This term/research paper must be on Edith Wharton”s “The Age of Innocence.” I want it to be written about the three main characters, May Welland, Newland Archer, and Ellen Oleska with am emphasis on the latter two. Compare and contrast, especially “contrast” May Welland and Ellen Olenska, and Ellen Olenska and Newland Archer.
My main focus, though, would be on the relationship between Newland Archer and Ellen Olenska–how they resemble and yet differ in their outlook on the customs and values of society, and their speculation of life. I think I favor the character of Ellen Olenska the most as a heroine and at the same time a victim of the old New York society. I think May Welland is the past, Newland Archer the present and Ellen Olenska the future of old New York depicted by Edith Wharton. Newland Archer is a struggling character between the old and new, between the custom and love, and between the two women, May and Ellen, however, unable to break free from the old. Therefore, I want to depict Ellen the courageous and the awakened woman whose precocious self-realization unabled her to conform to the old custom of the society, but, enabled her to break free from her old bondage given under the label of “woman”
In addition to citing outseide sources, please, incorporate some quoatations from the book “The Age of Innocence” itself.
