Guide Mentor

Character Role Analysis

Madame Olenska

"Guide" doesn't sound super-romantic, does it? Nor does "mentor." If The Age of Innocence were a fairy tale, our guide/mentor would probably be a wizened old man or sweet old lady. But then again, if this were a fairy tale it would have a happy ending.

How does Ellen guide Newland? She tells him that he needs to be an upstanding citizen.

"We're near each other only if we stay far from each other. Then we can be ourselves. Otherwise we're only Newland Archer, the husband of Ellen Olenska's cousin, and Ellen Olenska, the cousin of Newland Archer's wife, trying to be happy behind the backs of the people who trust them." (24.15)

Paradoxically, it's Ellen Olenska— that scandalous European— who guides Newland Archer through what it means to be American in the best sense: solid, dutiful, upstanding. If she hadn't held back, he might have left May for her. If she hadn't guided him into his sense of duty, he may have ended up as scandal-ridden (and ultimately happy?) as Julius Beaufort.