Wharton's "The Other Two"

As I read this story, I was anticipating what I thought might happen. However, either I missed something along the way or I finished with somewhat of a “let down”. I wasn’t able to fully understand what Wharton was saying with this story. I had to reread a portion to understand there were two ex-husbands in the story. I would imagine this story might have had some criticism during the years it was presented as did “The Awakening”. I am sure there was some divorce within society, but it would still not have been as widely accepted as it is today. This story tells of a woman not only divorced once but twice and remarried again.

As I read, I found myself following the line of Waythorn and attempting to understand his thoughts. I began to see him as possibly a victim of Alice, even though my initial reaction to his character found him to possibly be a domineering husband. Alice did appear to a submissive wife, asking permission for visits by her child’s father and apologizing often. However, as the story progressed, and the ex-husbands are introduced and their personalities revealed, I began to think Waythorn was questioning his wife’s contribution in the reasons for her previous divorces. There did not seem to be any ill will on the part of the ex-husbands, other than Haskett requesting his participation on his child’s upbringing. In the reading between the lines, I felt Alice had portrayed Haskett and Varick to be men of unpleasant character.

I believe after meeting the two previous spouses, Waythorn experienced a humbling awareness and realized he had unfairly judged the men. He begins to see them in a new light and begins to question his wife. He believes her at one point to have been dishonest with him and notices the mistake in her fixing his after-dinner drink as her previous husband would have wanted it.

I believe the moment Waythorn discovers the weakness in his wife was after the meeting with Varick at the dinner party. He seems disturbed by the fact she would so easily comply with what she believed to be his wishes toward her ex-husband. He realizes rather than address a difficult situation, she avoided it. I think he realizes at this point possibly her two previous marriages were not so bad, but Alice just didn’t know how to handle the difficult times and found walking away and divorce the simplest solution.