Edith Wharton was the fist woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for The Age of Innocence in 1921(Magill, Masterplots II 1: 40). She likes to show what happens to people that are not prepared to live in a complicated world in her novels. Like Wharton's other novels, The Age of Innocence involves a love triangle. This seems to be her favorite way of showing her characters' uncertainty (Magill, Masterplots II 1:39). In Edith Wharton's novel, The Age of Innocence, she illustrates the need for men and woman to find passion within an ordered and repressed society.
             The Age Of Innocence, is referring to the author's first hand experiences of life in a noble society during the 1870's (Faust 2: 371). "Her novel captures the atmosphere of aristocratic New York as its inhabitants move about in their world of subtle ties, innuendoes, and strict adherence to the dictates of fashionable society (Magill, Masterplots I: 85). The novel was probably so successful because the author knew so much about this subject (Wharton, vii). Her life experiences were much like those of her characters. To begin with, Wharton was brought up in a rich New York society, which is the plot of the novel. Second, she had a disastrous marriage much like Ellen's marriage. Another relationship between the author and the novel is the resemblance of the characters to the author. Ellen has charm, liberated views and even a slight French accent, which resembles Wharton. Archer is an example of the side of Wharton that could never entirely escape the past (Magill, Criti!
             The novel proposes that society have a large influence on the people of New York. "The novel is an incisive, but oblique attack on the intricate and tyrannous tribal customs of highly stratified New York society (Magill, Masterplots I: 85). To go against societies' rules is to "threaten the very fabric of a moral universe" (Faust, 2: 371). Although...