By the time Edith Wharton wrote The Age of Innocence, she had seen World War I destroy much of the world as she knew it. She looked back on her early years in New York as a time of social continuity, and felt that the passing of values from parent to child had a civilizing influence. However, she also saw the hypocrisy and cruelty practiced by individuals who wore the veneer of respectability. Both of these ideas are seen throughout The Age of Innocence, making it a timeless novel of both the Gilded Age and of social change.
Wharton was often critical of the rigidity of the social code, but she saw its purpose of handing down values and replicating culture. Order, loyalty, tradition, and duty are all values upheld and also criticized in her novel. Order is epitomized by the repetition of certain rituals. Newland Archer's wife must be sexually innocent and pretend not to know about affairs or passions. When we first meet May Welland we see her in white with white lilies of the valley, oblivious to the sexual innuendoes of the play she is watching. Later, the reader discovers that she knew all along of Newland's passion for Ellen, but she followed the accepted code of ignorance. Order is maintained by these understood practices. The wedding at Grace Church is a perfect replication of the order in which things must be done; even Newland has a list of socially mandated duties to perform. This is the way civilization continues.
Loyalty is also a virtue, not only among families and marriages, but also among men. Newland must go to the Mingott box to show his family loyalty when the notorious Ellen arrives. Ellen's "last supper" is presided over by the family showing its loyalty to May and ousting the interloper. At that same dinner, Lawrence Lefferts asks Newland to "cover" for him and lie to give him an alibi so that he can carry on an affair. Newland will lie and tell no one. Loyalty must be maintained.
Tradition also is a way of passing on values. The ritual of the wedding calls, the annual Beaufort ball, the season, the gowns that are bought but put away for two years, and the details of Newland's wedding are all examples of attitudes or events that are handed down from parent to child. This maintains desired order.
Duty is the idea that one soldiers on with a smile even in the face of adversity. Newland's commitment to May after she tells him she is pregnant is a duty understood. His acceptance that he will stay with her in a boring marriage even in the face of frustration is, in the end, what makes civilization work. At every turn of his passion, Newland sees the door closed by May and duty.
