Comparing Age of Innocence and Doll House

When relating Doll House and The Age of innocence, one can extrapolate many similarities. First, let us start with the most obvious similarity- that is, the fact that we read these plays through a gender lens. When analyzing both characters of May and Nora, we view them in a child-like way. This is because, in the 19th century, women were seen as subordinate and uneducated, relying on their husbands for help and to suffice their needs. Nonetheless, both May and Nora rely on their respective husbands to take care of them, making them seem so dependent, as children.  Although women were "young," they attainted the morals of a women. In fact, they were framed as the heart of the home; the women would take care of the children, the husband, and the house, to provide peace, tranquility, and sacredness. In Doll House, this action is evident through Nora, who provides a calm household by saving the family from lies and "the ugly" that Helmer Torvald hates. In a way, she preserves happiness in the house, by shouldering burdens and burdens of lies. Although this may seem opposite to the "sacredness" that the women during the 19th century had to have, it still proved how she was responsible for joy and "the beautiful." Note that both in the Doll House and The Age of innocence, they implicitly highlight societies values too; in other words, the novel, thus far, has provided a story that scrutinizes society through the lens of the aristocrats, those of upper class. It is important to note that many of the themes I have extrapolated from the text revolve around the gender theory lens and the historical theory lens. Prevalent through the reading, were the motifs of: the innocent vs. the flawed, the hidden reality, internal truth vs. societal truth, and past and future. More importantly, both the texts imply that not only was society overly judgmental, but also lacked the internal thinking needed to understand someone. For example, In Age of Innocence, society doesn't take the time to understand Ellen and the fact that her problems were not instigated solely by her, but also by her husband. In Doll House,  Helmer refuses to see Nora as something other than a martial object. In both ways, society is depicted as being superficial and cruel.  Another important aspect we seen in both texts is the female shift from childhood to adulthood, youth to grown, naive to worldly. In Age of Innocence, we slowly and finally see a shift in May from one that is nave and lacks the ability to see her husband's betrayal to one that is purposefully ignoring their relationship in order to save herself from society. May is smart in telling Ellen that that she is pregnant as it still maintains her “innocence”, Diana like posture, but from the audience point of view, is very devious. In Doll House, Nora gains realization that the truth of her loan from Krogstad will eventually come out, showing a shift from hidden and playful to finally out in the open, worldly. In both texts, there are many similarities, ranging from gender roles, to historical references, to dramatic irony, to themes of love, sin, and shift. 

Almost the end of the semester, so time to reflect!

Before writing my timed-writing reflection, I thought I would take a moment to blog about my goals, my intentions, and my work thus far as an AP Literature student. So here I begin.

Coming into AP Literature, as an AP Language Composition student, my primary goal was to switch focus from rhetoric based writing to in-depth analysis. AP Literature consists of 3 main types of essays, including: prose, poetry, and open ended, that all revolve around the same question- what is the meaning? To switch my writing styles from listing devices and its usages, I had to learn the importance of close reading, background inference, and most importantly finding denotation and connotations of vocabulary throughout the paragraph and apply all these aspects into meaning, a theme. Such teachings have translated into many strengths; therefore, I somewhat met my first semester goal.  For example: understanding the prompt and extracting a question to answer, identifying examples, quotes, and textual support that aid my ability to defend the question I am answering, and create a thesis based on my ideas I put forth. Although, my weaknesses arise when developing a thesis. I know exactly what I want to discuss in my paper, but I lack the ability to create a clear and concise argument with a "so-what." My other weaknesses seen through my papers are:  adding good points that do not tie back to my thesis, using vague wordings, circulating around a point in hopes that it proves my point, and not connecting back to the thesis.

It's funny to realize that as a former AP Language student, I was very superficial about the way in which i wrote- concentrating more on defining and finding the literary devices rather than actually relating how that adds meaning to the text. I think that's what i focused a lot on this year- connecting the literary devices and making sense out of them, extracting a true meaning. I remember at the beginning of the year, the first words my AP Literature teacher told me- " defining and summarizing is death"...not going to lie, this was very true. Although in AP Language it worked, in AP Literature it wasn't about the actually content of the text, rather what the content told us. In a way, AP Literature was like a mind game- extract the hidden meaning..it's like a puzzle! Nonetheless, through the timed writings and take home essays, I learned to conquer this puzzle by one main thing- close reading and in depth analysis. Pretty much, I ripped up the paragraph and found a meaning that I thought I could support. Oh,  but you know what was so special about this meaning? It was never correct nor wrong! As long as you proved it to be correct, it worked! It was all about convincing the reader that you were right by supporting your meaning or analysis with all the illusions, connotations, denotations, and supporting text you could find.

Therefore, through my journey in AP Literature, I learned that writing an essay was a debate- you not only had to state the facts (aka relate to the text) but show what the evidence/facts meant in the grand scheme of things. What was the over all take? It wasn't what the author was trying to protray, it was what you could extrapolate from the given. 

May...you are one devious little girl, perhaps a "Diana" and Newland..perhaps a broken Cupid?

Throughout the novel, May has always been viewed as the “innocent” and “child-like” character with a clean and naive mind. Although, this framing of May was due to the fact that we didn’t get information of her feelings, of her motives, her actions, and most importantly her life with Archer. Was there any intimacy? Was she really in love with him? By the end of the novel, we realize that May in fact, was not naive, she was well aware of her surroundings- Archer and Ellens love affair. Although, Edith Wharton hides this realization till the end of the novel when may is pregnant, there was a reason behind that. Her inner devious and true Diana comes out when she tells Archer that: “I wasn¹t sure then, but I told her I was." This reason is realizing that May figuratively represents the goddess Diana and Archer represents a broken cupid.

When doing some research, I found that Diana represented the goddess of wild animals and hunting, goddess of maiden dance and song, goddess of child delivery, and nursing infants. this parallel that Wharton drew between May and Diana is quite interesting because it is not really a parallel, more so a foil. May, we see as innocent and not devious, while on the contrary Diana is devious and very animalistic. Note that externally, May is very lady like and lacks any male qualities, but by the end of the novel when she tells Archer that she is pregnant, she suddenly gains this animalistic feel. Why? Well, out of all people, Ellen was the first to know about the pregnancy, and she didn’t do this to gain congratulations, but to warn and hint at Ellen that she has already conquered Archer and that he is hers forever. Like wise, May at the end of the novel is animalistic in that she is feisty over having Archer, but does it in a devious way.

Next, through these ending chapters, we see that Archer still lies about his Affair with Ellen, but gains a feel for destiny. In chapter 21, the fate and destiny motif is seen when he is by the sea looking for Ellen. Archer switches from lies to this sudden belief in destiny and signs. That if the boat passes the rock and she looks back at him, it means love. Why has Archer gained a sudden feel for destiny? This reliance on destiny shows how Newland is no longer the “cupid” in the story. He no longer proceeds to go up to women, rather he waits for their hints. Such shows that Archer is like a broken cupid, unable to get the love he wants with that bow and arrow. In fact, Archer and May switch rolls, She is the one with the bow and arrow, while Archer suffers with confusion.