During my reading of Age of Innocence, I noticed a heavy
fire motif present in the story. To me, it seemed whenever Newland wanted to
freely say what he was thinking or feeling—especially around Ellen
Olenska—there would be some sort of fire present, whether it be a cigarette,
fireplace, or sunset.
Nearly all of Ellen and Newland’s important talks take place
by a fire of some form. For example, after Ellen “runs” away to the van der
Luydens in Skuytercliff and Newland goes there to see her, they go inside the
van der Luydens’ cottage, where Mr. van der Luyden has conveniently lit a fire in the fireplace. Furthermore,
once they go inside, all the aspects of the house are described in relation to
the fire—with the cottage’s “panels and brasses shining in the fire-light” and its “rush-bottomed arm-chairs [facing]
each other across the tiled hearth”.
The entire house appears to be bathing in the warm light of the fire, and if
that wasn’t enough, Newland attempts to make the fire even bigger by throwing
another log onto it. It is here where Newland and Ellen have a very dramatic
talk, and Newland attempts to remain reticent from the temptation of Ellen in
the room. He even has to literally distance himself from the fire when he wants
to shut off his reactions to Ellen’s words (“…I’m improvident. I live in the
moment when I’m happy.”).
The fire is for them not only a symbolic representation of
their inner, latent passion, but also a metaphorical open doorway for their
feelings to travel through to each other. Subliminally, it is the fire that
Newland craves whenever he wishes to express something freely, as we see in his
and Ellen’s last talk before Newland marries May, when “his heart tightened
with the thought that this was their last evening by that fireside”, when
Newland wants to confront Ellen after Mrs. Mingott told him to go find her, and
the sunset surrounding them as he stares at her back is “splintering up into a
thousand fires”, and when May and Newland leave the opera in the end early on
account of Newland’s supposed headache and he moves to his usual place by the fire before he begins to try to confess to May
about Ellen.
In A Doll’s House there is a similar frequent presence of
fire. In the very first scene description of the play, it is seen how the fire
burning inside the stove keeps the warmth inside the house and the cold
outside. As we discussed in class, with this warmth also comes the feelings of
family and security. The fire is what keeps the house from becoming harsh and
hostile like the outside. If it were not there, the characters might literally
freeze and stumble around in the dark, and their idyllic fantasy of life would be
no more, as well, because the “snug” and “cozy” doll’s house has frosted over.
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