QUESTIONS

1. Archer compares society to a “beast” and a “powerful machine”. What other images does Wharton use to describe it?
2. Why is Beaufort tolerated, in spite of his coarse manners and “dissipated habits”?
3. Why is Archer drawn to the journalist Winsett and to Monsieur Rivière?
4. What attracts Ellen to Archer?
5. What attracts Archer to Ellen?
6. Why does Archer go through with his wedding to May, even though he knows he doesn’t love her?
7. Why does Archer continue to pursue Ellen? What does he want from her?
8. Why does Archer see himself as a victim of society’s constraints? Is he a victim, or is he a collaborator in the hypocrisy he condemns?
9. What is the attitude of high society New Yorkers to European morés?
10. What are the causes of the divide between men and women in the society Wharton depicts? The limitations placed on the lives of women are apparent; what are the limitations on men?
11. In what way is The Age of Innocence a study of a particular society and era? How do the book’s themes and subjects relate to us and our way of life?
12. Are there any happy marriages in the novel? Which ones and why are they happy?
13. Is Wharton condemning the society she depicts? Does it have positive qualities?
14. What is the “innocence” referred to in the title?

Questions compiled by Suzanne Fisher
Voorheesville Public Library
fishers@uhls.lib.ny.us

Find more questions as well as information about the book and about Edith Wharton in the NEA Reader’s Guide and on the Big Read Website.

The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Institute of Musuem and Library Services and Arts Midwest. The Big Read in Albany and Rensselaer Counties is cosponsored by the New York Writers Institute and the Upper Hudson Library System.