The Other Two

by

Edith Wharton

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A wealthy, socially prominent businessman, slightly older than 35 years of age. At the beginning of “The Other Two,” Mr. Waythorn and his new wife, Alice Waythorn, have just returned to New York from their honeymoon. Mr. Waythorn takes pleasure “owning” his new wife, and he is immensely troubled when the sudden appearances of Alice’s two ex-husbands, Mr. Varick and Mr. Haskett, threaten to dismantle this sense of ownership and control. Waythorn describes himself as having “somewhat unstable sensibilities,” and this instability is a constant source of anguish and insecurity for him. He strives to be the most collected and poised person in all social situations. Alice thus embodies all that Mr. Waythorn would like to be, as she is unfalteringly calm, composed, and polite. Waythorn’s “somewhat unstable sensibilities,” complicate his desire to appear social poised, however, as they result in outbursts of jealousy and controlling behaviors when he feels threatened by the presence of Alice’s ex-husbands. When confronted with the realization that he may never be able to fully know or control is wife—that his wife’s social poise comes at the price of opacity and uncertainty, and that his own social poise comes at the cost of inner discomfort—Waythorn must chooses to stifle his true emotions and desire for complete ownership and control in order to maintain his appearance of propriety.

Mr. Waythorn Quotes in The Other Two

The The Other Two quotes below are all either spoken by Mr. Waythorn or refer to Mr. Waythorn. 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 I Quotes

Her composure was restful to him; it acted as a ballast to his somewhat unstable sensibilities. As he pictured her bending over the child’s bed he thought how soothing her presence must be in illness: her very step would prognosticate recovery.

Related Characters: Mr. Waythorn, Mrs. Alice Waythorn
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 60
Explanation and Analysis:

He knew that society had not yet adapted itself to the consequences of divorce and that till the adaptation takes place every woman who uses the freedom the law accords her must be her own social justification.

Related Characters: Mr. Waythorn, Mrs. Alice Waythorn
Page Number: 61
Explanation and Analysis:
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:

What was he thinking of—only the flavour of the coffee and the liqueur? Had the morning’s meeting left no more trace in his thoughts than on his face? Had his wife so completely passed out of his life that even this odd encounter with her present husband, within a week after her remarriage, was no more than an incident in his day?

Related Characters: Mr. Waythorn, Mr. Gus Varick
Page Number: 67
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:

It was as if her whole aspect, every gesture, every inflection, every allusion, were a studied negation of that period of her life.

Related Characters: Mr. Waythorn, Mrs. Alice Waythorn
Page Number: 75
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. Waythorn Quotes in The Other Two

The The Other Two quotes below are all either spoken by Mr. Waythorn or refer to Mr. Waythorn. 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 I Quotes

Her composure was restful to him; it acted as a ballast to his somewhat unstable sensibilities. As he pictured her bending over the child’s bed he thought how soothing her presence must be in illness: her very step would prognosticate recovery.

Related Characters: Mr. Waythorn, Mrs. Alice Waythorn
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 60
Explanation and Analysis:

He knew that society had not yet adapted itself to the consequences of divorce and that till the adaptation takes place every woman who uses the freedom the law accords her must be her own social justification.

Related Characters: Mr. Waythorn, Mrs. Alice Waythorn
Page Number: 61
Explanation and Analysis:
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:

What was he thinking of—only the flavour of the coffee and the liqueur? Had the morning’s meeting left no more trace in his thoughts than on his face? Had his wife so completely passed out of his life that even this odd encounter with her present husband, within a week after her remarriage, was no more than an incident in his day?

Related Characters: Mr. Waythorn, Mr. Gus Varick
Page Number: 67
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:

It was as if her whole aspect, every gesture, every inflection, every allusion, were a studied negation of that period of her life.

Related Characters: Mr. Waythorn, Mrs. Alice Waythorn
Page Number: 75
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: