26 pages • 52 minutes read
Edith WhartonThe Other Two
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1904A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Subversion of Gender Roles
The story opens with a husband confident in his status. He is wealthy, works as a high-powered New York stockbroker, and, recently married, he delights in the “joy of possessorship. They were his, those white hands with their flitting motions, his the light haze of hair, the lips and eyes” (Part 2). He considers Alice Waythorn as the greatest of his possessions. The story opens with “Waythorn, on the drawing-room hearth, waited for his wife to come down to dinner” (Part 1), showing Waythorn anticipating the appearance of both his wife and his dinner, his twin luxuries. He happily considers how his wife conforms to her expected role of anticipating and serving his needs, dedicated to devoting herself to his comfort and his sense of ease with utmost attention to respectability.
But such comfort is denied as the story subverts expectations. As Waythorn is forced into uncomfortable situations with both of Alice’s ex-husbands, he is repeatedly characterized as stereotypically feminine with his “womanish” (Part 3) and “unstable sensibilities” (Part 1) as he is easily unnerved by the “other two” and his wife’s seemingly indifference to the awkwardness of the situations. In fact, Alice seems to be characterized in more traditionally masculine ways as she is the one who seems to be in control, maneuvering the various social alliances always in her favor. Mr. Waythorn seems to have little agency while Mrs. Waythorn seems to have every situation under control.
And yet, one must realize the limitations of Alice’s power. Her only path to survive and succeed in this upper-class society is for her to marry well. Since marriage is her only option and, while the story delights in the absurdity of the situations that Waythorn suffers, the story also reminds the reader that Alice’s position is not funny. She must keep her husband’s approval or “the faint undercurrent of detraction” (Part 1) that follows her could cause her to suffer disastrous consequences.
Marriage as a Partnership of Men
Mr. Waythorn is forced to reevaluate his understanding of marriage. At the beginning of the story, he feels as if he alone possesses Alice Waythorn alone. But as he is forced to repeatedly interact with both of her ex-husbands, he realizes that he is forced to “share” her with them. He gradually accepts this understanding, realizing that, ironically, her previous marriages actually made her a better wife since she used what she learned from her failed marriages to create a successful third marriage.
Thus, Waythorn realizes he is indebted, not so much to Alice, but to the “other two.” In fact, rather than referring to his own wife as his partner, he refers to Varick and Haskett as his “partners” (Part 5), since their relationships have allowed him to succeed in having such an accomplished wife.
Society’s Gaze and the Mask of Appearances
Waythorn always worries about what others think. He cannot step foot in public without thinking of how others will view him. As the husband of a twice-divorced woman, he is aware of society’s intensified gaze. As a result, he has created a façade, a mask that is pleasing to society’s gaze. This mask hides his insecurities, projecting instead a calm exterior to the world. Once home, he has an immense desire for privacy. Only at home he can take off the mask and enjoy the intimacy and privacy of the domestic sphere.
However, that feeling is illusory since he finds that both of Alice’s ex-husbands show up often in their lives and in their home. Haskett and Varick gain access to the innermost areas of his home, and he feels trapped with his mask, unable to let down his guard. He must maintain the illusion of power and control in both public and private places because he doesn’t want to appear less of a man, not even in front of the servants. He internalizes society’s gaze so that every step in both his public and private life conforms to society’s expectation. This obsession with societal norms creates great tension for him and great humor for the reader as the situations get increasingly more absurd.
Ironically, society approves of the Waythorns’ unconventional relationships. Yet Waythorn cannot let go of his fear of mockery and lack of control, exerting a forced calm in increasingly challenging situations. Only at the end can he laugh, when he witnesses the final absurdity of his wife serving tea to all three of her husbands in the intimacy of the library. But does the laugh mean he has let go of his need to preserve the mask of respectability? Or is the laugh part of his controlled mask? That final gesture is unknowable, remaining on the surface, as the characters continue to act with utmost manners and politeness.
Wharton’s Literary Naturalism and Feminism
Wharton published “The Other Two” in 1904 in her short story collection, The Descent of Man and Other Stories. Earlier, in 1871, Charles Darwin published the similarly titled The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, outlining his ideas about evolution and how principles such as natural selection applied to human evolution. Such ideas had profound ideas on authors of the time, contributing to the literary style of Naturalism. These writers, such as Wharton, emphasized how character choices were often determined by both heredity and environment. Wharton particularly focused on the societal forces at work on women in her society—showing how these women’s options were limited, determined mainly by their marriage prospects in a world dominated by men. As is clear from Alice’s marriages, women’s financial success was determined by the kind of marriages they could make, and Alice has adapted to this environment accordingly.
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