Apollonian and Dionysian Psychology in The Age of Innocence : A Psychoanalytical Essay

Abstract: The dichotomous concepts of order and chaos represented by the mythological Greek gods Apollo and Dionysus, as outlined by Friedrich Nietzsche in his controversial 1872 book on dramatic theory, The Birth of Tragedy, will in this essay serve as the primary literary concepts utilized in a psychoanalysis of the main character and his struggles in the American realist novel The Age of Innocence published in 1920. The social tragedy at the center of the novel written by the now canonical author Edith Wharton pits the protagonist, Newland Archer, against his own morality, in a battle between duty and passion, and conflicting personality traits. Additionally, the famous three-part personality model developed by psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud will, alongside the binary opposites discussed by Nietzsche in his most criticized work, support an examination of the inner and outer complexity of the leading character, in his shifting and disharmonious human nature.