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Part IV
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Other Two, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Social Etiquette and Illusions
Marriage and Gender Inequality
Social Advancement
Summary
Analysis
The Waythorns’ social circle is overjoyed that they have chosen to spare everyone the awkwardness of picking sides between them and Varick. Alice is regarded as a “a miracle of good taste.”
Again, Alice uses her adaptability to earn points in society.
Themes
Waythorn anguishes once more over his naive presumption “that a woman can shed her past like a man.” He realizes “that Alice was bound to hers both by the circumstances which forced her into continued relation with it, and by the traces it had left on her nature.” Waythorn sees himself as “a member of a syndicate,” as he “held so many shares in his wife’s personality and his predecessors were partners in the business.” Waythorn dissects his favorite aspects of his wife’s personality—her faithfulness and love of etiquette—and attributes their origins to her ex-husbands. Waythorn reluctantly sinks into “complete acceptance” of the wife that is no longer solely his.
Waythorn used to love Mrs. Waythorn’s mannerisms because he associated them with himself—he felt that her sensibilities offset his insensibilities. He grounded Alice’s personality in the present; that is, as mannerisms she performed with him in mind. Now, however, Waythorn sees Alice’s personality as grounded in the past, or as remnants of the personalities she assumed to please her ex-husbands. He no longer feels that he can own all of Alice, because he only “held so many shares” of Alice’s character. One must also note the economic language Wharton uses in this section—when Waythorn refers to Alice’s personality in terms of “shares” of Alice, he strips her of her agency, reducing her to a mere object of currency passed down from husband to husband.
Themes
Literary Devices
On a later day, Waythorn comes home to find Haskett waiting for him in the library. He has come to inquire about Lily. Waythorn offers Haskett a cigar, and the two men sit smoking and talking, “enclosed in the intimacy of their blended cigar smoke.”
Solidifying their new kinship, Waythorn offers Haskett a cigar. He now sees them as more alike than not—they are both victims of the opportunistic, calculating Alice Waythorn. The cigar offering places them on an equal ground.
Themes
Suddenly, the door opens and Varick enters the room. All three men are caught off-guard. Varick’s “sanguine colour deepened to a flush,” but he composes himself quickly. He has come to discuss business matters, and Waythorn offers him, too, a cigar.
Varick’s “sanguine colour” betrays the distaste or embarrassment he feels at seeing Haskett, but his great sense of etiquette allows him to hide it quickly. The cigar that Waythorn offers Haskett doesn’t emphasize a kinship with Varick (Wharton goes to great lengths to establish how uncomfortable Waythorn continues to feel around Varick) so much as Waythorn’s careful, conscious choice to appear publicly accepting of Varick. In choosing to offer Varick a cigar, Waythorn has chosen, once more, etiquette over honesty.
Themes
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The Waythorns’ footman brings in a tea-table, and Varick begins to broach a subject of business. He is interrupted by Alice, who enters the library, “fresh and smiling,” to have tea with her husband. She is pleased to see Varick and displeased to see Haskett. She composes herself and offers the men tea. Haskett and Varick accept, “as if drawn by her smile,” and Waythorn accepts a third cup of tea “with a laugh.”
The tea-table is highly symbolic of upper-class customs and the rituals of etiquette. Indulging in tea is a performance of good manners and social composure. That Alice, her two ex-husbands, and one current husband choose to sit around a table drinking tea together despite their unanimous discomfort signifies that they have all chosen to honor propriety over sincerity. Internally, the situation is a nightmare; but from the outside it appears to be only a table of happy acquaintances enjoying each other’s delightful company.
Themes
Literary Devices
