- All's Well That Ends Well
- Antony and Cleopatra
- As You Like It
- The Comedy of Errors
- Coriolanus
- Cymbeline
- Hamlet
- Henry IV, Part 1
- Henry IV, Part 2
- Henry V
- Henry VI, Part 1
- Henry VI, Part 2
- Henry VI, Part 3
- Henry VIII
- Julius Caesar
- King John
- King Lear
- Love's Labor's Lost
- A Lover's Complaint
- Macbeth
- Measure for Measure
- The Merchant of Venice
- The Merry Wives of Windsor
- A Midsummer Night's Dream
- Much Ado About Nothing
- Othello
- Pericles
- The Rape of Lucrece
- Richard II
- Richard III
- Romeo and Juliet
- Shakespeare's Sonnets
- The Taming of the Shrew
- The Tempest
- Timon of Athens
- Titus Andronicus
- Troilus and Cressida
- Twelfth Night
- The Two Gentlemen of Verona
- Venus and Adonis
- The Winter's Tale
In Barbara Ansley’s lighthearted joke, Wharton shows the impact of middle age and widowhood on Mrs. Ansley and Mrs. Slade. In their daughters’ eyes, the two women are no longer active participants in life’s many dramas and adventures. Instead, they are passive observers of life. Barbara’s joke suggests that young people are the vital center of the world, and that older people rely on their children to keep themselves occupied. This view of middle age, which Mrs. Ansley notes is a common one—calling it “the collective modern idea of mothers”—may explain why memories of the past hold so much enchantment…