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Part 2
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Wife of His Youth, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Race and Class
Love, Loyalty, and Honor
History and Identity
Community and Solidarity
Summary
Analysis
The ball begins later that night. The guests are mostly professional-class people who could easily “pass” for white. The toast-master gives a speech about the importance of women and invites Mr. Ryder to speak. Mr. Ryder gives a speech on women as “the gift of Heaven to man” and says that women’s most distinctive quality is their fidelity and devotion to those they love. History is full of examples of such faithfulness, but none of them as striking as the example that has only come to his notice today.
The description of the ball is meant to emphasize the guests’ relatively high social class—indeed, many of the details recall the pre-Civil War balls of the Southern white elite. This description emphasizes that many of the members of the Blue Veins society want—as Mr. Ryder did at the outset of the story—to enter into white elite society. It also forms a stark contrast to the story of slavery and war that Mr. Ryder has just heard from Eliza Jane and is about to tell his guests. Mr. Ryder’s toast to the value of women’s fidelity hints at the profound effect that Eliza Jane’s example of love and devotion has had on him.
Themes
Literary Devices
Mr. Ryder then retells the story that Eliza Jane told him earlier that day. The story evokes a sympathetic response in the audience, many of whom lived through the years of slavery and the Civil War. Others have heard stories of it from parents and grandparents, and they all sometimes feel the shadow of that time hanging over them. Mr. Ryder remarks that very few women would ever show such devotion and confidence to retain her affection and faith in a man she has not seen or heard of in 25 years.
Even though the members of the Blue Veins society are a relatively elite group within the Black American community of this period, they nonetheless experienced many of the same traumas that the rest of this community experienced in the past. They are, after all, still subject to the racism and oppression of this society. Therefore, the audience at the ball is quite receptive to Eliza Jane’s story, even though it forms such a stark contrast with their present sophisticated surroundings. Even as these guests, like Mr. Ryder, have tried to work their way up on the social ladder, they haven’t entirely lost their sense of connection with a troubled past.
Themes
Mr. Ryder tells the audience that after Eliza Jane left, he imagined the following scenario: that this husband, soon after escaping, learned that his wife had been sold away, and that he could not find out anything about where she was now. He was much younger and lighter-skinned than her, and their marriage had no legal standing due to her enslaved status. He went North to improve his social standing and grew to be quite a different person than that “ignorant boy” who had fled from slavery. He worked hard enough to earn the respect of such people as he, Mr. Ryder, sees around him now—a sight that fills him with joy, because he remembers a time when it would not have been possible in this country.
The detail with which Mr. Ryder describes this scenario to his audience suggests that it might not simply be an imagined scenario. Rather, he may have a personal connection to Eliza Jane’s story—he may, in fact, be the man formerly known as Sam Taylor. His story emphasizes that Sam, like Eliza Jane, had a strong sense of honor and devotion and did try to keep his promise to his wife. But unlike her, he did not keep searching for her once it seemed like it would be impossible to find her—instead, he sought to improve his own standing. Mr. Ryder’s story emphasizes the differences between Eliza Jane and Sam Taylor: their different statuses (enslaved versus free-born), skin colors, and education levels. This again emphasizes the internal divisions of class and race within the Black American community of this period. Mr. Ryder also hints at the importance of community when he reflects fondly on the group of people around him, which is valuable to him precisely because it wouldn’t have been possible for it to exist under slavery.
Themes
Literary Devices
Mr. Ryder tells the audience to imagine that this man’s memory of the past grew indistinct, until he rarely thought about it except in dreams. Then, a chance encounter causes him to realize that the wife of his youth—the wife he had left behind, who had not joined him on his upward struggle to a higher social position, but rather lived a laborious life that aged her prematurely—was alive and searching for him. But she would not recognize him, unless he chose to reveal himself.
Mr. Ryder all but confirms here that he is indeed Sam Taylor, which is how he’s able to narrate Sam’s thoughts and experiences. He hints at how he’s tried to forget the legacy of the past—to put aside his youth, spent in a state of near-slavery, as easily as one might forget a dream—but how it has nonetheless unexpectedly confronted him. Again, Mr. Ryder emphasizes the class differences between Sam Taylor and Eliza Jane—how Sam Taylor has climbed the social ladder, while Eliza Jane has remained near the lowest rungs. Mr. Ryder also emphasizes the contrast between Eliza Jane’s unhesitating devotion and Sam Taylor’s hesitation upon meeting her as to whether he should reveal his identity or not.
Themes
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Mr. Ryder asks the audience: what would that man do? He tells them to assume that this is a man who tries to act with honor and justice toward all, and to imagine that he had planned to marry another. He asks his audience again: what should this man do, in such a “crisis of a lifetime”? Mr. Ryder says he imagined the man might hesitate, and he imagined he was a friend of the man, arguing about the matter with him impartially. After looking at the situation from every point of view, he quoted a line of Shakespeare: “to thine own self be true […] [and] thou canst not then be false to any man.”
Mr. Ryder’s emphasis on Sam Taylor’s sense of honor parallels Eliza Jane’s sense of honor in searching for her husband. However, his hesitation shows that he is not quite capable of the same selfless devotion as she is. In the end, however, the Sam Taylor of Mr. Ryder’s imagined story decides to “be true” to himself—therefore, to reveal his identity to his former wife. Symbolically, this is also an acceptance of his former self as part of who he is, rather than continue trying to forget this part of his past.
Themes
Literary Devices
Mr. Ryder tells the audience that, in his imagined conversation, he posed this question to the man: “Shall you acknowledge her?” Mr. Ryder then poses the question to the audience: “What should he have done?” Mr. Ryder’s speech deeply moves the audience—they realize it is not simply an imaginary situation but a “personal appeal.” Mr. Ryder looks at Molly Dixon with an expression of “renunciation and inquiry.” Molly Dixon, who had cried while listening to Mr. Ryder’s story, is the first to say, “He should have acknowledged her.” The rest of the audience says the same.
Mr. Ryder poses the key dilemma that Eliza Jane’s visit confronted him with—the question of whether to acknowledge her as his former wife, even though doing so would mean completely reordering his identity and life plans. This is the point where the audience realizes, beyond doubt, that Mr. Ryder is, in fact, the same person as Sam Taylor. His imagined scenario was not imaginary at all, but rather his own personal history. In asking what they would have done before revealing his decision, Mr. Ryder in a sense poses the same dilemma to them: whether to embrace solidarity over self-advancement, and whether to confront the past or ignore it. The interaction between Mr. Ryder and Molly Dixon hints that Mr. Ryder is giving up his plans for marriage to Molly in order to honor his commitment to Eliza Jane. The fact that the rest of the audience agrees that he should have acknowledged his former wife shows that they, too, understand the importance of honor and solidarity with others, rather than simply pursuing their own advancement.
Themes
Mr. Ryder thanks his audience and says this is the answer he expected them to give, because he knows their hearts. He opens the door of an adjoining room and leads out Eliza Jane, who is startled by the ball’s brilliance. Mr. Ryder tells the audience: “this is the woman, and I am the man, whose story I have just told you. Permit me to introduce to you the wife of my youth.”
Mr. Ryder’s remark that he understands his guests’ hearts, when they tell them he should have acknowledged his former wife, hints at the deep sense of community that he feels toward them. Eliza Jane’s appearance at the ball heightens the contrast between her humble appearance and the sophistication of her surroundings, again emphasizing the class divisions within the Black American community that lay at the heart of Mr. Ryder’s dilemma. Mr. Ryder’s ultimate act of loyalty in acknowledging Eliza Jane as his former wife, despite its social cost to him, parallels her loyalty in searching for him all these years. Although the reader is not given a clear indication of how Mr. Ryder’s beliefs regarding race and class have changed since the start of the story, this ending suggests that his encounter with Eliza Jane has transformed him. He comes to understand that love is more important than social status, and that honoring one’s commitments to others is more important than mere “self-preservation.”
Themes
