In The Age of Innocence, Wharton makes significant commentary criticizing the society of New York. Society plays a major role in the lives of the novel's characters. Most people, in the New York society Wharton portrays, believe they have a duty to follow the rules and conventions upheld by its members. Wharton shows society to be caught up in hypocrisy and unable to face reality. The old New York culture pervades the lives of the individuals in the story and few are able to take their lives into their own hands. The most prominent and central theme in The Age of Innocence is the struggle between the individual and society. While Newland Archer rejects some of the ideology of his culture, he is never able to break free from the societal conventions that solidify his world.

At the time in which the novel is set, there existed a...