Nov 15, 2009

The Wives of the Dead | Hawthorne's The Wives of the Dead: Bereavement and the Better Part

In the following essay, Christophersen explores how Hawthorne ‘‘challenges conventional moral assumptions’’ in ‘‘The Wives of the Dead.’’

In 1832, the year Hawthorne wrote ‘‘Roger Malvin's Burial’’ and ‘‘My Kinsman, Major Molineux,’’ he also wrote a less remembered, but no less exquisite story entitled ‘‘The Wives of the Dead.’’ In it Margaret and Mary, the ‘‘young and comely’’ brides of two brothers, discover within a day of each other that their husbands have been killed. Grief draws them together. But during the night, each unknown to the other receives word her "dead'' husband is alive and on his way home. A drama of mixed emotions ensues: neither woman can bring herself to break her...