How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
In reality they all lived in a kind of hieroglyphic world, where the real thing was never said or done or even thought, but only represented by a set of arbitrary signs […] quite as, in the books on Primitive Man that people of advanced culture were beginning to read, the savage bride is dragged with shrieks from her parents' tent. (6.5)
The narration here looks New York society through an anthropologist's lens. For all its glitter, New York society is just another tribal society, worshiping the same idols and trapped by the same superstitions.
Quote #5
The New York of Newland Archer's day was a small and slippery pyramid, in which, as yet, hardly a fissure had been made or a foothold gained. (6.15)
New York society is rigidly stratified, with the van der Luydens on top and everybody else in descending significance below them.
Quote #6
He remembered what she had told him of Mrs. Welland's request to be spared whatever was "unpleasant" in her history, and winced at the thought that it was perhaps this attitude of mind which kept the New York air so pure. "Are we only Pharisees after all?" he wondered, puzzled by the effort to reconcile his instinctive disgust at human vileness with his equally instinctive pity for human frailty. (11.29)
By the time we get to Chapter 11, Newland is starting to break away from the pack to confront unpleasant realities. Having bad taste is no longer the most unthinkable crime against humanity. Newland is starting to wonder if good taste covers up some unsavory elements… kind of like putting tons of seasoning on burnt popcorn.