The Other Two

by

Edith Wharton

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on The Other Two makes teaching easy.

Mr. Haskett Character Analysis

Alice’s first husband. He is a common man of meager means, but he will do anything for his daughter, Lily, having recently moved across the state to be nearer to her. He is described as a “small effaced-looking man with a thinnish grey beard.” Alice was dissatisfied with the limited life her marriage to Mr. Haskett offered her, so she divorced him to improve her social standing. Haskett is unimposing and polite, though his manners seem clunky and pedestrian, or “over-the-counter,” in Mr. Waythorn’s words. He wears a “made up” tie, which Waythorn sees symbolic of his plight and personality. Mr. Waythorn is sympathetic of Mr. Haskett, however, once her sees the opportunistic motivations behind Alice’s multiple marriages.

Mr. Haskett Quotes in The Other Two

The The Other Two quotes below are all either spoken by Mr. Haskett or refer to Mr. Haskett. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Social Etiquette and Illusions Theme Icon
).
Part II Quotes

As his door closed behind him he reflected that before he opened it again it would have admitted another man who had as much right to enter it as himself, and the thought filled him with a physical repugnance.

Related Characters: Mr. Waythorn, Mr. Haskett
Related Symbols: The Home
Page Number: 64
Explanation and Analysis:
Part III Quotes

But this other man…it was grotesquely uppermost in Waythorn’s mind that Haskett had worn a made-up tie attached with an elastic. Why should that ridiculous detail symbolise the whole man? Waythorn was exasperated by his own paltriness, but the fact of the tie expanded, forced itself on him, became as it were the key to Alice’s past.

Related Characters: Mr. Waythorn, Mrs. Alice Waythorn, Mr. Haskett
Related Symbols: Haskett’s Tie
Page Number: 74
Explanation and Analysis:

A man would rather think that his wife has been brutalised by her first husband than that the process has been reversed.

Related Characters: Mr. Waythorn, Mrs. Alice Waythorn, Mr. Haskett
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 75
Explanation and Analysis:
Part IV Quotes

She was ‘as easy as an old shoe’ —a shoe that too many feet had worn. Her elasticity was the result of tension in too many different directions. Alice Haskett—Alice Varick—Alice Waythorn—she had been each in turn, and had left hanging to each name a little of her privacy, a little of her personality, a little of the inmost self where the unknown god abides.

Related Characters: Mr. Waythorn, Mrs. Alice Waythorn, Mr. Gus Varick, Mr. Haskett
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 81
Explanation and Analysis:
Part V Quotes

He could have forgiven her for blunders, for excesses; for resisting Haskett, for yielding to Varick; for anything but her acquiescence and her tact.

Related Characters: Mr. Waythorn, Mrs. Alice Waythorn, Mr. Gus Varick, Mr. Haskett
Page Number: 82
Explanation and Analysis:

With grim irony Waythorn compared himself to a member of a syndicate. He held so many shares in his wife’s personality and his predecessors were his partners in the firm.

Related Characters: Mr. Waythorn, Mrs. Alice Waythorn, Mr. Gus Varick, Mr. Haskett
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 82
Explanation and Analysis:
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Mr. Haskett Quotes in The Other Two

The The Other Two quotes below are all either spoken by Mr. Haskett or refer to Mr. Haskett. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Social Etiquette and Illusions Theme Icon
).
Part II Quotes

As his door closed behind him he reflected that before he opened it again it would have admitted another man who had as much right to enter it as himself, and the thought filled him with a physical repugnance.

Related Characters: Mr. Waythorn, Mr. Haskett
Related Symbols: The Home
Page Number: 64
Explanation and Analysis:
Part III Quotes

But this other man…it was grotesquely uppermost in Waythorn’s mind that Haskett had worn a made-up tie attached with an elastic. Why should that ridiculous detail symbolise the whole man? Waythorn was exasperated by his own paltriness, but the fact of the tie expanded, forced itself on him, became as it were the key to Alice’s past.

Related Characters: Mr. Waythorn, Mrs. Alice Waythorn, Mr. Haskett
Related Symbols: Haskett’s Tie
Page Number: 74
Explanation and Analysis:

A man would rather think that his wife has been brutalised by her first husband than that the process has been reversed.

Related Characters: Mr. Waythorn, Mrs. Alice Waythorn, Mr. Haskett
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 75
Explanation and Analysis:
Part IV Quotes

She was ‘as easy as an old shoe’ —a shoe that too many feet had worn. Her elasticity was the result of tension in too many different directions. Alice Haskett—Alice Varick—Alice Waythorn—she had been each in turn, and had left hanging to each name a little of her privacy, a little of her personality, a little of the inmost self where the unknown god abides.

Related Characters: Mr. Waythorn, Mrs. Alice Waythorn, Mr. Gus Varick, Mr. Haskett
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 81
Explanation and Analysis:
Part V Quotes

He could have forgiven her for blunders, for excesses; for resisting Haskett, for yielding to Varick; for anything but her acquiescence and her tact.

Related Characters: Mr. Waythorn, Mrs. Alice Waythorn, Mr. Gus Varick, Mr. Haskett
Page Number: 82
Explanation and Analysis:

With grim irony Waythorn compared himself to a member of a syndicate. He held so many shares in his wife’s personality and his predecessors were his partners in the firm.

Related Characters: Mr. Waythorn, Mrs. Alice Waythorn, Mr. Gus Varick, Mr. Haskett
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 82
Explanation and Analysis: