MR. HERGESHEIMER'S "CYTHEREA"
Mrs. Wharton found the age of innocence in the 1870's; Mr.
Hergesheimer discovers an age of no innocence in the 1920's. In
"The Age of Innocence," the lovely May, a creature of society's
conventions, loses her husband and then regains the dulled
personality left from the fire of passion. In "Cytherea" the less
lovely, but equally moral Fanny loses her Lee because she cannot
satisfy his longings and nags when she fails. But she does not
regain him when his love chase is over, because he is burned out.
Athene and Aphrodite, the graces of the mind, the seductions of
the person of the Countess Olenska, together draw Newland Archer,
husband of May; but it is Aphrodite only, Cytherean Aphrodite,
who, being sex incarnate, is more than mere temptations of the
flesh, that wrecks Fanny's home.
In the '70's the poor innocents of society believed their code of
honor impregnable against sex. They dressed against sex, talked
against sex, kept sex below the surface. The suppression froze
some of them into rigidity and stiffened all. But they had their
compensations. By sacrificing freedom for personal desire they
gained much security.
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