-
The Age of Innocence
Before Reading
ACTIVITY 1 BEFORE READING
1N
2Y
3N
ACTIVITY 2 BEFORE READING
Encourage students to speculate and to
guess, but do not tell them the answers. They will
find out
as they read that 1, 3, 5 are
true statements.
ACTIVITY 3 BEFORE
READING
Open answer. Encourage students
to speculate, but do not tell them the answer. In
fact, Newland
will marry May, as
planned.
While
Reading
1.
CHAPTERS 1 TO 3 WHILE READING
Point of view: New York society, 1870s
1) Yes. she was
p70
2) No, he wasn't
p36
3) Yes. he was
p54
4) Yes. he was.
P68
Point of view: student's own culture,
today.
Open answers. Encourage
discussion of the differences in social rules and
moral codes
that emerge in the two sets
of answers.
2.
BEFORE READING CHAPTER 4
Encourage students to speculate and to
guess, but do not tell them the answer. They will
find out as they read that the answer
is 1.
3.
CHAPTERS
4 TO 6 WHILE READING
Suggested answers:
1) p78 Newland, to Ellen, trying to
explain to her that New York society will be much
more unforgiving about accusations
against her than the European society she knows.
This shows Newland at his best, trying
to be both kind and tactful, but giving an honest
opinion.
2)p80 Ellen, to
Newland, about divorcing her husband. She sees her
freedom as much
more
important
than
unpleasant
accusations
being
made
publicly
against
her.
This
shows
both how out of touch she is with New York
society, and also how desperately she
wants to be free of the Count.
3)p102 May, to Newland, about the
possibility of his realizing his engagement was a
mistake, in that he does not love May
enough to marry her. This shows May at her best --
brave to speak plainly about it, and
generous to offer Newland his freedom.
4)p116 Ellen, to Newland, about the
impossibility of their being together. She means
that
what
she
loves
about
him
is
his
goodness,
his
kindness,
his
nobility,
and
she
wouldn
’
t love him
if he broke May's heart in order to be with her.
This shows Ellen is
capable of very
intelligent analysis of her own feelings, and also
that she is not selfish
enough to try
to build her own happiness on other people's
unhappiness.
5)p134 May, to Newland,
about Ellen returning to live with her husband.
the Count. This
shows rather a cruel
indifference to and a lack of understanding of
Ellen's feelings in the
matter, and
perhaps indicates the beginnings of suspicion and
jealousy in May's mind.
4. CHAPTERS 7
AND 8 WHILE READING
Suggested answers:
1) p144 Ellen has been avoiding Newland
because she doesn
’
t want to
be tempted to go
away with him; she
loves him deeply, but wants to do the honourable
thing now that he
is married.
2) p154 Newland loves Ellen more than
ever and wants to escape from the misery of his
marriage and be with her, but he
realizes that if he attempts to persuade her, she
will
simply
return
to
her
husband,
as
a
way
of
ending
her
relationship
with
Newland
completely.
3) p170 May must suspect that Newland
is in love with Ellen but she seems determined
to pretend that everything is normal,
though perhaps is already secretly planning how to
prevent him leaving her for Ellen.
5. BEFORE READING CHAPTER 9
Open answers.
6.
BEFORE READING CHAPTER 10
Encourage students to speculate and to
guess, but do not tell them the answer. They will
find out as they read that number 4 is
what happens.