The Prevalence of Immortality and Mortality in Age of Innoce

Immortality and mortality are usually ideas found in Greek mythology, yet I believe some inspection should be made when reading Edith Wharton’s Age of Innocence regarding how the members of the New York society is to be perceived. The stark contrasts between mortals such as Ellen Olenska versus the seeming immortals amongst the society such as May Welland provide just some of the clues that Wharton left for us to digest.

We start encountering forms of immortality when reading on the subject of Catherine Mingott’s appearance. Her “immense accretion of flesh” in some way “[presented] to her mirror an almost unwrinkled expanse of firm pink and white flesh” (47). As a result we see that in spite of Catherine’s very old age, she manages to elude wrinkles, which is a ‘symptom’ for immortality. Catherine Mingott is not unaccompanied in the evasion of aging. Mrs. Van der Luyden's "portrait by Huntington" is still "a perfect likeness though twenty years had elapsed since its execution" (71). This point is further underscored by Wharton by illustrating Mrs. Van der Luyden’s youth is so unnatural that, "she always, indeed, struck Newland Archer as h

dialogue, that we also get to see more of the underlining tones of her realization that she has finally reached mortal ground after all these years: "She hadn't been here five minutes before I'd have gone down on my knees to keep her if only, for the last twenty years, I'd been able to see where the floor was" (315)! It is due to Catherine’s change of personality that we realize that it is indeed possible to renounce immortality and choose a mortal life.

Catherine Mingott’s descent towards the land of the mortals is marked by the enthusiastic resolve she has taken upon herself to help Ellen in her struggles. It is through some of the

My comparison of Wharton’s vision as it relates to mortality and immortality wouldn’t be complete without mentioning a character that falls from immortality. Early on we recognized Catherine Mingott’s immortal qualities, such as the elusion of wrinkles on her very old body, as well as the way she articulates like a god, condemning Ellen to her fate: "'And now it's too late; her life is finished.' She spoke with the cold-blooded complacency of the aged throwing earth into the grave of young hopes" (171). It is after her rejection of Mrs. Beaufort that Catherine suffers a stroke, which is a clear indication that she is the first of the immortals to fall from her deity status. Soon thereafter, her body shows signs of physical deterioration, as she "looked paler with darker shadows in the folds and recesses of her obesity" (314). Also, her disposition seemed to have been altered from being a chilly, heartless immortal, to a more kind and considerate ‘mortal’ woman. This change is clearly seen: "The growing remoteness of old age, though it had not diminished her curiosity about her neighbors, had blunted her never very lively compassion for their troubles; but, for the first time, she became absorbed in her own symptoms and began to take a sentimental interest in certain members of her family to whom she had hitherto been contemptuously indifferent" (296).

boy fell down chasing his kitten, and gave himself a nasty cut. She rushed in bareheaded, carrying him in her a

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