth Ammons has taken a stark stance, problematizing Wharton’s portrayals of race by reifying normative racial constructions of the early twentieth century (68). Anne MacMaster notes the centrality of racial representations, though they appear to be marginal concerns to the plotline, in Wharton’s other work, The Age of Innocence.

Read More

Literary Devices In A Rose For Emily

844 Words | 4 Pages

In his short story, “A Rose for Emily,” William Faulkner intends to convey a message to his audience about the unwillingness in human nature to accept change and more specifically the secretive tendencies of aristocrats in the South during the early 20th century. In order to do this, Faulkner sets up a story in which he isolates and old aristocratic woman, Miss Emily, from her fellow townspeople and proceeds to juxtapose her lifestyle with theirs. In doing this he demonstrates her stubborn refusal to change along with the town, but also Among several literary devices the author employs to achieve this contrast, Faulkner sets up his narrator as a seemingly reliable, impartial and knowledgeable member of the community in which Miss Emily lives by using a first person plural, partially omniscient point of view. The narrator is present for all of the scenes that take place in the story, but does not play any role in the events, and speaks for the town as a whole. Faulkner immediately sets up his narrator as a member of the community in the first line of the story, saying that when Miss Emily died “our whole town went to her funeral.”

Read More

Essay On Symbolism In A Rose For Emily

1107 Words | 5 Pages

Throughout the reading of "A Rose for Emily "there is many expressions of symbolism. Understanding and able to point out the objects or people and the meaning behind them is very important. Knowing the explanation of each expression will help you understand the author and his or her message towards the audience. In the selection, "A Rose for Emily" some examples of symbolism is a character name Homer Barron, the house, and the rose that is stated in the title. These all have significant meanings behind them that are important to fully understand why Emily acted, felt and explain the reasoning behind each of her actions.

Read More

Theme Of Innocence In To Kill A Mockingbird

747 Words | 3 Pages

Innocence is a word used to describe someone 's purity. Children are prime examples of innocence, as they don’t have judgments and don’t understand mature topics. In the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the reader can interpret innocence as the growing up of the children. Specifically, Jem Finch showed a loss of innocence as he grew up. He showed his loss of innocence by not playing games, his more mature use of words and body language, and his different view of the world around him.

Read More

Theme Of Loss Of Innocence In Lord Of The Flies

752 Words | 4 Pages

Loss of Innocence Is mankind inherently evil? Perhaps children aren’t actually innocent. Nature versus nurture has been a discussion for years whether we develop our personalities from where we grow up or if we are born the way we are. Lord of the Flies written by William Golding, illustrated the theme of loss of innocence; a matter on youth having to quell life’s reality. The effects of the island the novel takes place in posts a violent demeanor on the boys stranded on it.

Read More

Literary Analysis: A Hymn To Childhood

969 Words | 4 Pages

In the poem, “A Hymn to Childhood,” Li-Young Lee talks about having fragmented individuality from childhood due to war. He is lost in perception of a traumatic childhood caused by war and a normal naïve childhood. Lee depicts the two diverged childhoods from his memory through the use of antithesis to emphasize the world perceived by a self fragmented individual. Throughout the poem, he consistently presents two opposing ideas to show what it feels like to grow up with emotional trauma.

Read More

Theme Of Innocence In To Kill A Mockingbird

1730 Words | 7 Pages

The Mockingbird Spirit of Innocence How do you define innocence? Is there someone out in the world who is purely innocent? To understand innocence you should look at what a mockingbird does, because all they do is sing. In Harper Lee’s classic novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus and Miss Maudie teach Scout and Jem that it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.

Read More

The Valley Of Childish Things Literary Analysis

2131 Words | 9 Pages

Edith Wharton is an important, though neglected novelist in the history of American literature. Her novels study the status of the women and explore their relationship with men in a male dominated society. Again and again she presents the state of exceptional, rising, ‘New Woman’ of the turn of the century to break out of her compressible role and attempting a venture rebellion. The Age of Innocence is on the theme that deals ironically with the affluent social world of New York. The novel has a theme of entrapment and the struggle of the intruder, both to maintain an adult sense of self in a childish society and to rescue a trapped male from that society.

Read More

More about Theme Of Allusions In The Age Of Innocence By Edith Wharton

Related Topics

Open Document