Summary
Part One
In the opening section of ‘‘The Wives of the Dead,’’ the narrator downplays the significance of his story, calling it ‘‘scarcely worth relating,’’ yet he proceeds to narrate it in detail. A century ago, during the early 1700s, two "young and comely" women in a seaport town in Massachusetts married brothers and started a household together. Over ‘‘two successive’’ days, they receive news of their husbands' deaths: one perishes at sea, and the other is killed while fighting the French and Indians in Canada. At this time, the British were engaged in a struggle with the French for dominance in North America, and colonists from the Bay colonies often participated in battles on the Canadian frontier. Although many townspeople gather to express their condolences, the women prefer solitude to comfort each other.
Once the mourners depart, Mary, who is more practical and composed, prepares dinner, but Margaret, overwhelmed and resentful, cannot bring herself to eat. They retire to bed, and while Mary quickly falls asleep, momentarily escaping her grief, Margaret lies awake, in a "feverish" state, staring at the living room the couples shared and mourning the past. Hawthorne employs light imagery, referencing the hearth and the lamp, to evoke the warmth of the past and the coldness of the present.
Part Two
Struggling to sleep, Margaret hears a knock at the door and hesitantly answers, taking the lamp from the hearth with her. Goodman Parker, a neighbor and innkeeper, delivers the surprising news that Margaret's husband is actually alive. Referring to a messenger who recently stopped by Parker's house with updates from the frontier, Parker informs Margaret, ‘‘He tells me we had the better in the skirmish you wot of, and that thirteen men reported slain are well and sound, and your husband among them.’’ (The phrase ‘‘wot of’’ means ‘‘know of.’’ "Goodman" was a common title in the American colonies and is found in other Hawthorne stories, such as ‘‘Young Goodman Brown.’’) Overjoyed, Margaret opts not to wake Mary and tell her, fearing it might alter Mary's feelings toward her. She returns to bed and indulges in ‘‘delightful thoughts,’’ which transition into "visions" as she sleeps.
Part Three
Mary is startled awake by a "vivid dream" and the sound of "eager knocking on the street-door." Similar to Margaret, she retrieves the lamp from the hearth and opens the window, which had been left unlatched. Stephen, a sailor and former suitor of Mary's, informs her that her husband has survived the shipwreck and is alive. Hawthorne uses irony in naming the overturned ship Blessing. Initially, Mary believes Stephen has come to rekindle their past romance, and she is shocked. The narrator notes that she "was not in the least inclined to mimic the first wife of Zadig," who, in Voltaire's tale "Zadig's Nose," quickly moves on with another man after Zadig fakes his death. However, upon hearing that her husband is alive, Mary, like her sister-in-law, is filled with joy. Despite this, she hesitates to wake Margaret, concerned that the news might deepen her sorrow. The story's final line leaves readers uncertain. It is ambiguous whether Margaret awoke when Mary touched her or if Mary awoke to her own tears, with Stephen's visit being merely a dream.
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