ately invites Newland Archer to her home. Even though Newland compliments Catherine, she refutes it by commenting that Ellen is more beautiful. This is the first time that any of the gods of their New York society has admitted to Ellen’s beauty. She asks Archer to reinstate Ellen’s allowance and says that Ellen must stay in New York. She refers to Ellen as a bird that must not be caged. She would have begged Ellen to stay had she been able to see the floor. This is as amusing as it is ironic. Because of her size, Catherine probably could not see the floor; it also attests to the fact that in her existence of a god of New York society, her feet were not on the ground. She has not been living in reality. Catherine’s character proves it is possible for a god to relinquish his position and choose to be mortal. Another pair of the minor characters who are both mortal and immortal is the van der Luydens. Mr. van der Luyden, although living, can also be seen as dead. His home is like a mausoleum, a place for the dead. When Newland Archer rings the van der Luyden’s bell, it is answered by a butler who has taken his time to get to the door as if: “he had been summoned from his final sleep." The van der Luyden's home always looks grim even in the beauty and sun of the summer. The van der Lyudens and indeed their home are alive yet dead, they are also immortal. Mrs. van der Luyden remains immortal by hanging on the wall in the form of a portrait. It was painted by the artist, Huntington and bears a perfect likeness to her; the portrait, however, was completed twenty years earlier. Wharton suggests that one might look at Mrs. van der Luyden sitting beneath the portrait and think she “might have been the twin-sister of the fair and still youngish woman drooping against a gild armchair before a green rep curtain.” The juxtaposition of the youthful portrait and the aging Mrs. van de Luyden ...
