Archer's dilemma and his false image of himself image of innocence

Book two of Edith Wharton's the age of innocence is, at least at it's opening, very strange and sad. The archers are on their honeymoon several months in Europe and it is increasingly obvious to all - except perhaps May - that the marriage was a mistake. Newland keeps trying to convince himself that he is in love w may but to no avail. He stills sees himself as an aesthete manqué and he sees may as a bland and uninteresting conventional woman which she is but also as a hindrance to his finer sensibilities, which she is not. Archer believes he is in love w her cousin olenska and he is in a way but what he really is in love w is a vision of himself that is either grandiose and delusional or else simply impossible for him to attain - he is far too dependent in the comforts and privileges of his class to throw it over.. We see an example of what happens to those who flout convention - the archeology prof who actually winters in newport and whom everyone in the tiny social set shuns and mocks because of his supposed eccentricity. Archer could never choose that course - but he does betray his wife and goes to see olenska in Boston when he's supposedly on business and they declare love for each other in a great episode during a visit to a seaside town w a crowd of teachers on holiday in the adjacent dining room - one of those stunning yet subtle contrasts that make novels great. It seems to me however that archer has the upper hand - shrewd enough to risk almost nothing in his pursuit oh the forbidden romance while olenska turns her back on a fortune and on any possibility for a socially acceptable marriage. He will live in NYC in comfort and she will be alone.