During the Gilded Age, marriage was heavily influenced by societal and familial power. At this time, Newport was a place where some of the most elite New York families resided during the summer months. Along with these families came their values, customs, and expectations regarding marriage and relationships. Some of these notable families include the Goulets and Vanderbilts. Both families had intrusive control over their daughters’ marriages both financially and concerning social positions in society. Edith Wharton, who spent some time growing up in Newport society, reflects the influence families and societies have over marriage in her book, The Age of Innocence. Through her portrayal of New York’s elite society in the, Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton brings to light society’s expectations and authority over marriage.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, societal power was very influential over relationships. The main goal of many elite families was to climb the social ladder even if it sacrificed true happiness. With societal power came economic opportunities, wealth, an increase in publicity, and an exclusion of all others. The upper class families relied upon personal networks and clubs to supplement family alliances and influence over other members of society. For many bachelors and bachelorettes at the time, the main importance when choosing an eligible partner was to ensure the idea of perfection and social integrity of the family. Duty and loyalty to the family was of upmost importance. Family had a value like no other and it was important to obey their wishes. In regards to women, they were expected to marry for economic stability and to construct an upper class social environment within their homes (Coontz 331). The importance of a marriage to a family initiated their involvement in every step of the process. From courting to the wedding ceremony, families gave their input and opinion on the relationship. Families used their social platforms to host parties, ball, dinners, and other social events to present their marriageable relatives. The power of many families was essential to the success of its future generations. When disrespected, a family could easily rebuke, criticize, and withdraw their hospitality, leaving family members lost and cut off. Younger generations that were willing to accept their family’s regulation and authority only made it easier for this power to continue down family lines and expand the family’s reign (Ward 121-124).
One notable family of the Gilded Age era was the Goelet family. The Goelet family were established on wealth accumulated by Ogden Goelet and his family fortune. He was an American businessman and yachtsman from New York City. He built Ochre Court in Newport, Rhode Island, where he and his wife occasionally resided with their children, May and Robert. Ochre Court was one of the first glorious mansions built in the area which was a symbol of the family’s wealth and power. When it came time for his daughter, May, to marry, he ensured that she was going to climb the social ladder and respect the family’s status. Creating and expanding new social ties, May went on to marry Henry John Innes-Ker, the 8th duke of Roxburghe. This marriage brought an incredible amount of pride to the Goelet family. When the wedding took place, bystanders swarmed and bombarded May’s carriage just to get a glimpse at the veiled bride. She was seen as royalty to laypeople. Police had to be present at her ceremony to keep people out of the high profile wedding. Some of the notable guests who attended the wedding included, Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt, Duchess of Roxburghe, Mr. and Mrs. R.T. Wilson, and Mrs. Goelet. The wedding was justified just by the guest list as it showed respect and approval of the highest ranking families. May Goelet was the wealthiest young woman of New York with the support of her family. Her father’s money was a predestination for upper class life and the perfect marriage. The Duke of Roxburghe was also guaranteed an advantage in wealth and power by marrying such a wealthy young woman. As a contingency to the marriage, he was entitled to $250,000 dollars a year from the Goelet family, as well as the Floors Castle estate composed of 60,000 acres. Many of the marriages during this time period were not formally arranged, but had to be accepted by the family (“Duke of Roxburghe Marries Miss Goelet”, 1903).
Another notable family of Newport, were the Vanderbilts. Their family alone created a vast empire of wealth and power in Gilded Age society. Consuelo Vanderbilt was born in New York City and was the daughter of William Vanderbilt, a New York railroad millionaire. Consuelo grew up under very strict control and parental rules set forth by her mother. Her mother, Alva Vanderbilt, has been quoted to tell her daughter, “I do the thinking, you do as you are told.” Under such strict expectations set forth by her family, Consuelo was coerced into marrying Charles Richard John, Duke of Marlborough. Similar to the Goelet wedding, monetary and financial incentives were incorporated into the marriage. William Vanderbilt created a trust for the Duke of $2.5 million dollars in the form of 50,000 shares of railroad stock to be paid over his lifetime (“Marlborough Got Vanderbilt Riches”, 1923). A few years later, Consuelo divorced the Duke and he walked away with some of the Vanderbilt riches. After the divorce, Consuelo pushed to get her marriage to the Duke of Marlborough annulled. This push for annulment came after meeting her new catholic husband, Jacques Balsan. Consuelo wanted to legitimize her religious position for her husband by having their marriage recognized by the Catholic church. At the time, there were two ways to get a marriage validated by the catholic church. A person had to either convert to Catholicism or acquire a dispensation to marry a protestant. When Consuelo appeared in annulment court, she confessed that she had originally fallen in love with an American man, not the Duke, and she was pressured by her mother into marrying the Duke. Her mother had rejected the prospective marriage to the American, and forced her to cut all ties with him. Mrs. Vanderbilt admitted in court that her daughter’s marriage to Charles Richard John was coerced, which was enough grounds to grant the annulment of Consuelo’s first marriage (“Vanderbilt Decree”, 1926).
In the event of Consuelo Vanderbilt’s marriage and divorce, the family name was dragged through the press. When Consuelo and the Duke first became engaged, her mother ran right to the press with the news. Her mother built public excitement and awareness over the wedding to draw eyes to the family (The “Dollar Princess” and the Duke). After the truth came out about her mother’s coercive actions, a carton was printed in the New York papers that showed Consuelo in her wedding gown and chains being held by her mother beside the Duke. Alva Vanderbilt was determined to find a man that could provide prestige and influence for her daughter and the American man could not provide this. The Duke was in her eyes, the perfect candidate to provide for Consuelo while keeping the integrity of the family name.
In Edith Wharton’s Age of Innocence, she encompasses many of the same feelings and family rulings over marriage that the Goelet and Vanderbilt daughters were exposed to. Edith Wharton was born into a wealthy New York family who raised her in both New York and Newport. Many of her own familiar images of conservative and patriarchal high society are featured in her novel as well as images of the Newport landscape. Through the characters of Countess Ellen Olenska and Newland Archer, she depicts the same control over marriages that the Newport families also had during this time period.
In the Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton tells the story of the imperfectly perfect high society. The novel begins with Newland Archer daydreaming of what society views as the traditional marriage and also expresses society’s views on divorce. He dreams about spending his honeymoon at the Italian lakes and reading classic literature with his soon to be wife, May Welland. May and Archer had the approval of their families and society’s and were therefore, an acceptable couple. When Countess Ellen Olenska intruded into New York’s perfect world, society swirled with comments on the young woman. Newland was more accepting than the others and was proud that his future family did not turn their backs on family, however, he knew society would not be as accepting of a soon to be divorced young woman. Wharton described his feelings by saying:
There was nothing mean or ungenerous in the young man’s heart, and he was glad that his future wife should not be restrained by false prudery fromm being kind (in private) to her unhappy cousin; but to receive Countess Olenska in the family circle was a different thing from producing her in public, at the opera of all places, and in the vey box with the young girl whose engagement to him, Newland Archer, was to be announced within a few weeks. No, he felt as old Sillerton Jackson felt; he did not think the Mingotts would have tried it on! (Wharton 6-7)
It is clear that society is not very accepting of divorce as it is very controversial. Ellen was criticized by her family for not staying with her husband and because she was attached to rumors of adultery. Similar to Consuelo’s divorce, family opinion and money was attached to the marriage. Count Olenski had a majority of Ellen’s wealth and it was a concern to the family that she would leave such a lavish life behind. Similarly, Consuelo’s husband walked away from the divorce maintaining some of the Vanderbilt’s hard earned money. Ellen was labeled as the black sheep of the family just for wanting to get away from a man that she no longer loved or wanted to be with. Society viewed her independence and her abnormality as a threat to the stability of the kinds of marriage that they were used to. Throughout the whole novel, her family and many others tried to convince her to go back to her husband because it was the correct and respected thing to do.
As the novel continued, Ellen’s divorce needed to be masked and hidden from society. The announcement of May and Archer’s engagement was the perfect way to distract people from Ellen and associate the family’s name with good news. When the Goelet and Vanderbilt daughters were married, their marriages were thrown into the press and were watched by everyone. Anyone and everyone wanted to take part in their marriages and society wanted to see them because they fit the traditional mold. The negative reputations of divorce scared many of these elite families like how it did among the families in Edith Wharton’s novel.
Countess Olenska’s character portrays some of the images of Newport society. In Newport, during the Gilded Age, many of the young woman went through the same situations in regards to marriage and divorce. Countess Olenska was negatively labeled because she wanted to live a life outside of the societal norm. She came back to America seeking a divorce from her husband who she left behind in Europe. Her family was very disrespected and tried to work with Ellen and lawyers to convince her to go back to her husband. Divorce was a touchy subject and not accepted by these elite families. As it is clear, happiness and love were not the reasons behind marriage at the time. Wealth, social power, and status were the main goals of the family when it came to marrying their children off. The Mingotts and Wellands could not understand why “poor Ellen” would ever want to leave her situation, when she seemingly had it all. Ellen posed a threat to all aspects of old New York. She lived in an area by herself where her class did not live, went to parties with common people, and had relationships with some people who weren’t that respected by her family. She was an unconventional European woman who did not fit the mold. Edith Wharton uses Ellen to convey how woman were treated and suppressed at the time. They had a hard time living a life on their own because they were controlled by men or their own families. Ellen was looking for an escape from society norms like many of the other woman during the Gilded Age.
The character of Newland Archer also brings to life what relationships were like during the Gilded Age for families in high society. Newland comes from a prominent New York family where he was born and bred to be successful. He successfully matches up with May Welland, who is the most perfect candidate for a wife. She is reserved, beautiful, and from a family of high class. She has been trained her whole life on how to be the ideal wife. Newland has an appreciation for the arts and education which makes him question New York society a little more than his other friends. Like so many others of his time, Newland is trapped in the life of high society. Every move he makes is dictated and ruled by his family and friends. The rigid structure of life is not to be disturbed and he should be lucky to have found a woman like May Welland. Newland however, is conflicted with the life he has. He finds it to be boring and monotone. When he meets Madame Olenska, he wishes to be with someone like her who can stand on her own and fight against societal norms. His marriage to May Welland scared him. He no longer wanted to be like all the others, it wasn’t satisfying to him to have a wife who just went along with everything. He expressed how he felt about marrying the appropriate wife that he was predestined to be with:
He reviewed his friends’ marriages-the supposedly happy ones-and saw none that answered, even remotely, to the passionate and tender comradeship which he pictured as his permanent relation with May Welland. He perceived that such a picture presupposed, on her part, the experience, the versatility, the freedom of judgement, which she had been carefully trained not to possess, and with a shiver of foreboding he saw his marriage becoming what most of the other marriages about him were: a dull association of material and social interests held together by ignorance on the one side and hypocrisy on the other. (Wharton 20)
Wharton perfectly describes what most marriages in high society were about. They did not include happiness or love, but advantage and individuals who were trained on how to live their lives. This training can be seen in Consuelo Vanderbilt’s life that was dictated by her mother. She was raised in every way to be the perfect candidate for a wife, and was suppressed in every way under her mother’s influence. It was to the point where she had to give up the man she was in love with just to satisfy her mother and family’s wishes.
Introducing anything out of the social norm into the life of high society wasn’t taken so easily. When the prospective relationship of Ellen and Newland was taking place, everyone around was combatting against it. At the end of Wharton’s novel it becomes clear that everyone knew about Newland and Ellen’s relationship. They downplayed it and made sure that when Ellen was given her sendoff back to Europe, that all hopes Newland had of being with her were crushed. Ellen did not fit the model of the woman he should have a relationship with. Ellen was from what Wharton referred to as a different world than Newland. Wharton described this separation as, “But after a moment the sense of waste and ruin overcame him. There they were, close together and safe and shut in, yet so chained to their separate destinies that they might as well have been half the world apart” (Wharton 108). The distinction between what was appropriate and respected by their social classes was too different for Ellen and Newland to be together. Archer’s mother was very traditional and would never allow her son to run away and marry someone like Ellen. Ellen was stickered with a label as soon as she stepped into New York, being that she was not a fitting woman to marry someone like Newland Archer.
Edith Wharton also uses the Newport landscape in her book as a setting. This concludes even more to the similarity of the families in her story to the real families of Newport history. The New York families fled to Newport in the summer months to escape the heat and their everyday lives, but the strict realities followed them to their destination. Some of the same problems that were in the social ring of New York were also carried to Newport. When the families arrived in Newport, it was seemingly a forced vacation. No one was meant to be idle and not have plans, they did just as much on vacation as in their daily lives. Relationship troubles still took place during the summer holiday in Newport because the families were still calling the shots. Archery competitions, rides down the avenue, ballroom dances, and tea parties were always being governed by society as a way to control relationships. It was only another place where Newland and Ellen were pulled apart because of their governing families.
As an author, Edith Wharton was very close to the experiences in her writings. Similar to Ellen, Newland, May, and Consuelo, her relationships were influenced by family wishes. Edith had fallen in love with Henry Leyden Stevens in 1880. He was the son of Marietta Reed and Paran Stevens. Two years went by and then the engagement of Henry and Edith was announced in the Newport Mercury. Shortly after, the engagement was called off after Henry’s mother had influenced him to break it off. His mother was concerned about losing control over the family’s money when Henry would marry and inherit his father’s estate. For her own social gain and need, Henry’s mother put an end to Edith’s engagement and left a lasting mark on Edith Wharton’s life. The power over families over relationships was experienced by Edith Wharton first hand, and later reflected in her writings (“The Age of Innocence”).
As expressed, during the Gilded Age marriage was influenced by society and family members. Having a happy and loving relationship wasn’t the main goal of marriage. Marriage was an institution that evolved into a way to climb the social ladder and maintain a family’s integrity. When a child neglected a family’s wishes, they were susceptible to exclusion from both the family and society around them. Edith Wharton’s, Age of Innocence, was a platform to convey the images of many of these families. These families of New York society spent some of their lives in Newport, and reflect many of the same ideals that historical families had encompassed. Both Newland Archer and May Welland shared similar problems with May Goelet and Consuelo Vanderbilt by being coerced into making the ideal decisions of their families. Their relationships were ruled by dictators and they did not have much say in how their lives and marriages played out.