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The Age of Innocence[At the Theatre in the evening. Newland Archer enters the box. Steps to the front,joining the company of several men, including Larry Lefferts and Sillerton Jackson. Larrylooks at stage through pearl opera glasses. Then he swings his opera glasses away fromthe stage and t
JANEY
I wonder if she wears a round hat or a bonnet in the afternoon. The dress she wore
to the opera was so plain and flat...
MRS. ARCHER
Yes, I'm sure it was in better taste not to go to the ball.
ARCHER
I don't think it was a question of taste, mother. May said the countess decided her
dress wasn't smart enough.
MRS. ARCHER
Poor Ellen. We must always remember what an eccentric bringing-up Medora Manson
gave her. What can you expect of a girl who was allowed to wear black satin at her
coming-out ball?
JANEY
It's odd she should have kept such an ugly name as Ellen when she married the Count.
I should have changed it to Elaine.
ARCHER
Why?
JANEY
I don't know. It sounds more...Polish.
MRS. ARCHER
It certainly sounds more conspicuous. And that can hardly be what she wishes.
ARCHER
(argumentative)
Why not? Why shouldn't she be conspicuous if she chooses? She made an awful
marriage, but should she hide her head as if it were her fault? Should she go
slinking around as if she'd disgraced herself? She's had an unhappy life, but that
doesn't make her an outcast.
JACKSON
I'm sure that's the line the Mingotts mean to take.
ARCHER
I don't have to wait for their cue, if that's what you mean, sir.
MRS. ARCHER
(trying to cool things out)
I'm told she's looking for a house. She means to live here.
JANEY
I hear she means to get a divorce.
ARCHER
I hope she will.
[In the study at the Archer House. Jackson and Archer light up cigars]
JACKSON
There are the rumors, too.
ARCHER
I've heard them. About the secretary?
JACKSON
He helped her get away from the husband. They say the Count kept her practically a
prisoner.
(shrugs)
Certainly, the Count had his own way of life.
ARCHER
You knew him?
JACKSON
I heard of him at Nice. Handsome, they say, but eyes with a lot of lashes. When he
wasn't with women he was collecting china. Paying any price for both, I understand.
ARCHER
Then where's the blame? Any one of us, under the same circumstances, would have
helped the Countess, just as the secretary did.
JACKSON
He was still helping her a year later, then, because somebody met them living
together at Lausanne.
ARCHER
(reddening slightly)
Living together? Well why not? Who has the right to make her life over if she
hasn't? Why should we bury a woman alive if her husband prefers to live with
whores?
JACKSON
Oh, it's hardly a question of entombment. The Countess is here, after all. Or do
you believe that women should share the same freedoms as men?
ARCHER
(with some force)
I suppose I do. Yes, I do.
JACKSON
Well, apparently Count Olenski also takes a similarly modern view. I've never heard
of him lifting a finger to get his wife back.
[Montage. Of heavy vellum envelopes, written in beautiful calligraphy, being passed from
hand to hand and delivered on silver plates; of invitations being drawn from the
envelopes]
NARRATOR
Three days later, the unthinkable happened. Mrs. Manson Mingott sent out
invitations summoning everyone to a "formal dinner." Such an occasion demanded the
most careful consideration. It required the appropriate plate. It also called for
three extra footmen, two dishes for each course and a Roman punch in the middle.
The dinner, New York read on the invitation, was "to meet the Countess Olenska."
And New York declined.
[Drawing room at the Archer house during the day]
MRS. ARCHER
"Regret." "Unable to accept." Without a single explanation or excuse. Even some
of our own. No one even cares enough to conceal their feeling about the Countess.
This is a disgrace. For our whole family. And an awful blow to Catherine Mingott.
NARRATOR
They all lived in a kind of hieroglyphic world. The real thing was never said or
done or even thought, but only represented by a set of arbitrary signs. These signs
were not always subtle, and all the more significant for that. The refusals were
more than a simple snubbing. They were an eradication.
MRS. ARCHER
Don't tell me all this modern newspaper rubbish about a New York aristocracy. This
