Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- Do you think Newland Archer and Madame Olenska really loved each other? If they had run off together, would that change your opinion about their relationship?
- Why do you think Newland Archer didn't go up to see Madame Olenska in the last chapter?
- The novel seems obsessed with the distinction between Americans and Europeans. Do you think these distinctions still persist today? Are there other distinctions or even commonalities that have developed over the past century?
- How are a sense of duty and the pursuit of happiness at odds with each other in The Age of Innocence?
- What is the novel's attitude toward innocence? Can true innocence ever be malicious?
- Wharton wrote that Newland's world was "a kind of hieroglyphic world, where the real thing was never said or done or even thought, but only represented by a set of arbitrary signs" (6.4). What are some examples of these signs? What do these signs signify?