In Edith Wharton's first major work, The Decorating of Houses, she states that "the impression produced by a landscape, a street, or a house should always, for the novelist, be an event in the history of the soul” (quoted in Falk 23). Later, in her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Age of Innocence, Wharton uses her knowledge and love of architecture to develop her characters, as she had previously found important. Thus, it takes into consideration the style of the houses, their design and their European or American identification and depicts the characteristics of New York society and its major characters. Ranks in the social order are indicated based on where the character lives in the New York borough, cold aristocratic personalities are depicted through simple walls and furniture, and some characters are separated from the company because they follow different trends in architecture and interior design. At the beginning of the novel, Beaufort's house quickly establishes itself as a character who has earned his place in society through the architecture of his house. It is the first described and “one of the few in New York to have a ballroom.” . . this incontestable superiority [is] felt as compensation for everything that [is] regrettable in Beaufort’s past” (13). This characterizes the upper class society of New York. Obviously, architecture must be important if a ballroom guarantees someone high rank, and it may even disguise the fact that Beaufort was not born into the social order and has no mistress . Ada Van Gastel, a Wharton critic who wrote "The Siting and Decoration of Houses in the Age of Innocence," points out another way the Beaufort property represents him: "Having only recently entered the company, he still resides on the ..... . middle of paper......a lot, but at this point he is identified with New York. He tries to separate himself from it later, but like the plot of the novel, he cannot leave America or the architecture attributed to it. Wharton cleverly uses his love of architecture in The Age of Innocence. It shows some characters as elite but simple New Yorkers, just like their home. Beaufort uses his to break into society, but he never really fits in. However, Archer cannot be characterized so directly. He wants to be European, like Ellen Olenska and Catherine Mingott, but it doesn't work. Architecture seems to describe it confusedly in this, which reflects its own confusion with it. This can also show Edith Wharton's uncertainty about whether or not she likes her character. Ultimately, when she announces that he will never fit in with the European characters, this may be deciding her view of him..