“The Other Two”: story by Edith Wharton
Use textual evidence to support all answers
Please answer all questions!
1) How does Mr. Waythorn’s impression of his wife change throughout the story? Note the “pliancy” reference, a new twist on the passiveness that he had liked in her at the outset.
2) What are the implications of the final scene? Has Waythorn finally come to terms with reality or is his laughter ironic?
3) What is the significance of the statement that Waythorn knew that “society had not yet adapted itself to the consequences of divorce”? What were the prevailing attitudes toward it at that time? What were the primary grounds for divorce? What role-playing and deception did this view bring about?
