Pomegranate

Charlotte Ashby is the second wife of Kenneth Ashby. Kenneth’s first wife, Elsie, died two years ago and Charlotte is now widely accepted as the new mistress of the house by her husband, her stepchildren and her mother-in-law. So everything should work well at a first glance. But Kenneth has been receiving mysterious letters in a faint grey envelope at regular intervals - and Charlotte knows neither the sender nor the content of those letters as her husband remains silent about them. She is only sure about the fact that the conspicuous pale handwriting on the envelopes must be a female one.

Charlotte only notices – with increasing confusion – that Kenneth’s behavior changes after reading the letters: grieved, troubled and suddenly far away from her. Therefore, after another reception of such a grey letter, she decides to get to the bottom of the secret and confronts Kenneth, especially about her suspicion that the letters could be from another woman. But Kenneth remains reticent about this affair. Charlotte realizes that her cross examination is useless and exhausts Kenneth, but her impression that there is another lady in the case is deepened. She decides to take a vacation with Kenneth, but he firmly declines. Because of Charlotte’s insistence, he finally agrees exhaustedly.

The next day Kenneth has already left the house when Charlotte wakes up, letting her know that he was going to organize a boat trip. Charlotte is full of joy about the looming victory over the other woman and the mysterious letters. But as her husband does not send message, she gradually becomes nervous. She asks her mother-in-law as well as at Kenneth’s office, but he remains vanished.

In the evening, after not having heard anything about where Kenneth could be, she decides to visit her mother-in-law, Mrs. Ashby, where both the women wait in vain for Kenneth’s return. In the late evening the two ladies finally go back to Charlotte’s and Kenneth’s house just to find not Kenneth, but another grey letter. They open it, but the writing is only a faint, erratic scribble, illegible for them. Charlotte can barely decipher the word “mine” and “come”. Despite the faint writing, Mrs. Ashby realizes that the writing is Elsie’s, Kenneth’s deceased first wife. It must have been Elsie’s ghost writing the letters requesting Kenneth to follow her into her world. One is drawn to the conclusion that Kenneth finally accepted Elsie’s call.

Sources,Research articles and further reading:

Singley, Carol J.&Sweeney, Susan Elizabeth (1993): “Forbidden Reading and Ghostlly Writing in Edith Wharton’s ‘Pomegranate Seed’. In: Anxious Power. Reading, Writing, and Ambivalence in Narrative by Women. Eds.: Singley, Carol J. & Sweeney, Susan Elizabeth. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Waid, Candace (1991): Edith Wharton’s Letters From The Underworld. Chapel Hill, London: The University of North Carolina Press. (especially chapter 5: “Pomegranate Seeds: Letters from the Underworld”)
Zilversmit, Annette (1987): “Edith Wharton’s Last Ghosts.” In: College Literature , Vol. 14, No. 3, pp. 296-309. (online version available)

Image(s) used:

Chardin: Grapes and pomegranates. 1763. Public Domain.

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