The Age of Innocence
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In Martin Scorsese's film The Age of Innocence (1993), Edith Wharton's novel is the source for a story about a time very different form our own. The Age of innocence referred to in the title was over long before Wharton wrote her book, and by the term she means the latter part of the nineteenth century when the richest families in New York intermarried and controlled the social milieu in a variety of ways while enforcing a certain vision of social mores and behavior. The film is set in the 1870s, and the tightly-knit upper-class community in New York city enforces morality by gossip, so that anyone who becomes the object of gossip is scandalized and perhaps ostracized from the group. Personal desires and needs matter less than the cohesion of the group. The cinematic style of this film evokes the sumptuousness of this wealthy class and evokes a sense of the time and place very well. Scorsese develops his themes through the use of understatement, creating strong tensions between characters while doing so by showing how well these individuals keep these tensions in check. This is not a world where people's emotions are expressed openly--it is rather a world where emotions are kept inside as much as possible and where keeping others from knowing what you feel is vital. Scorsese uses controlled camerawork and careful composition to depict a society in which outward form matters more than inner turmoil, at least as far as society is concerned. In the end, it is a film abo
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stage and to pan across the people below to see who and what he can see. He finally settles on the box containing May Welland and her mother, May being the fiancTe of Newland Archer. What stops the man with the opera glasses short is the third person in the box, the visiting Ellen, a countess and May's cousin from Europe. This moment occurs early in the film and represents the effect Ellen has on the social setting, on Archer, and on the relationship between Archer and his intended. Those who note her sitting in the box stop watching the opera and start watching her, and they also start gossiping about her--this is a society that may decry any scandal but that also thrives on scandal as a subject of conversation. Her scandal is that she has left her husband, making her neither one thing nor another, neither a potential bride nor a settled married woman.
Scorsese uses certain film conventions and expectations to create the situation he wishes to explore in the film. This is evident in the casting of the three principles, and in particular the casting of Ellen. Daniel-Day Lewis as Newland Archer is a strong actor but was not as well known when this film was made. Wynona Ryder as May was popular, especially with the younger
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1723
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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