The Muse (The Long Run)

Vocabulary.com defines the noun “muse” as a person – especially a woman – who is a source of artist inspiration. According to vocabulary.com the origin of the word accrued in mythology where the Muses were nine goddesses who symbolized the arts and sciences.

Halston Merrick, in “The Long Run”, talks about his muse which is obviously Paulina Trant. He told the narrator that he met the Muse in the little volumes of sonnets he used to like and met the woman too (Wharton 307). This indicates the fact that the muse is Paulina, because he continues his explanation with the words “[…] and you used to like her; though you didn’t know her when you saw her the other evening …” (Wharton 307). This makes it unequivocal that it is Paulina, whom he is talking about. The narrator met Paulina at the dinner at the Cumnors’ house the other day and did not recognize Paulina. Yet, after asking Halston about her, he remembered her.

Calling Paulina his muse, shows the deep love Halston Merrick felt and still feels for her.

Sources:

• “muse.” Vocabulary.com. 2019. Web. 03. Nov. 2019. < https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/muse>

• Wharton, Edith. “The Long Run.” The Collected Short Stories of Edith Wharton. Volume II. Ed. Richard Warrington Baldwin Lewis. New York: A Charles Scribner´s Sons Book Macmillan Publishing Company, 1989. 301-324. Print.