The Age of Innocence (1920) is a novel by Edith Wharton, which won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize. The story is set in upper class New York City in the 1870s.
In 1920, The Age of Innocence was published twice; first in four parts, July – October, in the Pictorial Review magazine, and then by D. Appleton and Company as a book in New York and in London. The book was warmly received; the Times Book Review considered it "a brilliant panorama of New York's 45 years ago. The novel is in demand mostly at public libraries and a best seller in the bookstores."
Plot introduction
The Age of Innocence centers on an upper class couple's impending marriage, and the introduction of a woman plagued by scandal whose presence threatens their happiness. Though the novel questions the assumptions and morals of 1870s' New York society, it never devolves into an outright condemnation of the institution. In fact, Wharton considered this novel an "apology" for her earlier, more brutal and critical novel, The House of Mirth. Not to be overlooked is Wharton's attention to detailing the charms and customs of the upper caste. The novel is lauded for its accurate portrayal of how the 19th-century East Coast American upper class lived, and this, combined with the social tragedy, earned Wharton a Pulitzer Prize — the first Pulitzer awarded to a woman. Edith Wharton was 58 years old at publication; she lived in that world, and saw it change dramatically by the end of World War I. The title is an ironic comment on the polished outward manners of New York society, when compared to its inward machinations.
Plot summary
Newland Archer, gentleman lawyer and heir to one of New York City's best families, is happily anticipating a highly desirable marriage to the sheltered and beautiful May Welland. Yet he finds reason to doubt his choice of bride after the appearance of Countess Ellen Olenska, May's exotic, beautiful thirty-year-old cousin, who has been living in Europe. Ellen has returned to New York after scandalously separating herself (per rumor) from a bad marriage to a Polish Count. At first, Ellen's arrival and its potential taint to his bride's family disturbs him, but he becomes intrigued by the worldly Ellen who flouts New York society's fastidious rules. As Newland's admiration for the countess grows, so does his doubt about marrying May, a perfect product of Old New York society; his match with May no longer seems the ideal fate he had imagined.
Ellen's decision to divorce Count Olenski is a social crisis for the other members of her family, who are terrified of scandal and disgrace. Living apart can be tolerated, but divorce is unacceptable. To save the Welland family's reputation, a law partner of Newland asks him to dissuade Countess Olenska from divorcing the Count. He succeeds, but in the process comes to care for her; afraid of falling in love with Ellen, Newland begs May to accelerate their wedding date; May refuses.
Newland tells Ellen he loves her; Ellen corresponds, but is horrified of their love's aggrieving May. She agrees to remain in America, separated but still married, only if they do not sexually consummate their love; Newland receives May's telegram agreeing to wed sooner.
Newland and May marry; he tries forgetting Ellen but fails. His society marriage is loveless, and the social life he once found absorbing has become empty and joyless. Though Ellen lives in Washington and has remained distant, he is unable to cease loving her. Their paths cross while he and May are in Newport, Rhode Island. Newland discovers that Count Olenski wishes Ellen to return to him, and she has refused, despite her family pushing her to reconcile with her husband and return to Europe. Frustrated by her independence, the family cut off her money, as the Count had already done.
Newland desperately seeks a way to leave May and be with Ellen, obsessed with how to finally possess her. Despairing of ever making Ellen his wife, he attempts to have her agree to be his mistress. Then Ellen is recalled to New York City to care for her sick grandmother, who accepts her decision to remain separated and agrees to reinstate her allowance.
Back in New York and under renewed pressure from Newland, Ellen relents and agrees to consummate their relationship. However, Newland then discovers that Ellen has decided to return to Europe. Newland makes up his mind to abandon May and follow Ellen to Europe when May announces that she and Newland are throwing a farewell party for Ellen. That night, after the party, Newland resolves to tell May he is leaving her for Ellen. She interrupts him to tell him that she learned that morning that she is pregnant; she reveals that she had told Ellen of her pregnancy two weeks earlier, despite not being sure of it at the time. The implication is that she did it because she suspected the love between Ellen and Newland and knew Ellen well enough to know that she would drop Newland if May was pregnant. Newland guesses that this is Ellen's reason for returning to Europe. Hopelessly trapped, Newland decides not to follow Ellen, surrendering his love for the sake of his children, remaining in a loveless marriage to May.
Twenty-six years later, after May's death, Newland and his son are in Paris. The son, learning that his mother's cousin lives there, has arranged to visit Ellen in her Paris apartment. Newland is stunned at the prospect of seeing Ellen again. On arriving outside the apartment building, Newland, still reeling emotionally, sends up his son alone to meet Ellen, while he waits outside, watching her apartment's balcony. Newland considers going up, but decides that his dream and memory of Ellen are more real than anything else in his life has been; he walks back to his hotel without meeting her.
Characters in The Age of Innocence
Major Characters
* Newland Archer: The story's protagonist is a young, popular, successful lawyer living with his mother and sister in an elegant New York City house. Since childhood, his life has been shaped by the customs and expectations of upper class New York City society. His engagement to May Welland is one in a string of accomplishments. At the story's start, he is proud and content to dream about a traditional marriage in which he will be the husband-teacher and she the wife-student. His life changes when he meets Countess Ellen Olenska. Through his relationship with her — first friendship, then love — he begins questioning the values on which he was raised. He sees the sexual inequality of New York society and the shallowness of its customs, and struggles to balance social commitment to May with love for Ellen. He cannot find a place for their love in the intricate, judgmental web of New York society. Throughout the story's progress, he transgresses the boundaries of acceptable behavior for love of Ellen: first following her to Skuytercliff, then Boston, and finally willing to follow her to Europe. In the end, though, Newland Archer finds that the only place for their love is in his memories.
* Mrs. Manson Mingott: The matriarch of the powerful Mingott family, and grandmother to Ellen and May. She was born Catherine Spicer, the daughter of an inconsequential family. Widowed at 28, she has ensured her family's social position by her own shrewdness and force of character. She controls her family: at Newland's request, she has May and Mrs. Welland agree to an earlier wedding date. She controls the money — withholding Ellen's living allowance (when the family is angry with Ellen), and having niece Regina Beaufort ask for money when in financial trouble. Mrs. Mingott is a maverick in the polite world of New York society, at times pushing the boundaries of acceptable behavior; receiving guests in her house's ground floor, though society associates that practice with prostitutes. Her welcoming Ellen is viewed skeptically, and she insists the rest of the family support Ellen.
* Mrs. Welland: May's mother, has raised her daughter to be a proper society lady. May's dullness, lack of imagination, and rigid views of appropriate and inappropriate behavior are consequence of her influence. She has effectively trained her husband, the weak-willed Mr. Welland, to conform to her desires and wishes. Mrs. Welland is the driving force behind May's commitment to a long engagement. Without her mother's influence, May might have agreed sooner to Newland's request for an earlier wedding date. After a few years of marriage, Newland Archer perceives in his mother-in-law what May will become — stolid, unimaginative, and dull.
* May Welland: Newland Archer's fiancée, then wife. Raised to be a perfect wife and mother, she follows and obeys all of society's customs, perfectly. Mostly, she is the shallow, uninterested and uninteresting young woman that New York society requires. When they are in St. Augustine, though, May gives Newland a rare glimpse of the maturity and compassion he had previously ignored. She offers to release him from their engagement so he can marry the woman he truly loves, thinking he wants to be with Mrs. Rushworth, a married woman with whom he had recently ended a love affair. When he assures May of his loving only her, May appears to trust him, at least at first. Yet after marriage, she suspects Newland is Ellen's lover. Nonetheless, May pretends happiness before society, maintaining the illusion that she and he have the perfect marriage expected of them. Her unhappiness activates her manipulative nature, and Newland does not see it until too late. To drive Ellen away from him, May tells Ellen of her pregnancy before she is certain of it. Yet, there still is compassion in May, even in their loveless marriage's long years after Ellen's leaving. After May's death, Newland Archer learns she had always known of his continued love for Ellen; as May lay dying, she told their son Dallas that the children could always trust their father Newland, because he surrendered the thing most meaningful to him out of loyalty to their marriage.
* Ellen Olenska: She is May's cousin and Mrs. Manson Mingott's granddaughter. She became a Countess by marrying Polish Count Olenski, a European nobleman. Her husband was allegedly cruel and abusive, stole Ellen's fortune and had affairs with other women and possibly even with men. When the story begins, Ellen has fled her unhappy marriage, lived in Venice with her husband's secretary, and has returned to her family in New York City, America. She is a free spirit who helps Newland Archer see beyond narrow New York society. She treats her maid, Nastasia, as an equal; offering the servant her own cape before sending her out on an errand. She attends parties with disreputable people such as Julius Beaufort and Mrs. Lemuel Struthers, and she invites Newland, the fiancé of her cousin May to visit her. Ellen suffers as much as Newland from their impossible love, but she is willing to live in emotional limbo so long as they can love each other at a distance. Ellen's love for Newland drives her important decisions: dropping divorce from Count Olenski, remaining in America, and offering Newland choice of sexual consummation only once, and then disappearing from his life. Her conscience and responsibility to family complicate her love for Newland. When she learns of May's pregnancy, Ellen immediately decides to leave America, refusing Newland's attempt to follow her to Europe, and so allow cousin May to start her family with her husband Newland.
* New York City Society: Composed of powerful, wealthy families. These people follow and impose a strict, rigid code of social custom and behavior, and judge as unacceptable and disposable the people who do not follow their rules. Ellen has difficulty adapting to the behavoir that such a society thinks appropriate for a woman separated from her husband. New York society's judgment is clear; almost everyone refuses to attend the dinner party honoring Ellen's return.
Minor Characters
* Christine Nilsson: A famous singer who performs in an opera on the night of Archer and May's engagement. She sings in the same opera two years later.
* Mrs. Lovell Mingott: May and Ellen's aunt, and the daughter-in-law of Mrs. Manson Mingott.
* Lawrence Lefferts: A wealthy young man and a member of Archer's social circle. He is considered the expert on manners. Archer believes that Lefferts is behind New York society's rude refusal to attend the welcome dinner for Ellen. According to Archer, Lefferts makes a big show of his morality every time that his wife, Mrs. Lefferts, suspects that he is having an affair.
* Sillerton Jackson: The expert on the families that make up New York society. He knows who is related to whom, and the history of every important family. Mrs. Archer and Janey invite him over for dinner when they want to catch up on gossip.
* Julius Beaufort: An arrogant banker who tries to have an affair with Ellen. He even follows her to Skuytercliff during the weekend that Archer goes to visit Ellen. His banking business eventually fails, and he leaves New York society in disgrace.
* Regina Beaufort: Julius Beaufort's wife and Mrs. Manson Mingott's niece. She comes to Mrs. Mingott when her husband's bank fails, to ask for a loan. Her visit causes Mrs. Mingott to have a stroke.
* Janey Archer: Archer's dowdy, unmarried sister who never goes out and relies on Archer. She and her mother invite guests to dinner so they can gossip about New York society. Janey disapproves of Ellen, because she's unconventional and independent, and doesn't simply tolerate her husband's abuse.
* Mrs. Archer: Archer's widowed mother. She doesn't get out to events often, but loves to hear about society. She and Janey strongly believe in the values of New York society. Like Janey, she views Ellen with suspicion.
* Mrs. Lemuel Struthers: A woman on the fringes of New York society. She is treated with mistrust and scorn until Ellen befriends her. She eventually becomes popular; at the end of the novel, May thinks it appropriate to go to her parties.
* Count Olenski: Ellen's husband, a dissolute aristocrat who drove Ellen away with neglect and misery. At first, Count Olenski is content to let Ellen go. Later, though, he sends his secretary to America to ask Ellen to return, with the stipulation that she only appear as his hostess occasionally. He never appears in the story, but is described as half paralyzed and very pale, with thick feminine eyelashes. He constantly cheats on Ellen, and a veiled remark of Jackson's implies that he copulates with men, too. What other abuses and infidelities he commits are unknown, but he seems quite malicious.
* Sophy Jackson: Sillerton Jackson's unmarried sister. She is a friend of Janey and Mrs. Archer.
* Louisa and Henry van der Luyden: Cousins of the Archers, and the most powerful people in New York society. They only mingle with people when they are trying to save society. Mrs. Archer goes to the van der Luydens after New York society snubs Ellen. They invite her to a very exclusive party in honor of the Duke of St. Austrey to show society that they support her.
* Duke of St Austrey: A European Duke. He is the guest of honor at a dinner party thrown by the van der Luydens. Both Ellen and Archer find him dull.
* Nastasia: Ellen's Italian maid. She invites Archer and the other guests to wait in Ellen's sitting room.
* Mr. Letterblair: The senior partner of Archer's law firm. He gives Archer the responsibility of talking Ellen out of her plans to divorce the Count.
* Mrs. Rushworth: The vain, foolish married woman with whom Archer had an affair before his engagement to May.
* Ned Winsett: A journalist. He and Archer are friends, despite their different social circles. He is one of the few people with whom Archer feels that he can have a meaningful conversation. Ned Winsett challenges Archer to think of things outside of society.
* Reggie Chivers: An important member of society. Archer spends a weekend at their country home on the Hudson River.
* Marchioness Medora Manson: The aunt who took Ellen to Europe as a child. She now lives in Washington, where Ellen goes to take care of her. During a visit to New York, she tries to persuade Archer to convince Ellen that she should return to the Count. Beaufort's bank failure eventually ruins Mrs. Manson's fortune, and she moves back to Europe with Ellen.
* Dr. Agathon Carver: A friend (and possible love interest) of the Marchioness Manson. Archer meets him at Ellen's house.
* Du Lac aunts: Archer's elderly aunts. They offer their country home to May and Archer for their honeymoon.
* Mrs. Carfry: An English acquaintance of Janey and Mrs. Archer. She invites Archer and May to a dinner party while they are on their European wedding tour.
* M. Rivière: The French tutor of Mrs. Carfry's nephew. He fascinates Archer with his life story and intellect. Later, Archer learns that he was Count Olenski's secretary and the man who helped Ellen escape her marriage. The count sends him to Boston to try to convince Ellen to return to Europe.
* Emerson Sillerton: An unpopular, eccentric professor who spends his summers in Newport with the rest of society. He throws a party for the Blenker family that no one wants to attend.
* Blenker family: The unpopular, socially inferior family with whom the Marchioness and Ellen stay while in Newport. They are the guests of honor at Emerson Sillerton's party, and seems to be a clever, kind bunch.
* Miss Blenker: The youngest daughter of the Blenker family. When Archer visits her empty family's house on the day of Sillerton's party, she is there. Archer briefly confuses her with Ellen, and she flirts with him. Through Miss Blenker, Archer learns that Ellen has gone to Boston.
* Dallas Archer: May and Archer's eldest child. He takes his father on a trip to Europe. Through Dallas, Archer learns that May felt sorry for his empty heart after Ellen left.
* Fanny Beaufort: Dallas Archer's fiancée and the daughter of Julius Beaufort and his second wife. She asks Dallas to visit Ellen while he and Archer are in Paris.
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
* In 1924, an eponymous silent film film adaptation was released by Warner Brothers, directed by Wesley Ruggles, and starring Beverly Bayne as Countess Olenska and Elliott Dexter as Newland Archer.
* In 1928, Margaret Ayer Barnes adapted the novel into a play, first produced on Broadway, starring Katharine Cornell as Countess Ellen Olenska.
* In 1934, an eponymous film adaptation directed for RKO Studios by Philip Moeller (based upon the 1920 novel and 1928 play), starring Irene Dunne as Countess Ellen Olenska and John Boles as Newland Archer.
* In 1993, an eponymous film adaptation, The Age of Innocence, was directed by Martin Scorsese, starring Michelle Pfeiffer as Countess Ellen Olenska, Daniel Day-Lewis as Newland Archer, Winona Ryder as May Welland Archer, Richard E. Grant, and Miriam Margolyes. Ryder won a Golden Globe Award for her portrayal of May Welland Archer, and the film won an Oscar for costume design.
* Gossip Girl author Cecily Von Ziegesar modeled her hit series on Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence. On March 16, 2009, an episode of Gossip Girl entitled "The Age of Dissonance" aired, showing the teens star in a theatrical production of The Age of Innocence with Blair as Countess Olenska, Serena as May Welland, and Dan as Newland Archer with several other characters from the show portraying minor roles in the story including Nate as Beaufort.
中文片名
純真年代 英文片名
The Age of Innocence
更多中文片名
心外幽情
影片類型
愛情 / 劇情
片長
139分鐘
國傢/地區
美國
對白語言
英語
色彩
彩色
混音
Dolby SR
級別
Singapore:PG Argentina:Atp Portugal:M/12 Australia:G Sweden:Btl UK:U Chile:TE Peru:PT Finland:S USA:PG Iceland:L Canada:PG Spain:T Germany:6
製作成本
$34,000,000 (estimated)
版權所有
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.
拍攝日期
1992年3月 - 1992年6月
演職員表
導演
馬丁·斯科塞斯 Martin Scorsese
編劇
伊迪絲·沃頓 Edith Wharton .....(novel)
馬丁·斯科塞斯 Martin Scorsese .....(screenplay)
Jay Cocks .....(screenplay) &
演員
丹尼爾·戴-劉易斯 Daniel Day Lewis .....Newland Archer
米歇爾·菲佛 Michelle Pfeiffer .....Ellen Olenska
維諾娜·賴德 Winona Ryder .....May Welland
亞歷剋西斯·史密斯 Alexis Smith .....Louisa van der Luyden
傑拉丁·卓別林 Geraldine Chaplin .....Mrs. Welland
理查德·格蘭特 Richard E. Grant .....Larry Lefferts
米瑞安·瑪格萊斯 Miriam Margolyes .....Mrs. Mingott
羅伯特·肖恩·萊納德 Robert Sean Leonard .....Ted Archer
喬納森·普雷斯 Jonathan Pryce .....Rivière
喬安娜·伍德沃德 Joanne Woodward .....Narrator (voice)
斯圖爾特·威爾遜 Stuart Wilson .....Julius Beaufort
馬丁·斯科塞斯 Martin Scorsese .....Photographer (uncredited)
製作人
Barbara De Fina .....producer
Bruce S. Pustin .....co-producer
Joseph P. Reidy .....associate producer (as Joseph Reidy)
製作發行
攝製格式
35 mm
製作處理方法
Super 35
洗印格式
35 mm (anamorphic)
幅面
35毫米膠片變形寬銀幕
製作公司
Cappa Production
哥倫比亞影業公司 Columbia Pictures Corporation [美國]
發行公司
哥倫比亞影片公司 Columbia Pictures [美國]
哥倫比亞三星電影發行公司 Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International [美國] ..... (Argentina)
Columbia TriStar Films de España S.A. [西班牙] ..... (Spain)
哥倫比亞三星家庭視頻公司 Columbia TriStar Home Video [美國] ..... (1994) (USA) (laserdisc)
哥倫比亞三星 Columbia TriStar [巴西] ..... (Brazil) (DVD)
LK-TEL Vídeo [巴西] ..... (Brazil) (VHS)
LK-TEL [阿根廷] ..... (Argentina) (video)
特技製作公司
Illusion Arts Inc. [美國]
其它公司
Coast to Coast Catering Inc. [美國] ..... catering
Epic Soundtrax [美國] ..... soundtrack
M/S Billings Publicity Ltd. [美國] ..... publicity
Sound One Corporation [美國] ..... post-production facilities
T.A.B. Inc. [美國] ..... negative cutting
The Effects House Co. [美國] ..... optical effects
上映日期
法國
France
1993年9月22日
加拿大
Canada
1993年10月1日
美國
USA
1993年10月1日
瑞典
Sweden
1993年10月29日
芬蘭
Finland
1993年11月12日
德國
Germany
1993年11月18日
澳大利亞
Australia
1993年12月2日
荷蘭
Netherlands
1994年1月6日
阿根廷
Argentina
1994年2月10日
西班牙
Spain
1994年2月18日
法國
France
2005年6月29日 ..... (re-release)
In a world of tradition. In an age of innocence. They dared to break the rules.
影片展現的愛的激情遠遠超過那些脫光了衣服的場面，這裏的每一個人都被層層包裹在維多利亞時期的性壓抑內。
——芝加哥太陽時報
儘管這部作品天才四溢，但這個發生在19世紀70年代紐約上流社會的悲劇羅曼史註定衹能有着有限的觀衆。
——綜藝
《純真年代》是一出視覺的盛宴。
——Reel電影評論
當斯科塞斯因為忠於沃頓的原著而受到尊敬時，同時他的錯誤也正在於試圖納入沃頓更多的觀點。
——滾石
《純真年代》是文化專製對個體的一種暴政。
——華盛頓郵報
Ellen Olenska: I think we should look at reality, not dreams.
艾倫·奧蘭絲卡：我認為我們應該更關註現實，而不是幻想。
Newland Archer: I just want us to be together!
紐蘭特·阿徹：我衹想我們在一起！
Ellen Olenska: I can't be your wife, Newland! Is it your idea that I should live with you as your mistress?
艾倫·奧蘭絲卡：我不能成為你的妻子，阿徹！不正是你認為我應該作為你的情婦和你生活在一起嗎？
Newland Archer: I want... Somehow, I want to get away with you... and... and find a world where words like that don't exist!
紐蘭特·阿徹：我想……不管怎樣，我想和你一起離開……並且……找到一個地方，在那裏，所有類似這樣的謊言都不存在！
________________________________________
Ellen Olenska: I knew you'd come.
艾倫·奧蘭絲卡：我知道你會來。
Newland Archer: That shows you wanted me to.
紐蘭特·阿徹：那表明你想讓我這樣做。
________________________________________
Newland: Honest? Isn't that why you always admire Julius Beauford? He was more honest than the rest of us, wasn't he, we've got no character, no color, no variety. I wonder why you just don't go back to Europe.
紐蘭特：誠實？那就是你為什麽總是欣賞朱利葉斯·貝伍福德的原因？他比我們中的任何人都要誠實，不是嗎，我們沒有個性，沒有立場，不夠豐富。我很奇怪為什麽你不回到歐洲去呢？
Ellen: I believe that's because of you.
艾倫：我相信那是因為你。
________________________________________
Newland: You gave me my first glimpse of a real life. Then you asked me to go on with the false one. No one can endure that.
紐蘭特：你讓我認識到了什麽是真正的生活，然後你又叫我回去繼續去過那種錯誤的生活。沒人能忍受這一切。
Ellen: I'm enduring it.
艾倫：我正在忍受這一切。
________________________________________
Ellen Olenska: How can we be happy behind the backs of people who trust us?
艾倫·奧蘭絲卡：躲在那些信任我們的人的身後，我們又怎麽能幸福呢？
________________________________________
Ellen Olenska: Is New York such a labyrinth? I thought it was all straight up and down like Fifth Avenue. All the cross streets numbered and big honest labels on everything.
艾倫·奧蘭絲卡：紐約就是這樣一座迷宮嗎？我認為它的一切都像第五大道一樣筆直。所有的十字路口都標上了數字，這裏的一切都貼上了讓人一目瞭然的巨大的標簽。
Newland Archer: Everything is labeled, but everybody is not.
紐蘭特·阿徹：確實這裏的一切事物都貼上了標簽，但這裏的人卻沒有。
Ellen Olenska: Then I must count on you for warnings too.
艾倫·奧蘭絲卡：那麽我必須認真考慮你的忠告了。
________________________________________
Ellen Olenska: Is fashion such a serious consideration?
艾倫·奧蘭絲卡：考慮這種嚴肅的事情是很時髦的嗎？
Newland Archer: Among those who have nothing more serious to consider.
紐蘭特·阿徹：對於那些沒有更嚴肅的事情可以考慮的人來說是這樣。
________________________________________
Newland: We should travel everywhere.
紐蘭特：我們應該到處去旅行。
Louisa van der Luyden: But not Naples. Doctor Bencomb says there is a fever there.
路易薩·範德路登：但別去那不勒斯。貝勒科布醫生說那兒正流行熱病。
穿幫鏡頭
·時代錯誤：當埃倫嚮紐蘭表白心跡的時候，可以在她身後的墻上看到一幅油畫“The Art, the Caresses, the Sphynx”，是由Fernand Khnoppf 在1896年創作的。影片設置的時間是在1870年代。
·連貫性：在波士頓公園長凳上，紐蘭和埃倫坐着。當他坐下來的時候，他脫下了手套，我們可以看見他的婚戒。鏡頭轉嚮別處然後又回來，此時他戴着手套。然後他又把手套脫下。
·時代錯誤：電影發生在1870年代。電影開始於一場“浮士德”的演出。這出歌劇第一次在紐約上演的時間是在1883年10月22日。
·時代錯誤：在那個巴黎的長鏡頭裏，可以看到後方的萬神殿和聖路易斯島，不管是白天還是夜晚，都可以清晰地看到建築屋頂上的電視天綫。
·時代錯誤：Beaufort挂在紅色繪畫室裏的兩幅畫：Le Printemps和《春的誕生》（The Birth of Spring），其作者是Bouguereau，實際完成於1886年，而影片反映的年代卻是19世紀70年代。
·事實錯誤：紐蘭特和梅的孩子受洗禮時，牧師為孩子念的祈禱詞是：“聖父、聖子和聖靈。”（the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit，而不是the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost）。實際直到20世紀20年代美國聖公會修改了祈禱書後牧師纔會在洗禮時說：：“The Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit。”