Status Updates From The Age of Innocence

His wife recalls that they used to go to dancing school together. Some couples refuses to meet Ellen and Newland notices who. It was Mrs. vdL who sent the men to “rescue” Newland from Ellen and then she remarks on how beautiful May looks. I wonder if she noticed anything.

The temptress touches Newland’s knee and asks Newland to stay a little longer while May is introduced. He reacts. Yikes!!! A bunch of men show up to speak to her and break the spell. MAYDAY!!!! Then she says as she leaves that she expects to see him at five the next day as if they had planned it, but they had not. Mercy! Talk about bad timing. Who shows up but Lawrence and his wife. I bet he suspects something.

He apologizes for giving her pain. She explains that she has come home for good because she wants to a true American like what she sees in May’s family and Newland’s family. A large party that includes May arrives. Now what does this mean? May wears a silver and white dress with a wreath of
silver blossoms in her hair. She looks like Diana just alighting from the chase.

He’s afraid of bring up painful memories so he talks about May. Ellen notes her beauty and intelligence and asks if he’s in love with her. Newland is embarrassed by the question. He is goaded into saying it is the romance of romances. Oh, boy!! Ellen is Helen of Troy? She asks if it is an arranged marriage and he points out that it’s not done in America. She is embarassed by her ignorance.

The duke does not realize that, after dinner, he should have paid respects to the vdL’s and Mrs. Mingott. Instead, he talks to Ellen for twenty minutes. Then, Ellen moves across the room to talk to Newland, another faux paux but she doesn’t know better. Ellen asks him to talk about May. He changes the subject to the duke. Ellen already know him, tells what she knows, and calls him the dullest man she’s ever known.

This dinner is formidable! The vdL’s (they would hate that abbreviation) put out their best china. Everyone dressed in their best and women wore their best jewels. They looked like they were posing for portraits. Ellen is the only young woman there. The older women looked rather silly in comparison. Her eyes haunted Newland. Ironically, the duke looks more like a country squire in how he dressed.

This is a big night. She arrives to the dinner late, one glove off because she’s trying to put on her bracelet. The upper crust of high society is waiting for her. She looks on with a grave mouth, but smiling eyes. In spite of her tired looks, Newland sees her beauty. She wore simpler clothes and lacked the style that some expected of her. New York loved style. She was quiet and reserved as well.

Because Medora flouted the rules, Ellen never really learned them. Because they traveled so much, Ellen didn’t have a chance. Some people looked down on her for doing so much wrong. Others were charmed by her unusual talents that came from a Bohemian education. Medora’s poor judgment did not prepare Ellen for a steady life. They are no judge of character and only see dollar signs.

Medora’s money was on the wane and next thing you know Ellen had married a count. Then the rumors come and now she has returned and she has lost her looks (a very JA thing to say).

Newland remembers that, when she was a girl, everyone said she needed to have her portrait made. She never learned their ways so when she should have been wearing black in mourning her parents she did not. People talked.

Ch. 8 Ellen spent her life as a nomad, which means she had to be a chameleon. Her parents traveled a lot and died and then Medora took her in. Medora had money but lost it over time. She’s marry, the marriage would fail, and then she’d travel and bring home a new husband. Each time she returned her house was smaller. Ellen grew up in that chaos. Medora was not capable of teaching her any steadiness.

Mrs. vdL has the smile of Esther after her dinner with Xerxes. She sees it as a matter of honor and keeping control of society. At the opera that evening, Mr. Jackson tells all what it was. Newland’s buds in the club box give sly looks at Lawrence who makes a snarky remark.

His plan is two-fold. First, he will send his regrets his wife’s delicate health prevents them from dining and they would have been glad to have taken Lawrence’s spot. Second, Mrs. vdL’s relative has arrived from England. He’s a duke: the whole thing is dripping with important connections. They want to invite Ellen to a dinner they are hosting for him. They will send out invitations (cards) so word will get around.

His mother makes a blunder by wishing the vdL’s could go out more, but Newland saves the day with pointing out how they are the ones to dictate power. Mr. vdL states that prominent families need to back up each other. They see it as a slight to the Mingotts and themselves, especially because Ellen is a relation through Medora Manson’s first husband. The vdL’s stare at each other and read each other’s thoughts.

Newland is deceiving himself. He states that Lawrence is behind it all as a cover to prove to his wife that he’s not that bad. It’s almost like narrative misdirection here that he is attempting to do. The problem is that he is not looking at his own sin and it’s almost like he is trying to prevent attention from shifting to what he has done. He knows that the vdL’s will see it as Lawrence acting like a usurper.