The Age of Innocence: Chapter 21 Summary & Analysis

The lawn stretches to the sea, decorated with flowers and vases along a path. There are two archery targets between the cliff and the house, and a number of ladies and gentlemen are gathered under a tent. Every so often a girl steps out to shoot an arrow at a target. Archer watches from the verandah of the house. Behind him, French windows hung with lace curtains give glimpses of the elegant interior. This is the Beauforts’ house, and the event is a meeting of the Newport Archery Club. Though lawn tennis is becoming more fashionable, archery is still preferred for social occasions.

Archer is surprised that life continues as it always has despite the change in his perception of it. The previous winter, he and May moved into their new house, and he returned to his old routine of work. He was occupied with finding a horse for May’s carriage and decorating his library as he wanted. He had socialized with the same people at the same places as before, and his life seemed normal. But going to Newport means escaping from duty. Archer wanted to go to Maine for a more rustic holiday, but the Wellands have always gone to Newport and insisted they continue to do so. May couldn’t understand why he didn’t want to go since he always liked it before, but standing on the verandah, he can tell that he’s not going to enjoy being there.

May does not disappoint him. Archer married, as most people do, because he met her at the right moment and she represented a stable life. He’s happy to be married to such a beautiful, popular, and sweet woman, and he has come to think of his passion for Ellen Olenska as a ridiculous experiment that he could never have gone through with. However, his mind feels rather empty, and so the joyful people on the lawn shock him.

Medora Manson joins Archer, wearing her usual eccentric clothing. She says she didn’t realize he had arrived. She knows that work often keeps husbands from joining their wives here, but she always told Ellen that marriage is a sacrifice. Archer’s heart stops at the sound of her name. Medora says she’s staying with the Blenkers in Portsmouth. Dr. Agathon Carver is holding meetings there, which are a very different scene than the one before them. She says she has always told Ellen to beware of monotony, but Ellen has declined to come to Newport. Medora even had trouble getting her to come to the Blenkers’.

Archer and Medora head towards the tent, and Beaufort comes towards them over the lawn, looking fat and overdressed. In the spring he went on a cruise, and there are rumors that Miss Fanny Ring went with him. He’s been spending lavishly, and in response to the rumors that he’s in financial straits, he only spends more. He greets Medora and Archer and says that May is sure to win the archery competition.

As they reach the tent, May emerges, looking as much like Diana as she did on the night of her engagement. Archer marvels at the way experience never leaves its mark on her. She takes aim at the target so gracefully that everyone murmurs, and Archer feels proud. Her rivals stand in a pretty group behind her, but none of them can make athletic pursuits look so easy. Lawrence Lefferts remarks on her beauty, but Beaufort says this is the only kind of target she’ll ever hit. Archer feels oddly angry. He should be glad that someone like Beaufort doesn’t find May attractive, but he worries that her extreme “niceness” only conceals emptiness. May hits the bull’s-eye and receives everyone’s congratulations with grace. She looks most radiant when she sees Archer’s pleasure.

Before long, May and Archer drive off, with May taking the reins. The streets are crowded with well-dressed people in carriages. They decide to go visit Mrs. Mingott before dinner. The old woman built a house on an unfashionable, cheap piece of land overlooking the bay. A winding drive leads up to a walnut front door, and the ceilings inside have been painted with Greek gods. Mrs. Mingott spends her days sitting in an armchair waving a fan.

Ever since Mrs. Mingott helped hasten Archer’s marriage, she has treated him as though they are partners in some secret, as she believes him particularly passionate. She admires May’s prize from the contest, a diamond-tipped arrow brooch which she says May should leave to her eldest daughter. The mention of children makes May blush, which makes Mrs. Mingott tease her further.

Mrs. Mingott asks them to tell her about the party so she doesn’t have to hear about it from Medora, who is coming by to pick up Ellen. Ellen has been spending the day with Mrs. Mingott. She calls for her, and when she receives no answer she summons a servant, who tells her that Ellen went down to the shore. Mrs. Mingott asks Archer to fetch her, and Archer goes, feeling like he’s dreaming.

Archer has heard about Ellen’s life since he last saw her; she spent the previous summer in Newport, but moved to Washington in the fall, where she moved through diplomatic society. He has listened to people talk about her as though he was hearing about someone dead, but when Medora spoke her name at the archery match, his last night in Ellen’s house suddenly became real again.

Through weeping willows along the path to the shore, Archer sees the Lime Rock lighthouse and the other islands in the bay. At the end of the path is a pier with a pagoda, and he sees Ellen leaning against the rail, facing the water. Archer stops, thinking this vision is a dream, and reality lies with May sitting in the house above, and Mr. Welland waiting for dinner in their villa. Archer thinks of himself as a son-in-law.

Archer gazes at the boats on the bay against the sunset, and he remembers the scene in The Shaughraun in which the man kissed his lover’s ribbon. He wonders whether he would know if Ellen came up behind him, then decides that he’ll go back if she doesn’t turn by the time a certain boat reaches Lime Rock. Archer waits until the boat is far past Lime Rock, but Ellen still doesn’t move, and so he walks back up the hill.

On the drive home, May says she would have liked to see Ellen, but Ellen seems very different now. She stays with strange people and ignores her friends. May wonders whether she might be happier with her husband. Archer laughs, saying he’s never heard May be cruel before. There’s no way Ellen would be happier in hell. May replies, in the same tone that her mother uses with Mr. Welland, that Ellen shouldn’t have married a foreigner.

As they approach the Wellands’ house, Archer sees Mr. Welland through the window, pacing the drawing room in exactly the way he imagined him earlier. The Wellands’ house usually pacifies Archer with all the small details that make up a system of time and life. It usually feels like the only reality, but now it feels incredibly unreal. All night he lies awake thinking of Ellen driving home across the beaches.