Souls Belated, by Edith Wharton Wharton's Use

¶ … Souls Belated, by Edith Wharton [...] Wharton's use of infidelity/divorce and its social consequences in the work. SOULS BELATED Edith Wharton's novels and short stories are often based on love, tragedy, or a combination of the two. Many critics noticed Wharton's use of infidelity and divorce in her works. One noted, "Divorce, to which she gave particular attention, can in her stories never be quite complete" (Van Doren 275).

In "Souls Belated," the reader learns the two main characters, Lydia and Gannett are "sorry to be alone" at the very beginning of the story, which sets the tone for their relationship, and the remainder of the tale, so it is no surprise when Lydia receives a divorce notice in the mail. "Divorce. There it stood, an impassable barrier, between her husband's name and hers" (Wharton).

The surprise is she is not traveling with her husband, so her relationship with her lover is as bad as her relationship with her husband, or so the reader presumes. She thinks to herself that she made her marriage "do," and even though this story was written in 1899, it could be just as relevant today, when so many people simply "make do" in their relationships. She writes, "I begin to see what marriage is for. It's to keep people away from each other" (Wharton).

She loves Gannett, but she is afraid he loves her because he "has" to, and she is afraid to jump into another relationship so quickly. Divorce to her means "freedom," and life with Gannett means much of the same she suffered with her husband. In an amusing twist, Lydia reluctantly befriends another "fallen" woman who is attempting to obtain a divorce, and has run away with her lover. While Lydia does not want to be judged by others about her divorce, she judges Mrs.

Cope, falling into the same societal trap. Divorce and infidelity are almost the norm in this story, which Wharton seems determined to make normal, no matter what society thinks. She portrays the divorced women as real - living, breathing characters. They are not evil; they are just like the woman next door. By making them sympathetic, it seems she hopes to make the entire act of divorce more sympathetic and so more acceptable to stuffy Victorian society. Socially, divorce was extremely scandalous when Wharton wrote this story.

Women simply did not divorce, they made "do," and a woman who did divorce was considered loose or immoral. Wharton wryly notes, "Prudent people liked an even temperature; and to do anything unexpected was as foolish as going out in the rain" (Wharton). Of course, in the double standard of the time, men were almost expected to have affairs, but if a woman committed infidelity, again, she was loose and immoral. Lydia has committed both, which dooms her in society's eye.

The ending of the story is tragic, as are many of Wharton's writings. Gannett thinks she is leaving, and will not stop her. "He thought of her as walking barefooted through a stony waste. No one would understand her -- no one would pity her -- and he, who did both, was powerless to come to her aid.. " (Wharton). Ultimately, she finds she cannot leave, and gives up her freedom to be with yet another man.

Is it love, or is it simply bending to society's will? The reader is left feeling incredibly sorry for Lydia, who lived in a time when women really could not be free unless they were total outcasts. Clearly, Wharton looked with bitterness on marriage, and women giving up their freedom to a man, and she used her writing to give voice to her feelings. She.