The Other Two

Mrs. Alice Waythorn is an enigma. The reader is denied access to her thoughts and feelings. Instead, everything the reader learns about her is mediated through her husband’s point of view. In the beginning of the story, Mr. Waythorn describes Alice as if he knows her well. Waythorn’s primary delight in his wife is her ability to anticipate and soothe his needs. He feels her devotion and attentiveness belong only to him is until he realizes that she is “plian[t]” (Part 4) with her ex-husbands as well. Then he feels disillusionment, becoming “sicken[ed]” (Part 4) upon realizing that Alice’s attentions to him are actually the result of learning from her ex-husbands how to be the perfect wife.

As for Alice, it is hard to know to what extent she actually loves her husband. All the reader can observe is that she does her best to soothe and calm her husband’s nerves, trying as best she can to shield him from any unpleasantries and anticipating all of his needs. Whenever she does have to deal with unpleasantries from her ex-husbands, she is skillful at using her “trembl[ing]” lip (Part 1) and “trembl[ing]” voice (Part 4) to portray herself “as a victim” (Part 4). This works at first. In the beginning of the story, when Alice brings up Haskett’s intent to visit Lily, Waythorn doesn’t continue questioning her when he sees she’s about to cry because he doesn’t want to appear as a “brute” (Part 1). But soon he begins to see through her tactics. He sees that she is like a “juggler tossing knives; but the knives were blunt and she knew they would never cut her” (Part 5).

Such manipulations cause Waythorn to devalue Alice. While before he considered her one of his most valuable possessions, once he sees her “plian[t]” (Part 4) relationships with the other men, he crassly compares her to an “oldshoe […] that too many feet had worn” (Part 4). While Waythorn sees Alice as devalued, however, the reader might reach another conclusion. In this elite New York society, the only way for a woman to succeed is to marry well. A rich husband ensures the safety, not only for herself, but also for her child. While it’s easy for her husband to judge her manipulative ways, a wider view shows how society forces her to wear the pleasing mask of the perfect wife, whether she loves her husband or not. 

Varick serves as a foil for Waythorn. While Waythorn is characterized as anxious and unstable, Varick seems unflappable and at ease. Waythorn observes him with jealously as he leisurely enjoys his meal. He does not see any trace of anxiety resulting from their earlier meeting as he himself feels. He envies Varick’s obvious enjoyment of his meal and his after-meal coffee with brandy.

But the final meeting with all three husbands is even too much for Varick. Even he is flustered as he sees both Haskett and later Alice enter the library: “The three men stood awkwardly before her, till Varick, always the most self-possessed, dashed into an explanatory phrase” (Part 5). Along with Haskett, he eagerly receives Alice’s offered cup of tea.

Of course, Varick’s sensual delight in food and drink may be a mask as well. Perhaps he is a much more accomplished pretender than Waythorn or even Alice Waythorn in presenting to society the image of complete devotion to luxury and ease. In this story, appearances are all that matter.

Mr. Haskett is thought to be a “brute” (Part 3) for his behavior toward Alice Haskett during their marriage until Mr. Waythorn meets Mr. Haskett and realizes the falseness of that characterization. Mr. Waythorn is a mild-mannered, deferential man. Waythorn notes that he could easily be thought of as “a piano-tuner, or one of those mysteriously efficient persons who are summoned in emergencies to adjust some detail of the domestic machinery” (Part 3). Haskett seems to have no designs on the Waythorns. Mr. Waythorn even investigates Haskett, and “all that he had learned was favorable” (Part 4). But Haskett’s complete devotion to his daughter makes him put aside his meekness and insist that Lily be brought up to be a kind and truthful person. He is the only one in the story who insisting on such values.