Teaching Philosophy and Materials
Charles Chesnutt, "The Wife of His Youth"
Despite some students' annoyance with Chesnutt's didacticism, we were able to interrogate this text on a number of levels. His moral message might have been clear: the Blue Veins, when asked, chose the "morally correct" position, many students thought. This declaration by the assembled Blue Veins at Ryder's ball verifies the belief of Ryder throughout the story, that the Blue Veins are elevated, educated, cultured, and therefore worthy of respect. Their acknowledgment of what "the right thing to do" is, a "thing" Ryder has already done, affirms their allegiance to moral dictates. So, even though there might be a moment when the reader isn't sure what Ryder will do, the ultimate message is that the society with whom he surrounds himself might have become educated and "elevated" but never to a degree that they have lost sight of absolute moral "right and wrong." To acknowledge "the wife of his youth" is the right thing to do, we're told.
This acknowledgment though also establishes a connection that many Blue Veins had tried to erase or ignore, that of their (actual or associative) tie to rural South and the legacy of slavery. We see, as some students noted, the great efforts Ryder makes towards erudition; some even saw Ryder as a "performer," as a man who was somehow not "genuine." Students drew evidence for this claim from his love of Tennyson and his efforts to find just the right passage from "his favorite poet" to use as a prelude to his proposal to Mrs. Molly Dixon, who was "whiter than he, and better educated" (56). Ryder appears very interested in upward mobility and homogenization of race; his "marriage with Mrs. Dixon would help to further the upward process of absorption he had been wishing and waiting for" (56).
But he does not get to propose to Mrs. Dixon. As he sits one day on his porch reading a description of Queen Guinevere, he hears "a light footfall" on his steps. As we know, this is the "wife of his youth," Liza Jane. Immediately upon the opening of her mouth, we are met with a stark juxtaposition between the contrived language of Tennyson and the natural dialect, the unrehearsed language, of Liza Jane. I believe that this is where the text offers us much more nuance that some might originally think. We have many issues colliding at once here, issues that concern gender, race, language, border . . . so many of the themes we've discussed this term. We see a woman speaking for herself here and we "hear" her in an unfiltered manner. We can sense her faith and her struggle in her story. In Chestnutt's description of her appearance, we see that the terror of slavery and the difficulty of the postbellum South have aged her, but they have not dampened her faith in someone who she believes firmly that she will always know, her "Sam." Physical appearance, as in so much fiction, is a representation of moral fiber. Liza Jane is unpretentious, honest, and, though worn, faithful. Sam, or Mr. Ryder, is highly polished, manicured, "whitened," and of uncertain age. We wonder whether to trust him and this casts some degree of doubt on -- and call into question -- his final gesture in the story, to acknowledge Liza Jane publicly. For whom does he make this pronouncement? Is it for Liza Jane? We thought not as a class, as she was likely terrified and uncomfortable being brought in from an adjoining room to the bright glare of the ballroom, filled with "posh"-looking people, all "whiter" than she. The decision to bring her in was, quite possibility, yet another performance of Ryder's. But, maybe it wasn't . . .
I asked you to think about gender in this story. Who speaks? Who speaks in a way that would have been understandable/familiar to the largely white audience of The Atlantic Monthly? Is Ryder "like them"? And what has "the woman's" role been throughout the "history" of the story? What was Liza Jane's life like? Why is Ryder interested in Mrs. Dixon? And after we think about this, along with the other issues presented by the story (of race, place, and belonging), what might we conclude was Chesnutt's message in this tale?
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