Jan McCutcheon
English 48B
Journal for Wharton

Author Quote: “listening for her step with a tender sense of all it symbolized, with some old trail of verse about the garlanded nuptial doorposts floating through his enjoyment of the pleasant room and the good dinner just beyond it” (Norton 830).

Internet Quote: “Many of Wharton's novels are characterized by a subtle use of dramatic irony. Having grown up in upper-class pre-World War I society, Wharton became one of its most astute critics.”


Summary: Waythorn’s honeymoon with his wife is interrupted because her 12 year old daughter from her first marriage has typhoid. The girl is transferred to Waythorn’s house, for convenience, but this also means they need to allow her father access to visit. Additionally, because his business partner has gout, he is also dealing with Mrs. Waythorn’s second husband. So poor old Waythorn is inconvenienced by having to deal with Mrs. Waythorn’s past.


Response: Interestingly, in the first paragraphs of the story, Waythorn is “listening for her step with a tender sense of all it symbolized, with some old trail of verse about the garlanded nuptial doorposts floating through his enjoyment of the pleasant room and the good dinner just beyond it” (Norton 830). When I googled “garlanded nuptial doorposts” I found a link to Lysistrata, which is a story about how the women of Athens and Sparta withheld sex from their husbands in order to force them to stop fighting. Maybe this is just a coincidence, but it gets me wondering from the start exactly what is Edith Wharton getting at here? I think she may be talking about the fact that women in that day did not have many options and had to tie their fates to a man. Mrs. Waythorn is on her third husband in this story, each time, marring to get herself and daughter into better financial circumstances. I think she is saying women were forced to use sex to secure their survival is the only option available to women, unless, like Wharton, they are born into money.