How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
What was or was not "the thing" played a part as important in Newland Archer's New York as the inscrutable totem terrors that had ruled the destinies of his forefathers thousands of years ago. (1.4)
Things haven't changed much, have they? We're still obsessed with whatever's the "it" thing.
Quote #2
Singly they betrayed their inferiority; but grouped together they represented "New York," and the habit of masculine solidarity made him accept their doctrine on all issues called moral. He instinctively felt that in this respect it would be troublesome —and also rather bad form —to strike out for himself. (1.13)
Newland refers here to his peers, the men who circulate in the same elite social circles he does. Doing anything that veers away from what male "New York" dictates is unthinkable at this early point in the novel.
Quote #3
Few things seemed to Newland Archer more awful than an offense against "Taste," that far-off divinity of whom "Form" was the mere visible representative and viceregent. (2.9)
Huh, Newland can't think of anything more awful than bad taste? Consider how absurd this statement is, given that the novel takes place in the 1870s, with the Civil War just a decade before. Surely there are worse sins that being in poor taste.
Quote #4
In reality they all lived in a kind of hieroglyphic world, where the real thing was never said or done or even thought, but only represented by a set of arbitrary signs […] quite as, in the books on Primitive Man that people of advanced culture were beginning to read, the savage bride is dragged with shrieks from her parents' tent. (6.5)
The narration here looks New York society through an anthropologist's lens. For all its glitter, New York society is just another tribal society, worshiping the same idols and trapped by the same superstitions.
Quote #5
The New York of Newland Archer's day was a small and slippery pyramid, in which, as yet, hardly a fissure had been made or a foothold gained. (6.15)
New York society is rigidly stratified, with the van der Luydens on top and everybody else in descending significance below them.
Quote #6
He remembered what she had told him of Mrs. Welland's request to be spared whatever was "unpleasant" in her history, and winced at the thought that it was perhaps this attitude of mind which kept the New York air so pure. "Are we only Pharisees after all?" he wondered, puzzled by the effort to reconcile his instinctive disgust at human vileness with his equally instinctive pity for human frailty. (11.29)
By the time we get to Chapter 11, Newland is starting to break away from the pack to confront unpleasant realities. Having bad taste is no longer the most unthinkable crime against humanity. Newland is starting to wonder if good taste covers up some unsavory elements… kind of like putting tons of seasoning on burnt popcorn.
Quote #7
"The individual, in such cases, is nearly always sacrificed to what is supposed to the collective interest: people cling to any convention that keeps the family together —protects the children, if there are any […]" (12.90)
Here’s another reference to the similarity between New York society and primitive society.
Quote #8
"[…] But you're in a pitiful little minority; you've got no center, no competition, no audience. You're like the pictures on the walls of a deserted house: 'The Portrait of a Gentleman.'" (14.24)
This statement by the journalist Winsett picks up the anthropological thread from the worldly narrator. If the world is evolving, old-fashioned gentlemen like Newland Archer are rapidly becoming irrelevant.
Quote #9
[…] everybody knew the melancholy fate of the few gentlemen who had risked their clean linen in municipal or state politics in New York. The day was past when that sort of thing was possible: the country was in possession of the bosses and the emigrant, and decent people had to fall back on sport or culture. (14.23)
Archer's class is represented as being detached from American society, which is tranforming as it becomes more industrialized and as new influxes of immigrants change the demographic. The old social elite are all dinosaurs.
Quote #10
Archer's New York tolerated hypocrisy in private relations; but in business matters it exacted a limpid and impeccable honesty. (26.17)
Despite all the moral posturing, New York society is really just basically materialistic. The real god is money, and bankruptcy is a mortal sin. Also the word 'limpid' is hi-larious. Nothing in Archer's New York is clear or limpid.
Quote #11
It was the old New York way of taking life "without effusion of blood": the way of people who dreaded scandal more than disease, who placed decency above courage, and who considered that nothing was more ill-bred than "scenes," except the behavior of those who gave rise to them. (33.43)
New York society is scandal-shy, and making scenes is considered vulgar. "Keeping it real" is not part of this society's vocabulary.