A Journey by Edith Wharton - Analysis

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Edith Wharton. Image source

 Themes and close reading

·         Unsettling feeling of vague doom – source of her husband's illness unexplained.

The man she had married had been strong, active, gently
masterful: the male whose pleasure it is to clear a way through the
material obstructions of life; but now it was she who was the protector,
he who must be shielded from importunities and given his drops or his
beef-juice though the skies were falling.

·         Liking the local area only when leaving it

They drove to the station, he was installed in a seat
with a rug over his knees and a cushion at his back, and she hung out of
the window waving unregretful farewells to the acquaintances she had
really never liked till then.

·         Effeminate man – husband has a women's malady and people pass judgment

·         Natural terrain seems primitive and exotic

She sat up stiffly, staring out at the dawn. The train was rushing through
a region of bare hillocks huddled against a lifeless sky. It looked like
the first day of creation.

Keywords

·         Car (of a train)

People and Places

·         New York
·         Colorado
·         Harlem

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