A New Woman in a traditional patriarchal society

曹 野

【Abstract】Whartons masterpiece The Age of Innocence depicts a sad triangle love story in the upper class of old New York society. The female protagonist Ellen Olenska is a woman with obvious feminist tendency. This essay aims to reveals the feminist tendency in Ellen through analyzing the new-woman image of her in a traditional patriarchal society.

【Key Words】Patriarchal;feminist tendency;independence

Ellen is quite a special woman who does not want to blindly follow the trend as all other women in the male-dominant society do. She always has her own opinions and does not prepare to give in her standpoints easily. She is courageous to question about the authorities of the traditions and challenge the old moral beliefs of the society, ignoring that the harsh reality could mercilessly crush ones individuality into dirt. In fact, Ellen has already understood that no one cares about the truth and they often avoid hearing things unpleasantly true in the old New York society.

This society is cold and emotionless and consisted of rules and all kinds of restrictions for women. The double-moral standard for women releases men from the guilty feeling and the deserved denunciation from the public. The husbands secret love-affairs are tolerated by the wives and morally accepted by the society. The count Olenskas immoral behavior is also thought to be natural and tolerable by the old New York society thus making Ellens insistence in seeking the divorce totally unnecessary even ridiculous for a wife to ask for the rights to be fairly and equally treated by the society. Ellen is the rebel, the outcast and the intruder upon the sacred land of hypocritical social norms.

As a young woman forced to face her unfaithful husband and having the unhappy past, Ellen is desperate to find support and care from her family and her society. To her disappointment, she can never get what she wants from this traditional male-dominant society. Ellens alienation from the used-to-be familiar upper class members starts from Ellens awareness of her own identity as woman. She begins to realize that men and women are not treated equally and women are often subordinate to man because of her inability to live on herself. She keeps pursuing freedom and independence while other women in the old New York get used to their settled social roles and never has the least desire to rise against the oppression from the masculine power.

Ellen is an outcast who can not be understood by her own relatives, family and her society. On the contrary to the upper class ladies in the old New York society, who never tells what they really think in their mind, Ellen boldly, expresses her own wish and desire. New York has been one of the most conservative states in granting the divorce of a couple, since then divorce was still not acceptable in the 1870s. A social and religious restriction strongly objects to the breaking of a sacred commitment. Divorce was a quite serious public issue in those days. The uppertedom of this conservative society condemns Ellens demand for autonomy. Divorce is unpleasant and scandalous to a family of higher social status. Newland tells Ellen that her divorce will cause a lot of trouble to herself and her family, especially in old New York where the people pays most of their attention to the superficial and appearance, honor and reputation. Ellen takes Newlands advice and momentarily gives up her decision of divorce. She sacrifices her freedom as an individual and her complete break away from her past life which she wants so desperately only for the reason that shes afraid that her divorce will cause disrepute to Newland and Mays marriage and both the families.

Ellen is always straightforward and honest with others and herself. Her husband wants her back and offers a huge amount of money on the condition that Ellen plays her role as her wife in public presence to maintain his masculine vanity. Though it is rather difficult for Ellen to keep on living the life on her own without having fixed amount of allowance since as a woman Ellen has never been educated and trained to earn money and to support herself by her own hands and she has taught to rely on men. Still, Ellen insists that she will not return to her husband. Ellens family clearly knows that what kind of horrible man her husband is and what kind of miserable life she will have to live if Ellen goes back to her husband, they still urges Ellen to recover her name as Count Olenska. That is another reason why Ellen is gradually getting tired of society and the so called social life. She finds the traditions cherished by the old New York society unnecessary and hypocritical. She can not agree with its definition for womens settled social roles and womens inferiority to men.

Newland finally goes back to his ordinary social life, as a responsible citizen, a loyal husband and a prominent lawyer in New York with buried dream of spiritual freedom and extinguished love. This tragic love story will never find a balanced way, if Ellen does not step aside, to show the inevitability of the individual compromise to the traditional conceptions of womens social roles and marriage. Ellen does not want herself to be the obstacle on Newlands way to be as prosperous as the society has expected him to be. Neither does she wants to destroy the supposed happy and fulfilled marriage life for May. Ellens leaving Newland and keeps living independently in Europe makes her successful in maintaining her self-identity. At last, it is Ellen who has realized her dreams to be free and independent.

【Bibliography】

[1]Singley, Carol T. Edith Wharton: Matters of Mind and Spirit. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

[2]Wharton, Edith. The Age of Innocence. Wordsworth Editions Ltd, 1994.