fantasy

The Age of Innocence- Edith Wharton

“At that, as if it had been a signal he waited for, Newland Archer got up slowly and walked back alone to his hotel”

As simple as that. After a couple hundred pages of Newland Archer trying to find a way to be with Ellen Olenska, when he finally get a chance he walks away. He no longer has a wife. She no longer has a husband. Nothing is stopping them from being together, but after almost thirty years since parting, Newland can’t bring himself to see Ellen, believing instead that their relationship is “more real” if they don’t meet each other. To Newland, Ellen has long since ceased to be reality. She was nothing but a dream, a desire, but perhaps that was why he held her so dear.

Even before they were separated when Ellen returned to Europe, Newland already considered her a fantasy. When he sees her for the first time after his marriage with May, he reminds himself that Ellen is merely his “dream” and that May if his “reality.” However, in that picturesque moment, Ellen framed against the water, Newland’s dream is clearly defined as not only something that he can never have, but also something that he can never give up. Even after that moment on the tier, after Newland makes his decision that May will be his reality, he still seeks refuge in the perfect world that he has created, “thinking of Ellen” even as he lays next to May. From there Newland goes on the actively pursue a future with Ellen, determined to be with her even if it means going against society’s expectations and leaving May.

What he loves about Ellen, as he later tells his son, is that she was “different.” She was the foreigner that was not bound by the confines of society’s rules (though that may have been a result of ignorance), the one that went against all of the expectations that had been ingrained in Newland since he was a child. The very act of accepting her would be yet another rebellion against society as he would be bypassing the role of ‘cheating husband’ that could get away in high New York society and instead taking on the unforgivable role of ‘deserting husband.’ For a man that feels suffocated by a wife “incapable of growth” and so limited in her view of the world, Ellen is the perfect respite, which is why Newland turns her into an eternal fantasy.

But what is key is the fact that he never gets her. Despite Newland’s multiple efforts to be with Ellen, both before and after his wedding, he never manages to be with her, solidifying her role as the fantasy. Because he can never have her, especially after he finds out that May is pregnant, the only place he can preserve her is in his mind. He is forced to accept reality and play the part of a good husband, but he keeps Ellen as a “vision.” Yet in the end, when he finally has an opportunity to change fantasy into reality, he chooses to hold on to the fantasy in his mind. Why? Perhaps because Ellen was never meant to be a reality. She was the perfect possibility, what could have been, that kept him motivated and hopeful, but that was it. To turn her into a reality would be to accept that there was nothing as perfect as his fantasy. Better to hold on to the fantasy as the last remnant of hope than destroy with what would invariably be the disappointment of reality. And so Newland “walked back alone,” leaving behind the future and walking back into the fantasy of the past.