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Literary Devices
Definition of Allusion
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals, historical events, or philosophical ideas... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to... read full definition
Allusions
Explanation and Analysis—Faust:
The opening line of The Age of Innocence sets the scene by describing how Faust was being performed at the Academy of Music in New York in the early 1870s. This is an allusion to the 1859 opera written by Charles Gounod based on the German legend about an unhappy man (Faust) who sacrifices his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge and pleasure. The opera added some twists and turns, including Faust seducing an “innocent” young woman named Marguerite who eventually kills their love-child and dies after Faust abandons her.
Related Themes:
Chapter 10
Explanation and Analysis—May the Cave-Fish:
Once Archer and May are engaged, Archer gets to know her better and becomes increasingly frustrated with her innocence and lack of knowledge about the world. During a moment of inner reflection, he uses a pair of metaphors to capture her ignorance:
Unlock with LitCharts A+It would presently be his task to take the bandage from this young woman’s eyes, and bid her look forth on the world. But how many generations of the women who had gone to her making had descended bandaged to the family vault? He shivered a little, remembering some of the new ideas in his scientific books, and the much-cited instance of the Kentucky cave-fish, which had ceased to develop eyes because they had no use for them. What if, when he had bidden May Welland to open hers, they could only look out blankly at blankness?
Related Themes:
Chapter 15
Explanation and Analysis—The House of Life:
After Beaufort thwarts Archer’s plans for alone time with Ellen at Skuytercliff, Archer heads home to New York and reflects bitterly on the lost opportunity. While doing so, he opens a box of books he received in the mail, including The House of Life, an allusion to a book of poems by Dante Gabriel Rossetti:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Suddenly, among them, he lit on a small volume of verse which he had ordered because the name had attracted him: “The House of Life.” He took it up, and found himself plunged in an atmosphere unlike any he had ever breathed in books; so warm, so rich, and yet so ineffably tender, that it gave a new and haunting beauty to the most elementary of human passions. All through the night he pursued through those enchanted pages the vision of a woman who had the face of Ellen Olenska.
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Explanation and Analysis—Poe and Verne:
When Archer, Ellen, and Beaufort are spending time together at Skuytercliff, they discuss the developing technologies of their time, alluding to science fiction authors in the process:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Madame Olenska twisted the talk away to the fantastic possibility that they might one day actually converse with each other from street to street, or even—incredible dream!—from one town to another. This struck from all three allusions to Edgar Poe and Jules Verne, and such platitudes as naturally rise to the lips of the most intelligent when they are talking against time, and dealing with a new invention in which it would seem ingenuous to believe too soon.
Related Themes:
Chapter 21
Explanation and Analysis—The Goddess Diana:
At several points in the novel, May is compared to “Diana,” an allusion to the Roman goddess associated with both virginity and fertility. This reference highlights May’s virginal innocence as well as the fact that she will ultimately be the mother of Archer’s children.
Diana is also associated with hunting, and this quality comes across in May's character as well. Not only is she skilled at archery, but, on the night she and Archer become engaged, the narrator describes how she “looked like a Diana just alight from the chase.” Later in the story, when May and Archer are married and spending the summer in Newport, the narrator references this moment, comparing her to Diana once again:
Unlock with LitCharts A+In her white dress, with a pale green ribbon about the waist and a wreath of ivy on her hat, she had the same Diana-like aloofness as when she had entered the Beaufort ball-room on the night of her engagement.
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