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INSIDE/ OUT(SIDER) | THE MARGINALISATION OF THE CENTRE: PROGRESSIVISM AT WORK IN THE AGE OF
INNOCENCE & RAGTIME.

Prosperous or not, self-confident or not, the United States had reached a point, in the
closing years of the nineteenth century, when radical improvements in its political, social,
and economic arrangements were inevitable […] the word „progressive‟ had long been a
favourite in common speech, now it became attached to a political party, a movement, an
era.
HUGH BROGAN, „THE PROGRESSIVE ADVENTURE: 1897-1914‟i.

The marginalisation of the centre – the movement of traditional cultural and value systems to the
periphery - operates through a process of displacement or subversion. One system of this
marginalisation is by means of a cultural colonisation, or hybridisation, of the native society by a
foreign influence. In Edith Wharton‟s The Age of Innocenceii (1920) and E. L. Doctorow‟s Ragtimeiii
(1974), Countess Olenska and Tateh function as symbols of immigrant European influence.
Furthermore, architecture is central to both as a symbol of the conventional urban environment
undergoing a process of deconstruction by European design. However, another system of
marginalisation is by means of a cultural displacement, or subversion, of the traditional society by an
internal influence. Technology operates as part of a process of development in Wharton and
Doctorow‟s projection of society; speed and efficiency are predominant in this modern culture.
Furthermore, social changes act to displace customary values and etiquette; unionisation destabilises
established industrial practice. These systems of marginalisation reveal the active force of the
influences; however, Wharton and Doctorow also reveal the inactive nature of traditional society
that facilitates this movement from the centre to the periphery. The impression of personal stasis is
found in Newland Archer and Father: the inability to assimilate change. They embody a desperate
palimpsestal condition; are overwritten by dominant cultural trends.

In terms of marginalisation by means of a foreign influence, the presence of immigrants in native

society in The Age of Innocence and Ragtime is subversive. Father‟s reaction to an incoming
transatlantic vessel demonstrates his apprehension to the growing number of immigrants.

Packed to the railings with immigrants […] it was a rag ship with a million dark eyes
staring at him. Father, a normally resolute person, suddenly foundered in his soul. A weird
despair seized him.
(Ragtime, p.12)

The influx of foreigners into New York elicits a strong reaction of „despair‟ that relates to their effect
upon the social order. Father is physically moving away from his society on the outbound Roosevelt
while the immigrant vessel sails inbound to replace him. This emphasises the fragility of traditional
society; the „resolution‟ of the natives to preserve values and culture may „founder‟ in the face of „a

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million dark eyes‟. Immigration was a fundamental issue at the heart of a shifting culture in
Progressive America: between 1987 and 1914 immigration rose from 216,397 in 1897 to 1,218,480iv.
Doctorow depicts Father as suspicious of this trend and of their motivations:

There were commonly in America at this time titled European immigrants, mostly
impoverished, who had come here years before hoping to marry their titles to the
daughters of the nouveaux riches.
(Ragtime, p.218)

This distrust is based upon the potential fragmentation of the existing American hierarchy by the
„impoverished‟ immigrants. Thus, the established order is marginalised by the expanding power of
European influence. Countess Olenska represents a distinct system that exposes the frailties of the
existing structure. Having been removed from America for „at least twelve years‟, she had become
„completely Europeanized‟ (p.108). The van der Luydens are portrayed as the ultimate authority -
the tip of the „pyramid‟ (p.76) - bastions of New York society; however, Wharton portrays them
through deathly imagery.

[Mrs. van der Luyden‟s hair] had faded without turning grey […] gruesomely preserved in
the airless atmosphere of a perfectly irreproachable existence, as bodies caught in
glaciers keep for years a rosy life-in-death.
(AoI, p.39 [my emphasis])

The van der Luydens are caught in a stasis, as if „preserved‟ in a „glacier‟. The effect of „gruesomely‟
casts a negative light upon this depiction, thereby criticising the non-progressive nature of their
antiquated, hierarchical authority. Olenska operates as a rebellious foreign influence over Newland
Archer by propagating this negative view. Thus, she embodies the subversive „titled European
immigrant‟.

“Oh, it‟s a poor little place. My relations despise it. But at any rate it‟s less gloomy than
the van der Luydens‟.”
The words gave him an electric shock, for few were the rebellious spirits who would have
dared to call the stately home of the van der Luydens gloomy […] But suddenly he was
glad that she had given voice to the general shiver.
(AoI, p.55 [my emphasis])

Archer is initially shocked by Olenska‟s treasonable language, but is stirred by the „rebellious‟
sentiment to the point where he is „glad‟ that it was said. Furthermore, he reiterates the deathly
imagery and negative language when he subsequently defends Olenska: „she made the dinner a little
less funereal that the usual van der Luyden banquet‟ (p.65). A seed of doubt, planted in the native
by the Europeanised immigrant, instigates Archer‟s rejection of the icons of New York custom. Thus,
the – already detached - centre of society is marginalised by the effect of foreign influence.

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The references to architecture in both Age of Innocence and Ragtime expose the displacement of
familiar New York urban design by European influence. Mrs. Migott defies conventional practice by,
firstly, geographically building outside of the social norm – „nobody ever had built about Fortieth
Street‟ (p.114). Secondly, the Europeanised style of her house is shown to be an „audacious‟ choice:

Mrs. Manson Mingott […] married two of her daughters to „foreigners‟ […] and put the
crowning touch to her audacities by building a large house of pale cream-coloured stone.
(AoI, p.10)

In breaking from conventional brownstone design, which „coated New York like a cold chocolate
sauce‟ (p.53), Mrs. Mingott embraces European influences. The effect of this choice represents a
break up of the accepted „uniform‟ style of New York – and with it the suggestion of potential social
fragmentation – and, furthermore, represents a distinct moral choice:

Her visitors were startled and fascinated by the foreignness of this arrangement, which
recalled scenes in French fiction, and architectural incentives to immorality such as the
simple American had never dreamed of.
(AoI, pp.3-4 [my emphasis])

The effect of the design signifies both a foreign moral intrusion into the heart of „simple‟ New York
values and a foreign physical incursion upon the hegemonous urban landscape. The expansion of the
urban environment is demonstrative of progressivism at work in America at the turn of the centuryv.
Similarly, in Ragtime, the effect of European architecture upon the environment is problematic.
Stanford White‟s „spectacular block-long building of yellow brick and terracotta‟ is designed in the
„Sevillian style‟ (p.4). The building stands as testimony to his „vision of the dismantling of Europe‟
and „the birth of a new aesthetic in European art and architecture. He himself was a Dane‟ (p.16).
The instigation of a „new aesthetic‟ in place of conventional New York design reveals the modifying
effect of foreign influence. Ironically, it is Freud that exposes the problematic of appropriating
European art:

[Ferenczi] declared to his colleagues in the car his happiness at finding the ancient art of
silhouette flourishing on the streets of the New World. Freud, claming his teeth on his
cigar, said nothing […] the vulgar wholesale appropriation of European art and
architecture regardless of period or country he found appalling.
(Ragtime, pp.32-33 [my emphasis])

The „appalling‟ effect of appropriating culture out of context expresses the damaging effect of
foreign influence upon the established culture. The rejection of this influence is no more clearly
demonstrated than by the murder of White by Harry K. Thaw (p.4). Similarly, Coalhouse has the
Morgan Library wired for demolition. The library symbolises Europeanism in both its design and
historically precious contents. Thus, foreign influence is marginalising; conventional design is forced
from the centre. Similarly, customary social practice is pushed to the periphery by subversive means.

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Instead, a hybridized version of traditional urban landscape and social hierarchy inhabits the cultural
centre ground.

In terms of marginalisation by means of an internal influence, the development in technology is a

central issue at work within Wharton and Doctorow‟s projection of society. To Archer, inventions
have increased the pace of modern society, rendering it almost unrecognisable:

Hallo, Dad. Yes: Dallas. I say – how do you feel about sailing on Wednesday? Mauretania.
Yes, next Wednesday as ever is […] nip over on the next boat. I‟ve got to be back on the
first of June […] so we must look alive.
(AoI, p.260)

His difficulty with „quick communication‟ is evident; Archer is pressured into Dallas‟ idea of sailing to
Europe at short notice: „Think it over? No, sir: not a minute. You‟ve got to say yes now‟ (p.260). His
decision must be made on the spot, a problem made possible by the invention of the telephone. This
demonstrates the increasing pace of society, and moreover exhibits Archer‟s disconnection from this
world; instead he reminisces about „the days [when] the legs of the brass-buttoned messenger boy
had been New York‟s only means of quick communication‟ (p.260). The contrast between Archer and
Dallas indicates the breadth of the generational gap, the „kindly contempt for old fashioned, illiberal
notions […] the canon by which a rigid society governed its members‟vi. Dallas‟ wedding stresses this
sense of rejection. While preparation for Archer‟s engagement and wedding with May is meticulous,
Dallas‟ nuptials can take place between his return „on the first of June‟ and his wedding day, the 5 th,
facilitated by the improvements in transatlantic liners. Archer is conscious of the changing
technology and the impact it will have on his society:

There were people who thought there would one day be a tunnel under the Hudson
through which the trains […] would run straight to New York […] who likewise predicted
that the building of ships that would cross the Atlantic in five days, the invention of a
flying machine […] and other Arabian Nights marvels.
(AoI. pp.211-212)

These „Arabian Nights‟ fantasies become actualities and push aside traditional culture. In Ragtime,
the fantastical „tunnel under the Hudson‟ becomes a reality: „an engineering miracle was taking
place, the construction of a tunnel under the East River from Brooklyn to the battery‟ (p.80). The
pace of change, brought about by development in technology, pervades Doctorow‟s text: the Baldwin
4-4-0 train that Father uses is supplanted with the 4-6-0 by the time Tateh takes his daughter to the
station (p.105). Furthermore, Ford‟s assembly line is symptomatic of this progressive drive towards
efficiency.

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Ford established the final proposition of the theory of industrial manufacture – not only
that the parts of the finished product be interchangeable, but that men who build the
products be themselves interchangeable parts.
(Ragtime, p.113)

Ford‟s drive towards speed requires that every „worker must have every second necessary for his job
but not a single un-necessary second‟ (p.113): time is an expensive commodity. Similarly, Peary is
„supplied with a version of The Minute Waltz which he could pump out in forty-eight seconds‟ (p.61);
as Laura Bennett asserts, „speed and progress are clearly the concerns of the era as it is depicted in
Ragtime’vii. The effect is dehumanising. The efficiency of the assembly line exhorts the principle of
interchangeability; not only the „finished product‟ but the „men who build the products‟ become
tools to upgrade. Ford allots „sixty seconds on his pocket watch for a display of sentiment‟ (p.113)
before the push towards flawless manufacturing must reassume; traditional industrial philosophy is
pushed aside by developments in technology at a cost of human emotion. The effect of new
technology exposes Father‟s cultural separation:

He wandered through the house finding everywhere signs of his own exclusion […] he
thought he heard an Arctic wind but it was the housemaid Bridget pushing an electric
suction cleaner across the rug in the parlour […] the mirror in his bath: it gave back the
gaunt, bearded face of a derelict, a man who lacked a home.
(Ragtime, p.91 [emphasis mine])

Thus, technology operates to „exclude‟ Father from his own reality. Doctorow‟s language depicts that
he is lost in once familiar environment; Father „wanders through the house‟. This disconnection from
his home demonstrates the marginalising effects of new inventions; significantly, it is not technology
that is ultimately unrecognisable, it is his own refection. Thus, Archer and Father both suffer a
similar marginalisation by means of internal influences; developments in technology force aside
traditional systems to the periphery.

Social changes act to displace customary values and etiquette. Archer is bound by accepted custom
in his pursuit of Olenska; any relationship would be culturally untenable. Conversely, his son is able
to form a relationship with Fanny, daughter of the financially (and thereby socially) disgraced
Beaufort:

Fanny Beaufort, who had appeared in New York at eighteen, after the death of her
parents, had won its heart much as Madame Olenska had won it thirty years earlier; only
instead of being distrustful and afraid of her, society took her joyfully for granted.
(AoI, p.262)

The change in conventional social trends is represented by a generational distinction. Dallas

„belonged body and soul to the new generation‟, and it proved impossible to replicate „even the
rudiments of reserve‟ (p.265) that Archer possesses. One interpretation of this change is positive, in

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that society is less „distrustful‟ and exclusionary. However, Wharton recognises the negative
implications of the loosening codes of moral behaviour condoned by the changing society:

Their long years together has shown him that it did not so much matter if marriage was a
dull duty, as long as it kept the dignity of a duty: lapsing from that, it became a mere
battle of ugly appetites.
(AoI, p.259 [my emphasis])

Institutionalised „dull duty‟ is preferable to an „ugly‟ animalistic „appetite‟ lurking in the background.
Thus, through Archer, Wharton demonstrates the indispensable „dignity‟ of traditional values, yet
also exposes the way that this social code is displaced by internal influences.

However, marginalisation of cultural traditions is not necessarily a negative process: Doctorow‟s

unionisation destabilises exploitative industrial practices:

It was unthinkable. The mill owners knew who were the stewards of civilisation and the
source of progress and prosperity in the city of Lawrence. For the good of the country and
the American democratic system they resolved there would be no more children‟s
crusades.
(Ragtime, p.104)

These „stewards of civilisation‟ are being undermined by the „sweeping momentum‟ (p.101) of social
change embodied by the unionisation of the workforce. The mills are constructed as traditional
symbols of „progress‟ and „prosperity‟ of the American system that face potential extinction at the
hands of internal influences; however, the presentation of the mill owners as bastions of the
„democratic system‟ is artificial and instead propagates a challenge to the industrial norm.

Children suffered no discriminatory treatment. They were valued everywhere they were
employed. They did not complain as adults tended to do. Employers like to think of them
as happy elves.
(Ragtime, p.34)

Exploitation is part of the conventional socio-industrial apparatus; children are „valued everywhere‟
as compliant tools in this system. Social equality was a central part of the progressive attitude,
crystallised in protests and petitions.viii Thus, the improvement of working conditions is an example
of internal processes challenging the accepted custom.

In terms of marginalisation by means of the inactive nature of traditional society, both Newland
Archer and Father demonstrate the inability to assimilate change. Archer finds himself „held fast by
habit, by memories, by a sudden startled shrinking from new things‟ (p.262). This withdrawal from
„the new‟ is laced with a reminiscence of „the traditional‟: „what was left of the little world he had
grown up in, and whose standards had bent and bound him?‟ (p.262). The „little world‟ of old is a

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simpler, morally forthright culture that is gradually being displaced by progressive society.
Preventing this „displacement‟ is in the hands of the traditionalist; however, Archer is an inactive
advocate of his system: the „sudden startled shrinking‟ from new trends facilitates the
marginalisation of the old. Equally, Father becomes conscious of his regressive attitude and becomes
„disturbed by his nostalgia. He‟d always though of himself as progressive‟ (p.194). Like Archer, Father
is in stasis; he is a frozen incarnation of his customary values and culture:

Father‟s left heel, for instance, froze every day, no matter what he did to protect it […]
pieces of Father froze very casually.
(Ragtime, p.67)

Father literally freezes in the Arctic, but this is also symbolic of his social reality. Much like the van
der Luydens - „caught in glaciers […] a rosy life-in-death‟ (p.39) – Father is a relic of traditional
society. This sense of impotent debilitation at the centre of conventional culture is demonstrated
through physical infirmity:

He found he preferred to sit in the parlour, his feet near a small electric heater. Everyone
in the family treated him like a convalescent. […] The boy had grown taller. He has lost
some of his fat. He was becoming competent and useful. […] Father felt childlike beside
him.
(Ragtime, p.93)

The reversal of roles between Father and the little boy indicates a sense of the fading significance of
traditional society. In his need for special provisions he is similar in function to Wharton‟s Mr.
Welland, whose diminishing health is a constant problem and representative of the deterioration of
„old‟ society. This concept is central to Ragtime, and is manifested in several deaths. Archduke Franz
Ferdinand, a symbol of old European order in his formal pomp and grandeur that „embodies the
power and panoply of an entire empire‟ (p.265), is assassinated. Similarly, J. P Morgan, the totemic
entrepreneur and head of a business empire „suffers a sudden decline in health‟ and dies. However,
unlike Archer and Father, Morgan actively searches for a spiritual philosophy to counteract this
process, but in his expedition to Egypt finds no „sign‟ to confirm reincarnation, only a „damp chill‟
(p.262). Houdini‟s mother suffers a „paralytic stroke‟ (p.167) and dies. Houdini regularly escapes
death in his illusions, but the death of his mother evokes a memory of „his attempt to escape from a
coffin, the terror when he realised he could not‟ (p.166). Houdini can fool his audience, but the
reality of his own mortality is as equally inescapable as Morgan‟s. Thus, death severs the connection
of the present from the past, and represents old society being displaced by the new. The incapacity
to assimilate new trends forces the existing culture to become marginal. Traditional society is in a
palimpsestal position and becomes overwritten by dominant trends. Wharton‟s depiction of European
travel demonstrates this inability to engage with other cultures:

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Mrs. Archer and Janey, in the course of their visits to Europe, had so unflinchingly lived up
to this principle, and met the friendly advances of their fellow-travellers with an air of
such impenetrable reserve, that they had almost achieved the record of never having
exchanged a word with a „foreigner‟.
(AoI, p.143)

This „impenetrable reserve‟, the endeavour to prevent cultural exposure, reveals the desire of
traditional New York to prevent the incorporation of foreign trends into the existing structure;
therefore, it becomes overwritten by these dominant systems. Archer is compelled to sail to France
upon the Mauritania by his son. However, his inability to confront Olenska is symptomatic of his
personal stasis; he is unable to integrate himself with a new culture.

Now the spectacle was before him in all its glory, and as he had looked out on it he felt
shy, old-fashioned, inadequate: a mere grey speck of a man compared with the ruthless
magnificent fellow he had dreamed of being…
(AoI, p.264)

Archer has the chance to remove himself from the „deep rut‟ that he has sunk into (p.262); however,
he instead lapses back into the social paralysis that disengages him from contemporary culture. In
this mould, Archer evokes an embodiment of Elliot‟s „pair of ragged claws/ Scuttling across the floors
of silent seas‟ix. In rekindling his love for Olenska he has the potential to reconnect with society,
thus, his failure to do so deepens his marginalisation. Equally, Father exacerbates his own
disconnection. As an explorer, he physically removes himself from society; however, it is the
emotional distance that significantly causes disengagement: „It was apparent to them both that this
time he‟d stayed away for too long‟ (p.92). Father and Mother become emotionally disassociated;
they cohabit a marital husk. Father dies on his excursion to Europe, sunk on the sister ship of the
Mauritania, the Lusitania:

His toe scuffs a soft storm of sand, he kneels and his arms spread in pantomimic
celebration, the immigrant, as in every moment of his life, arriving eternally on the shore
of his Self.
(Ragtime, p.269)

Father‟s „final exploration‟ ultimately kills him, the „grenades, depth charges and puttied nitro […]
undoubtedly contributed to the monstrous detonations in the ship that preceded its abrupt sinking‟.
(p.269). However, it is in death that he can find his „Self‟, a self which had become displaced in
modern society.

As the headlong pace of modern development showed no sign of slackening – rather the
reverse – the peoples and their rulers clung to each other for reassurance and cemented
their union with hatred, fear and contempt of foreigners. x

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Within the context of the „progressive era‟, three influences are found to be at work in the process
of the marginalisation of the centre. Firstly, foreign influence: the subverting presence of immigrants
upon the native society. Secondly, internal influence: the effect of „the headlong pace of modern
development‟ and technology and changing codes of etiquette upon traditional society. Thirdly, the
paralysis of the existing system: the incapacity to adapt to change and assimilate foreign trends. The
final strand is crucial. Archer and Father‟s sense of disconnection is created by foreign and internal
influences; however, it is their incapacity to adapt with these changes that creates this social
marginalisation.

i
HUGH BROGAN, ‘THE PROGRESSIVE ADVENTURE 1897-1914’ IN THE PENGUIN HISTORY OF THE USA. (PENGUIN BOOKS: LONDON,
2001) P.435
ii
EDITH WHARTON, THE AGE OF INNOCENCE (THE MODERN LIBRARY: NEW YORK 1999)
iii
EDGAR LAWRENCE DOCTOROW, RAGTIME (PENGUIN BOOKS: 2006)
iv
IBID., P.443
v
TINDAL & SHI, ‘THE PROGRESSIVE ERA’ IN AMERICA: A NARRATIVE HISTORY (NEW YORK: W.W. NORTON & CO, 2004)
vi
LOUIS O. COXE ‘WHAT EDITH WHARTON SAW IN INNOCENCE’ IN EDITH WHARTON: A COLLECTION OF CRITICAL ESSAY. EDS. IRVINE
HOWE (PRENTICE-HALL, INC: NEW JERSEY) P.158
vii
LAURA BARRETT, COMPOSITIONS OF REALITY: PHOTOGRAPHY, HISTORY, AND RAGTIME @
<HTTP://MUSE.JHU.EDU/JOURNALS/MODERN_FICTION_STUDIES/V046/46.4BARRETT.HTML> (23.11.07)
viii
‘THE NATIONAL CHILD LABOUR COMMITTEE, ORGANISED IN 1904, LED A MOVEMENT FOR STATE LAWS BANNING THE STILL WIDESPREAD
EMPLOYMENT OF YOUNG CHILDREN. WITHIN TEN YEARS, THE COMMITTEE HELPED FOSTER NEW LAWS IN MOST STATES BANNING THE LABOUR
OF UNDERAGE CHILDREN AND LIMITING THE WORKING HOURS OF OLDER CHILDREN.’ TINDAL & SHI, P.786
ix
T.S. ELLIOT, ‘THE LOVE SONG OF J. ALFRED PRUFROCK’ (1917) IN THE HEATH ANTHOLOGY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE: VOLUME D –
MODERN PERIOD 1910-1945 (5TH EDITION). ED. PAUL LAUTER (NEW YORK: 2006) LL.73-74.
x
BROGAN (2001), P.439

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