Genre
The Age of Innocence
by Edith Wharton

The Age of Innocence: Genre 1 key example

Genre
Explanation and Analysis:

The Age of Innocence is a novel that falls into the category of Modernism. This is because Wharton is playing with typical narrative constraints. While, in some ways, The Age of Innocence may seem like a romance novel—the love triangle between Archer, May, and Ellen is, after all, the driving force of the book—Wharton is also playing with the typical tropes and literary conventions of this type of novel. For example, no one gets a happy ending in this story. Ellen ends up leaving New York without ever having a chance to have a relationship with Archer, May ends up in an unhappy marriage with Archer before eventually dying, and Archer ends up pining for Ellen for 26 years, ultimately deciding not to see her at the end of the novel when he’s given the chance. This kind of unsatisfactory ending is typical of Modernist literature.