ESSAY CEMETERY

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 regio

Edith Wharton. Image source A female protagonist is on a train to New York at night when it's raining, watching the lights flash by in the darkness. She thinks how she and her husband, in the berth across from her, have become estranged. They used to be in sync but now he has grown petulant and slow. She used to be a schoolteacher, and after meeting him she felt her life had hope but now it felt hopeless again. She thinks back. Soon after their wedding he was prescribed rest cure which failed. They moved to Colorado where she felt despondent taking care of him and he was growing worse and changing and they grew apart gradually. Also nobody knew her or cared about her newlywed gifts of which she is proud. Sometimes she pitied him but mostly she was frightened. Finally the doctors gave them permission to go home. This meant he was dying but she sometimes forgot and grew excited about the trip. The train trip starts well but soon grows worse and people in the car pass ju