Ellen Olenska as a Mythological Muse in The Age of Innocence
Long ago in ancient Greece, mythology was used to explain our world, our lives, and most importantly, our interpersonal relationships. Still today Greek mythology is infused into the literature of almost every influential and lasting author, one of the more effective authors being Edith Wharton, author of The Age of Innocence. The relationship between Newland Archer and Madame Ellen Olenska, two protagonists in Wharton’s novel, is an example of the classic relationship between a muse and an inspired man. Wharton was obviously well learned in the art of mythology as seen in her stories, The Lamp of Psyche and The Muse’s Tragedy, and used this
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Tracy Marks explains that muses from Greek mythology are typically represented as young women with red lips, blue eyes, and a melodious voice, who usually wore long flowing robes and a reflective or smiling expression. Already Wharton’s vivid picture painted with words comes to mind, but Marks continues on to describe a Muse as “far from virgin goddesses, rather one who induces sensuality” (Marks 36). Archer parallels this perception as he views Ellen as one “who does not seal the mind against imagination, nor the heart against experience” (Nevius 186) and who “entreats a little wildness, a dark place or two in the soul” (Mansfield 316).
Whether it was Ellen’s disposition or her aura, which first enticed Archer, it was her affect on him which led her to become a legend in the mind of both this fictional character, Newland Archer, and the audience of this novel. What sparks the interest of a muse is the possibility of greatness, an ability to live in a world larger than what now exists, and who will use the knowledge and inspiration she gives (Marks 34), Newland was a perfect example of this. Ellen describes the reason for confiding in Archer more perfectly here:
“The very good people didn’t convince me; I felt they’d never been tempted. But you knew; you understood; you had felt the world tugging at one with all its golden hands – and yet you hated the things it asked of one; you hated happiness brought by disloyalty and cruelty and
and injustices comforting compared to this place [heaven] where we’re supposed to go to one day where everything is perfect. So my second was up and I went back to liking this useless existence.” (p. 134) “When I got home I placed his sheet in my jewel-case. Maybe because my jewel-case contained my most worthy items and the soul of John Barton seemed priceless.” (p. 136) “Things that worried me a few months ago no longer worry me as much. I can’t say that I’m completely oblivious. The gossiping of the Italian community might not matter to some, but I belong to that community. Sometimes I feel that no matter how smart or beautiful I could be they would still remember me for the wrong things. That’s why I want to be rich and influential. I want to flaunt my status in front of
"It was my folly! I have said it. But up to that epoch of my life, I had lived in vain. The world had been so cheerless! My heart was a habitation large enough for many guests, but lonely and chill and without a household fire. I longed to kindle one!"
“The world, that understandable and lawful world, was slipping away. Once there was this and that; and now- and the ship had gone.” Pg 91
“What is a man/If his chief good and market of his time/ Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more./ Sure He that made us with
“But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.” “In fact,” said Mustapha Mond, “you’re claiming the right to be unhappy.” “All right then,” said the Savage defiantly, “I’m claiming the right to be unhappy,” This significant quote from Brave New World had moved innumerable readers’ heart, so do I. Exaggeration? No. It’s the satire to the false meaning of the universal happiness, and it’s this quote which made me had rethink what do I really want and the way of living I want to choose. Because the deep influence and rumination brought by the book, I would like to say
“But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.”
“Every moment in your life is a turning and every one a choosing. Somewhere you made a choice. All followed to this. The accounting is scrupulous. The shape is drawn. No line can be erased. I had no belief in your ability to move a coin to your bidding. How could you? A person's path through the world seldom changes and even more seldom will it change abruptly. And the shape of your path was visible from the beginning.” (Page 259)
"'Lo! There ye stand, my children,' said the figure, in a deep and solemn tone, almost sad, with its despairing awfulness, as if his once angelis nature could yet mourn for our miserable race. "Depending on one another's hearts, ye had still hoped, that virtue were not all a dream. Now ye are undeceived! Evil is the nature of mankind. Evil must be your only happiness. Welcome, again, my children, to the communion of your race!'"
It is often—in books, poems, paintings, and sculptures—that one hears of and sees the goddess of love. But when is it that one hears of the god? In Greek mythology, Eros is the god of love, and a god who is many times overlooked. In Robert Bridges’ “EPÙÓ” and Anne Stevenson’s “Eros”, the idea that Eros is overlooked is portrayed, but in two separate ways. Techniques such as diction, imagery, and tone are used to help convey the idea.
Mary Wroth alludes to mythology in her sonnet “In This Strange Labyrinth” to describe a woman’s confused struggle with love. The speaker of the poem is a woman stuck in a labyrinth, alluding to the original myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. The suggestion that love is not perfect and in fact painful was a revolutionary thing for a woman to write about in the Renaissance. Wroth uses the poem’s title and its relation to the myth, symbolism and poem structure to communicate her message about the tortures of love.
This quote shows the narrator’s struggle to be seen and his regret that he didn’t realize it sooner. He had lived all these years, repeating the same old mistakes. Being used and lied to, to help the people in power become even more powerful. They preyed on his innocence and longing for attention. Yet
“The different accidents of life are not so changeable as the feelings of human nature. I had worked hard for
Terpsichore is one of nine Muses and the goddess of dance and chorus in Greek mythology. Her name means “delight in dancing,” and she is often seen in artwork as sitting down and playing music for a chorus on a harp-like instrument called a lyre. Terpsichore is not known to have an evil side, but she is the mother of the Sirens. Sirens are dangerous creatures who would cause sailors to shipwreck on their island by luring the sailors with their music and singing. Sirens are shown as being females that are half human and half bird.
While Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s sculpture “Apollo and Daphne” depicts a Romanian story of forbidden love, Ron Mueck’s “Two Women” portray two elderly women hyper-realistically. By analysing the meaning behind the two sculptures, evidence is given that the two artists had different intentions for their work. The story “Apollo and Daphne” is from a roman poem named “Metamorphoses” by a man named Ovid. In the story, Apollo is hit by a magical arrow from a god of
In the poem, “First Love: A quiz,” A. E Stallings’s finds a unique way to bring together mythological allusions, yet modern circumstances to convey personal meaning to any reader. A poem about much more than your first crush, A.E Stallings takes the ancient Greek myth about the rape of Zeus’s daughter Persephone, and modernizes it into a more relevant story to its readers. In order for Stallings to do so, he reforms the poem to contradict love and rape, and gives personal meaning to the reader. The overall structure of this poem is unlike anything I’ve ever seen, following none of the poetry parameters, Stallings creates a poem in the form of three multiple choice questions. The first two stanzas of this poem convey that modern feel, as