The Age of Innocence | Characters

Lewland Archer is the most fully developed character in the novel. He is a representative Wharton male character: a man with a finer sensibility than most, who is not strong enough to overcome the pressures placed on him by family and society. He may strike some readers as a weak figure, but if Archer were more of a man in Wharton's world, he would have to be closer to Julius Beaufort, his rival for Ellen Olenska, and that would make him less sensitive and less alive to the finer possibilities of life and art. Archer's weakness is compounded by his innocence. As a product of New York...

[The entire page is 295 words long]

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:

eNotes Pass