The Age of Innocence

Archer’s boss Mr. Letterblair, partner in the law firm Letterblair, Lamson and Low, summons Archer to discuss Ellen. The Mingotts want Archer to use his influence to dissuade her from suing for divorce. May’s father and the Mingott uncles have already tried, but Ellen wishes for a legal opinion. Archer reads over the documents Ellen has supplied, including a threatening letter from her husband, and decides to consult Ellen, who is staying with the van der Luydens, face to face.

Archer thinks back to his affair with Mrs. Thorley Rushworth. Though he was thought foolish, society reincorporated him into its fold, so long as he was seen to be trying to “marry a nice girl, and then trust to her to look after him” (Location 1242). He finds the hypocrisy of different expectations for men and women difficult to tolerate.

The next day at dinner, Mr. Letterblair voices the opinion that Ellen’s wish for a divorce is foolish, given that she and her estranged husband are on different sides of the Atlantic and she stands to gain nothing financially from the procedure. Letterblair tries to exact a promise of Archer’s collaboration, arguing that it’s in Archer’s best interest not to marry into a family that has had its reputation besmirched by the scandal of divorce. Archer remains firm that he will not give an opinion until he has heard Ellen’s point of view.

Archer pays Ellen an after-dinner call. He is annoyed that Julius Beaufort is already there. Beaufort is trying to persuade Ellen to reject an invitation to Skuytercliff, the van der Luydens’ enormous Italianate villa on the Hudson River, and to stay in the city this weekend for an oyster supper.

When Beaufort is gone, Ellen expresses to Archer her wish for a new start. She implores him to help her by securing a divorce. Archer refers to the Count Olenski’s letter, which mentions a “vague charge” (Location 1410)—the Count is hinting that he could publicly accuse her of adultery with Olenski’s secretary. Archer warns Ellen that this would ruin her reputation for ever. While American law makes divorce easy, old-fashioned society punishes divorced women. Moreover, Ellen’s unconventional behavior makes her more vulnerable to this kind of shunning. When Archer asks what Ellen stands to gain from divorce that would make the scandal worthwhile, she tells him that she needs her freedom. He counters that she ought to try to see things as her family would.

During a play at Wallack’s theatre, Archer considers Ellen’s attractiveness and capacity to attract drama. He decides that her having an affair with the secretary who rescued is understandable: “she was young, she was frightened, she was desperate—what more natural than that she should be grateful to her rescuer” (Location 1495). However, in the eyes of the law and society, sex outside of marriage would make her as contemptible as her husband. Archer assures the family that Ellen has given up all notions of divorce.

Referring to the characters in the play, Ellen speculates whether the man will send the woman yellow roses. Archer blushes because this means that Ellen knows that he is the one who sent her yellow roses. Her recognition of the gift “filled him with an agitated pleasure” (Location 1520). Ellen asks Archer what he will do while May visits family in St. Augustine, Florida. He will work. Ellen reminds him that she has followed his advice to put off the divorce. He remembers May’s entreaty that he should be kind to Ellen because he is the only one who understands her. 

In the theater lobby, Archer runs into his friend Ned Winsett, a journalist who lives in the same neighborhood as Ellen. Ned offers a story of Ellen bandaging his little boy after a fall and returning him home. Ellen was “so sympathetic and beautiful that my wife was too dazzled to ask her name” (Location 1572). On learning that Ellen is a countess, Winsett wonders why she condescends to live in their rundown bohemian neighborhood. When Archer offers that Ellen does not buy into New York’s social mores, Ned has the insight that Ellen has visited bigger places than their small, limited city.

Archer wonders why he didn’t accompany May to Florida, especially as he has no urgent professional commitments. He realizes that he fears suffocating in the limited society of New York. He longs for Ellen’s company, but she avoids him. Two days later, she sends him a message from Skuytercliff, writing that she has run away to safety. He does not know whether she faced some real danger or is just using a figure of speech. Feeling the need to be near her, Archer accepts an invitation from the Chiverses’ to their Hudson Valley house near Skuytercliff.

Archer stays with the Chivers family for the weekend, and from there drives a boat to Skuytercliff. Catching Ellen alone, Archer entreats her to tell him what she is running away from. The dynamic between them is playful and emotional; Ellen entreats him to come inside the house so they can speak privately. When she tells him that she is happy when he is around, “the words stole through him like a temptation” (Location 1730) and he imagines them in an embrace. However, Julius Beaufort joins them. Archer quickly surmises that Beaufort wants Ellen as his mistress and that while she purports to run away from him, she may be attracted to this cultured, vigorous man who has many traits in common with Count Olenski.

Archer finds his routine at home in New York stultifying. Ellen invites him to come to her lodgings so that she can explain. He agonizes about how to answer her. What he should really do is take a boat to St. Augustine, Florida, where May is.

Lying to his boss about a cold, Archer goes to Florida. May is surprised to see him and blushes when he kisses her too vigorously. He has only kissed her on the lips once before.

When May’s mother Mrs. Welland is alone with Archer, she tells him that she is grateful for his dissuading Ellen out of a divorce. She was worried about the effect of such a scandal on her innocent daughter May. Ellen’s ideas are too European, and her waywardness stems from her wearing black at her coming-out ball and being away from America so long. Archer disagrees with Mrs. Welland. By opposing Ellen’s divorce, the family has forced Ellen into becoming Julius Beaufort’s mistress rather than in having a new chance in a new marriage. Mrs. Welland physically resembles May, but her brand of innocence “seals the mind against imagination and the heart against experience” (Location 1871).

Archer pleads with May to hasten the date of their wedding. However, May surprises him by insightfully asking whether he is in a rush to marry because he fears that waiting will cause him to no longer care for her. May knows about Archer’s earlier affair with a married woman and she believes that they should break their engagement if he is in love with someone else. He reassures her that the affair with Mrs. Rushworth is long over. Astounded by her lucidity, Archer urges May not to delay their marriage. But in response, May tamps down on her adult behavior: “in another moment she seemed to have descended from her womanly eminence to helpless and timorous girlhood” (Location 1941). He is disappointed by this change and May knows she has disappointed him. They walk home in silence.

Old Mrs. Mingott receives Archer warmly as he shares his hopes to persuade May to bring their wedding date forward. Mrs. Mingott grumbles that the family is stuck in outdated conventions and that the only one of her descendants who has escaped this curse is Ellen. The old lady playfully states that Archer should have married Ellen and saved them from all this. Archer laughs, although he feels the full force of her sentiment. Ellen appears. While Archer was away, she visited Janey and Mrs. Archer because she feared that Archer was ill. He asks to come see her and she invites him the next day. He fears that she will be meeting Beaufort.

The next day, Ellen already has company. Ned Winsett, who laments Ellen’s departure from his neighborhood, is among the guests. So is Medora Manson, the woman who raised Ellen. Medora thanks Archer for getting Ellen to put off the divorce; Count Olenski wants his wife back. Medora tells Archer that Ellen will be happier in Europe, as America is devoid of the fine things and sophisticated conversation Ellen is used to. Archer vehemently declares that he would rather see Ellen dead than return to her husband.

Ellen arrives and learns of the Count’s intention to reconcile. She tells her maid to remove the flowers he’s sent. After Medora departs, Archer tells Ellen that Medora came to plead Olenski’s case; he also confides in her May worries his request for a hastened wedding date is the result of an emotional affair—that getting married would allow him to give up another relationship. When Archer implies that the other woman is Ellen, Ellen exclaims “Ah don’t make love to me! Too many people have done that” (Location 2184). When Archer says he should have married Ellen, Ellen exclaims that he is making this impossible by persuading her give up on getting a divorce. Archer pleads that it can all be undone—she can divorce and he can break his engagement with May—and kisses her. Although she returns his kiss, she says that his idea is impossible. A telegram arrives: Grandmother Mingott’s entreaty to hasten the marriage has been successful. Archer’s wedding is a month away.