Antagonist

Character Role Analysis

May Welland

May Welland may be Newland's fiancée and eventual wife, but she is also his #1 opponent. Under that sweet, virginal exterior is a woman who knows how to manipulate people to get what she wants. It’s too late when Newland and Madame Olenska realize how May has engineered their separation.

But just as The Age of Innocence takes great pains to remind us that America, for all its faults, isn't evil (just as Europe, for all its sweet artistic stuff and open-mindedness, isn't paradise), May isn't portrayed as a raving b-word. Her machinations make sense, even as they kill dreams and break lives.