Nov 14, 2009

The Wives of the Dead | Themes

Loss
Hawthorne's story illustrates how a person's response to death and loss reveals true character. Both women mourn the loss of their husbands. However, Mary's ‘‘mild, quiet, yet not feeble character" and her faith enable her to endure the emotional torment of her husband's death with more equanimity than Margaret. She prepares a meal and sets the table soon after the mourners leave, and tries to help her sister-in-law calm down. Margaret, on the other hand, of a "lively and irritable temperament,’’ cannot accept the loss and remains bitter, dwelling on the past...