The Age of Innocence: Chapter 33 Summary & Analysis

A young couple’s first big dinner is a great event. Archer often has informal company, though he wonders whether May would ask anyone to the house if left to her own devices. He’s given up trying to separate her authentic self from the self that social training has created. A big, elaborate dinner is very different, and people rarely refuse invitations to a young couple’s first one. Even so, it’s an honor that the van der Luydens have agreed to attend May’s farewell dinner for Ellen Olenska.

Mrs. Archer and Mrs. Welland sit in May’s drawing room on the afternoon of the dinner, making last-minute preparations. When Archer gets home from work, they tell him that May is inspecting the table decorations. Mrs. Archer runs through the guest list, and Mrs. Welland says that May and Archer are certainly giving Ellen a good send-off. She knows Ellen will appreciate it. As Archer leaves, Mrs. Welland tells him to go look at the table, but he pretends not to hear. He goes to his library, which looks strange due to having been tidied for the gentleman to smoke in.

In the ten days since Ellen left New York, Archer has only received from her a key sealed in an envelope. He’s determined to follow her to Europe, and he doesn’t think she’ll send him away once he has taken this step. His confidence in this outcome has allowed him to remain calm and not write to her. Even so, it was very difficult when Mr. Letterblair had him go over the financial arrangements for Ellen. He felt that he was being consulted for reasons besides his connection to the family. Mr. Letterblair said that Ellen has been treated well all around. Archer took this to refer to Count Olenski’s offer to give her back her own money, but Mr. Letterblair said that Ellen knew the law, looking disapprovingly at Archer. He took out a report suggesting that Ellen had an affair with her husband’s secretary.

A day or two later, Archer went to visit Mrs. Mingott, who lamented Ellen’s desertion of her. She thinks that Ellen couldn’t stand the dullness of New York in comparison to her life with Count Olenski. Now Ellen is going to Paris with Medora, and Mrs. Mingott will miss her fiercely. She just wants the family to leave her alone. That evening, May told Archer, to his surprise, that they should give Ellen a farewell dinner. Though he didn’t understand why she was doing it, she insisted that she was. He realized that it’s a matter of family loyalty.

Archer finds May in the drawing room before dinner. May’s drawing room is generally thought to be decorated very nicely. She says she doesn’t think Ellen has ever seen the room lit up. Then the guests begin to arrive. Archer is showing one guest a painting when Ellen appears next to him. She looks very pale, and Archer is reminded of the parties that they attended together as children. Something about her face seems ugly, and he has never loved it more. She says that she’s sailing tomorrow on the Russia, and then May asks Archer to bring Ellen in to dinner. Ellen puts her hand on Archer’s arm, and it’s so beautiful that he thinks he would have to follow her just to see it again.

The fact that Mrs. van der Luyden is seated to her host’s left emphasizes the fact that Ellen is regarded as a foreign visitor. This sort of family rally around a member about to leave the family is an essential part of New York society. Now that she’s leaving, the Mingotts do all they can to show how much they love her, and Archer marvels at the way all grievances have been erased. He doesn’t feel entirely present, and it seems like the guests are all conspiring against him and Ellen. Suddenly he realizes that they all think he and Ellen are lovers, and they have been trying for a long time to separate the couple. However, they’re all here to support May in the assumption that nothing ever happened between Archer and Ellen. These people dread scandal and scenes more than anything.

Archer feels like a prisoner. He takes a discussion about Beaufort and his wife as a warning about what could happen to him, and he laughs. Ellen is sitting next to him, and he becomes aware that her other neighbor is talking to someone else. May sends him a look, and he realizes he has to talk to Ellen. They chat about her journey to New York and the inconveniences of travel. He says he intends to do some traveling himself soon, and she looks alarmed. He suggests to Reggie Chivers that they take a trip around the world, but this idea is quickly shot down. Mr. Selfridge Merry begins to talk about his own trip around the world and what it’s most important to see. Finally the ladies go up to the drawing room.

The gentlemen in the library talk about the Beauforts. Lawrence Lefferts gives a scathing speech about a man’s duty and the sacredness of the home. He doesn’t think Beaufort should ever have gotten into society in the first place; people should never have received a man of unknown origin, for it has put the very structure of society in danger. If things continue this way, he says, their children will be marrying Beaufort’s bastards. This last is taken as a bit much by the men present. Sillerton Jackson remarks to Archer that Lefferts is only saying such things to cover his own misdeeds.

Archer can’t focus on the conversation. He’s vaguely aware of an attitude of friendliness aimed at him, as though the men are trying to make his captivity more acceptable, which only makes him want to be free even more. When they join the ladies in the drawing room, he can tell that May is very satisfied with the gathering. Archer sees all the most important people flocking to Ellen’s side, intent on making it seem as though no one ever questioned the behavior of either of them. Their very determination to do so proves to Archer that all of society believes him to be Ellen’s lover, and he realizes that May shares this belief.

Eventually, Archer sees Ellen preparing to leave. He can’t remember anything he said to her at dinner. She and May kiss, and someone remarks that May is certainly more beautiful than Ellen. Archer helps Ellen with her cloak. He’s been determined not to say anything to worry her, as he has already decided on his course of action. He’s robbed of a moment alone at the door of her carriage, as she’s going with the van der Luydens. They say goodbye, and he says he’ll see her in Paris soon. She assumes he means with May. Then the van der Luydens take her into their carriage. As he returns to the house, Lawrence Lefferts asks him to tell people that he’s dining with him at the club the next night.

As soon as the guests leave, Archer goes up to his library, hoping May will go to bed. Instead, she comes to talk over the night with him, feeling that it went wonderfully. They both sit quietly for a while, until Archer says he needs to tell her what he didn’t manage to the other night. He says he’s terribly tired, and he wants to take a long trip to India or Japan. He doesn’t manage to strike the tone of indifference that he was trying for.

May says he can’t go unless he brings her along, and that will only be possible if the doctors allow it. Just that morning, she became sure of something she’s been hoping would happen. Archer feels sick, but he holds her. She says that only Mrs. Welland, Mrs. Archer, and Ellen know. She told Ellen when they had their long talk recently. She’s worried he’ll mind that she told Ellen first. He says he doesn’t, but points out that their talk was two weeks ago. May admits that she wasn’t sure of it then, but she told Ellen that she was. Her eyes are victorious.