Charles Chesnutt in both the stories that we read for Tuesday: “The Wife of His Youth” and “The Passing of Grandison”, but leave the reader hanging, with surprises I didn’t expect. The first I think was particularly surprising because it built on the mystery of this man, who seemed a life long bachelor until he met Mrs. Dixon. The life that Mr. Ryder as created for himself is beyond what he left when he ran away from slavery. His goals in life as to further profess in lightening this tree line. He also seems to be an inspiration for the Blue Veins, with his intelligence and learned diction.
Of course the right thing for him to do was to acknowledge the wife that has been seeking him for 20 years, and the room of course speaks as one’s conscious might, even young Mrs. Dixon who is suppose to be his future wife would not let him, or the person in the story walk away from his past, in the form of a long lost love. But with this dynamite change it seems like acknowledging their slave marriage would not bring him happiness. I say this not because she is darker than he, thus making their tree darker instead of lighter, but he has evolved over the past 20 years, and the wife has remain the woman that he married… So yes, pity should be taken, he should not shun the woman who has been searching for him for 20 years, but how can he practically take her in, and be married to a woman who he has long forgotten?
In “The Passing of Grandison”, the shock of course is when Grandison returns only to free all of his friends and family from slavery, after he himself has become the token slave for the South: life is better for slaves with masters right? Even Grandison didn’t really think so. So what I wonder is when did he make his plot to freedom, did he already know when he left he should be planning to free everyone? Did he start planning with the first abolitionist? There is however, no doubt that he had help since he and his family made their way to freedom through the Underground Railroad.
We're led to suspect that Grandison did have this plan, Ashina. YOur post gets at the moral quandary that Ryder has: not just whether he should acknowledge her, but what should happen next.
ReplyDeleteAshina, I agree that Mr. Ryder should definitely acknowledge his wife, especially, as you pointed out, since she has been searching for him for twenty years. However, I’m not certain the best thing for her would be to enter into a marriage with him. He seems to value his social position in the Blue Vein society; he places a high priority in living a cultured life by reading poetry and throwing a ball, and he seems to look down on those darker and less cultured than him. Thus, while he certainly should help out his wife, who clearly has been very faithful to him, I don’t think she would be happy with him. She is very dark and does not have the education or culture he does, so I think she would be unhappy living with this man whom she believed would stand by her in the same way she stood by him all those years. However, he seemed not to think of her much as he intended to remarry. He does do right by her by acknowledging their slave marriage, but I wonder if he simply wants to acknowledge that she was his wife or if he intends to formalize their marriage and live with her as husband and wife. Plus, even in the latter case, he would probably resent this woman who would not mix well with his social circle, which would not lead to the happiest of marriages. I think the woman would be better off without him as she clearly has stronger feelings for him than he does for her.
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