The Age of Innocence Dreams, Hopes, and Plans Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #10

When he thought of Ellen Olenska it was abstractly, serenely, as one might think of some imaginary beloved in a book or a picture: she had become the composite vision of all that he had missed. (34.12)

In the last chapter, twenty-six years later, Archer sees Ellen Olenska as a character in a book or a picture; she isn't an individual so much as a symbol of a life that could have been.