A Doll House and Age of Innocence

There are many similarities between Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll House and Edith Wharton’s Age of Innocence. One of these similarities is the gender which holds the power in the relationships. In that society and time period men were generally known to hold more power, but in both works the authors depict women who subversively hold control. Both Nora and Ellen manipulated the men in their lives who unknowingly thought they were deciding their own fates.

In Wharton’s Age of Innocence May had “clear” eyes throughout the whole novel. While Archer always thought she was a young girl who needed to be enlightened and read to, she always understood and this led her to control her relationship without Archer knowing. The affair between Ellen and Archer was never a surprise to her and she manipulated the situation to fit her mold for a picture-perfect family. Ellen went away and May was left with a faithful husband and guiding father for her children. Her eyes “shone with victory” when she told Archer the news that she was pregnant because she knew that this would be the anchor to keep him from pursuing Ellen, which is what she always wanted. If she had approached her husband from the beginning, then he might have resented her, but instead she waited for an opportunity to arise that would make it seem like it was Archer’s decision to stay- even if he did not really have a choice.

Similarly, in Ibsen’s A Doll House, Nora manipulates Torvald into doing her will while he unknowingly plays along. She holds the control, and even his life, in her hands, yet she leads Torvald to believe that she is a helpless “little bird”. This playful façade led them both to be satisfied with their marriage, both Nora and Torvald thinking they were in control; however, as soon as Torvald proved to Nora that she was not in control and that he would not support her, she realized that the marriage was not what she thought it was. She lost the power struggle and this led her to realize that she needed to escape that “doll house” and regain control of her own life.

Both these works demonstrate women who control the men in their lives by means of manipulation and smug secrecy, yet the endings are very different. In A Doll House Nora leaves her husband and family in order to find herself and live a genuine life, while in Age of Innocence May and Archer live out the rest of their lives in this socially acceptable “doll house”. While Ibsen’s play finishes with a hopeful tone, Wharton ends the novel with a disappointing conclusion as Archer never finds true fulfillment in his life. The different endings depict the two options that the characters in the works had- they could either ignore reality, continuing to live seeking society’s acceptance, as May and Archer did, or they could rebel and search for true fulfillment in their lives like Nora.

Wine Pressing

But in the Wine-presses the Human Grapes Sing not nor Dance

William Blake

But in the Wine-presses the human grapes sing not nor dance:
They howl and writhe in shoals of torment, in fierce flames consuming,
In chains of iron and in dungeons circled with ceaseless fires,
In pits and dens and shades of death, in shapes of torment and woe:
The plates and screws and racks and saws and cords and fires and cisterns
The cruel joys of Luvah's Daughters, lacerating with knives
And whips their victims, and the deadly sport of Luvah's Sons.

They dance around the dying and they drink the howl and groan,
They catch the shrieks in cups of gold, they hand them to one another:
These are the sports of love, and these the sweet delights of amorous play,
Tears of the grape, the death sweat of the cluster, the last sigh
Of the mild youth who listens to the luring songs of Luvah.----

 

William Blake is known to write poems and create artwork contrasting innocence and experience using many biblical allusions and symbolism. In his poem “But in the Wine-presses the Human Grapes Sing not nor Dance” Blake juxtaposes love and torture to show the torment of experience.

His first line sets up the poem in a wine press, where grapes are squeezed in order to make wine. In order for the grapes to turn into the fine drink, they must first be pressed and aged, transforming from one state to another. This is symbolic of the transition from innocence to experience, and Blake illustrates this process by personifying the grapes which “howl and writhe in shoals of torment”. The transition could be described as painful because the effect of eating this “fruit of knowledge” (in this case a grape), is losing the ignorance and bliss associated with innocence. The grapes “no longer sing nor dance” because they have been weighed down by age and experience. Blake continues describing the almost torturous process by repeatedly using fire imagery. This could be an allusion to the fires of Hell, in which the grapes are being scorched. The allusion to Hell with “fierce flames consuming” and “chains…circled with ceaseless fires” describes experience as a sinful experience, contrary to the pure and innocence found in heaven.  Blake goes on to describe Luvah’s sadistic daughters and sons. He juxtaposes “cruel joys” and “deadly sport” when speaking of lacerating and whipping victims. Luvah, which Blake created, is symbolic of love and the fact that his offspring enjoy torture depicts an ironic scene demonstrating both the good and bad aspects of experience. These “sweet delights of amorous play” show that experience can be painful yet beneficial. Love is often seen with positive connotation, and when posed with violence it captures the dual emotions associated with the fruit of knowledge.  William Blake uses these descriptions to demonstrate his view that neither innocence nor experience is superior to the other. Both have their advantages and their drawbacks and he compares them in his poem about enlightened yet pained grapes as they transition to wine.

Blake uses the process of wine pressing to demonstrate the acquisition of knowledge in his poem. Luvah represents love and tortures his victims in the “sports of love”. The juxtaposition and violent imagery presented in the poem demonstrate the downsides of experience. Compared to innocence, it reveals knowledge and takes away the ignorance, but it is also reality- which can be devastating. William Blake finishes his poem describing “the last sigh of the mild youth who listens to the luring songs of Luvah”. This reveals that experience is tempting, yet the loss of innocence is something to be sighed over, a distressing experience.

Age of Innocence or Old New York?

A question from our lit circle on Monday has stuck with me: “Should the novel be named Age of Innocence or Old New York?”  This got me thinking about what each title would imply about the novel and while the Age of Innocence title captures overall William Blake-like theme of innocence versus experience, Old New York emphasizes the role of society within the novel. While reading the novel through the gender lens, one could argue that the given title is appropriate because of the contrast between experienced men and naïve pretty women. The Marxist lens, however, which focuses on the power struggle between classes, fits in better with the latter title.

The novel does demonstrate gender roles, such as after dinner when the women would go upstairs while the men would stay downstairs and smoke “discussing business”, but the end of the book leads me to believe that the more important theme was about the elite society. There is an emphasis on the change within the values of the society within the last chapter which notes the contrast between the past and the future. For example, in Archer’s youth importance was placed in the reputation of someone’s family, and they joked about Beaufort’s bastard children, which Newland’s son ironically marries. The old New York was more “old-fashioned”, like Archer describes himself to his son Dallas in front of Ellen’s apartment. (304). His reason for not going upstairs is because he is old fashioned, implying that there is a change within him. This implies that Newland has become someone interested in tradition, as society always urged him to be. His many years with May could have influenced this change within him, and she could have molded him into a perfectly acceptable husband. This kills the passion and drains the youth within him as he is left dull and old-aged. Archer seems to have become stagnant as he sits on the bench fantasizing about what is occurring within the apartment, too “old-fashioned” to enter. He barely travels- another interesting change within him. The young Archer had an interest in art and foreign countries, which contrasted with May, who was bored on their wedding tour and eager to get home to fulfill her wifely duty. He is content with his lifelessness as he walks away back to his hotel. The boundaries which constricted Archer before are now comforting to the prosaic old man, who is a representation of the “old New York”, which is being replaced by younger people and newer viewpoints.

Archer’s transformation within the novel shows the gradual acceptance of being a part of this elite New York society. At first he rebelled, but as time went on he fulfilled his role and even came to symbolize the old traditions which he came from. This contrasts strikingly with the youth, such as his son Dallas. For this reason, both titles are relevant to the novel but when looking at it from a societal point of view, the Old New York title is more fitting.