Souls Belated

The short story “Souls Belated” by Edith Wharton first published 1899 in The Greater Inclination , a collection of short fiction, and belongs to the grouping “The Marriage Question”. The story is set in the 19th century and takes a closer look at the soon to be divorced woman, Lydia, who tries to defy conventions but is nonetheless unable to escape them.

Lydia Tillotson grows up in a small town and becomes part of New York's high society by marrying the wealthy Mr. Tillotson. Together with Mr. Tillotson´s mother, Mrs. Tillotson senior, they live in a villa on Fifth Avenue. One thing that Lydia likes about this kind of life is that she does not have to be concerned about her future. However, things like the strict punctuality at meals or privileges such as getting the front pews in church bother and bore her. To her, this way of life is narrow-minded and constricted, and she feels that she has to give up her aims in life for her marriage. She does not like being a member of a society that is blinded by prejudices. Nevertheless, the encounter with Ralph Gannett at her husband’s regular dinners shows her that not all of these upper class people are shallow and boring. Lydia falls in love with the successful short story and novel writer, and he returns her feelings. It is her love for Gannett that shows her how unhappy her marriage really is. Being around Mr. Gannett makes her see all these other people in a different light. Eventually, she decides to leave Mr. Tillotson and become the cohabitee of Mr. Gannett. In the beginning, she does not really think about a divorce or the consequences the separation from her husband will have for her. At first, she is just happy to be free. However, she soon realizes that Mr. Tillotson, by divorcing her, just hands her on to Mr. Gannett.

After the breakup with Mr. Tillotson, Lydia and Mr. Gannett start a new life away from New York by travelling around Europe. On the morning before they start a train journey from Bologna, Italy, to a noble small town below the glaciers of Monte Rosa, she receives the divorce papers. Of course she always knew that this day would come, and she feels prepared for it. But she feels prepared for it in the same way “as healthy people are said to be prepared for death, in the sense of knowing it must come without in the least expecting that it will.” (105) The fact that Lydia’s separation from Mr.Tillotson will be made official now frightens her as well as Mr. Gannett because they both know that people will react to the divorce negatively.

During the journey, the silence between them grows oppressive. While Gannett is absorbed in his magazine, Lydia sits there lost in thought. Ever since they started spending so much time with each other, situations like this became more frequent. Initially, their time together deepened their happiness, but soon Lydia wishes they didn’t know so much about each other’s thoughts. Another pitfall in their relationship is that they avoid talking about conflicts. Lydia does not know whether the silence between them is comfortable or loaded with problems - and this situation is the latter. She blames her looming divorce for the situation. Both of them cannot think about anything else but both are afraid to broach the topic. Lydia is aware of society's opinions about being divorced. She hates having to explain herself to people and doesn’t want to become the subject of gossip and backbiting.

The unpleasant silence is broken by a smile of Mr. Gannett. In a roundabout way he tells Lydia that he wants to stop travelling and wants to settle down somewhere. He explains his decision by telling her he cannot pursue his profession as a writer in their current situation, and he needs a different environment. But Lydia wants to continue travelling and living in all kinds of different places without any fixed plans. After a discussion about what the appropriate environment for a writer could be, Mr. Gannett mentions the possibility of a future wedding. For him it is a matter of course that they will get married soon, whereas Lydia makes it clear that she does not want to marry him. Gannett cannot understand her anymore and feels like she does not care about their relationship. But for Lydia only the first marriage is a real one and therefore this one could never be real and their “being together is a protest against the sacrifice of the individual to the family”. (110) Moreover, she doesn’t believe in marriage anymore. She states that none of the people that surround them “believe in the ‘sacredness’ of marriage" (110) and she does not want to have the same kind of life as before - the life as part of the upper class of New York, which they can only go back to as a married couple. In her view another marriage represents a deception of society and would mean that they are slinking back to the society they detest and are presently running away from. Besides, in her opinion marriage just exists to estrange people from each other. Mr. Gannett does not share her opinion. He is more optimistic and believes that in life one has to make compromises and a marriage between them could work and would just deepen their love. This is the first real conflict the two must work through, and it is hard for Mr. Gannett to get such a deep insight into Lydia’s mental processes and her feelings.

“They had reached that memorable point in every heart-history when, for the first time, the man seems obtuse and the woman irrational”. (111)

When they finally arrive at their destination, it is different from the other times. Actually they only want to spend one night at the hotel Bellosguardo but as soon as they enter the dining room, Lydia knows that she wants to stay longer. Mr. Gannett’s face shows her that he feels the same way and her first impression holds true. Mr. Gannett and also Lydia enjoy their stay at the hotel with predominantly English and American guests. Of course at their check-in they register as Mrs. and Mr. Gannett. Lydia soon becomes friends with Lady Susan Condit and Miss Pinsent. Miss Pinsent describes the hotel as a family whose leader is Lady Susan. She lays down the rules, and for the other guests it is generally useful to adopt her way of thinking. Lady Susan has difficulties in dealing with new people and is always prejudiced against people who are different in any way. Even though both, Lady Susan and Miss Pinsent, are exactly like the New York upper class people Lydia runs away from, she has to admit that she enjoys spending time and gossiping with them. But then, one day, they encounter Mr. and Mrs. Linton. It seems like the two have a mysterious past, which Lady Susan, Miss Pinsent and the other guests use as a reason to avoid and ignore them. The guests are bothered by the fact that Mrs. Linton is so beautiful and that she and Mr. Linton are so wasteful with their money. Instead of being irritated by their behavior towards them, the Lintons simply ignore the others.

Mrs. Linton tells Lydia that her husband has started behaving oddly. She believes that his family and friends try to get him away from her before she receives her divorce papers. Mrs. Linton is sure that Mr. Gannett knows about Mr. Linton’s plans because they have talked with each other. Suddenly Mrs. Linton mentions the name Trevenna in relation to Mr. Linton. Lydia is confused, which shows that she is one of the few patrons of the hotel who does not know about the Lintons´ secret. When Mrs. Linton informs her that she is in fact Mrs. Cope and her supposed husband is in truth Lord Trevenna, Lydia remembers them as the couple who extravagantly escaped in London half a year earlier. By the time Lydia tells Mrs. Cope that she cannot help her because she does not know anything about her partner’s plans, Mrs. Cope reveals that she knows that Lydia and Mr. Gannett just pretend to be married. In view of the fact that Lydia still does not want to reveal anything, Mrs. Cope threatens her with telling the rest of the hotel about the secret they share.

When Mrs. Cope leaves Lydia alone she is in a daze. Before she is able to talk about this incident with Mr. Gannett she has to spend some time alone. Since their arrival in the hotel they have kept their distance from each other and have avoided conversations. In the evening they meet in their room and Mr. Gannett immediately realizes that something is wrong with Lydia. She tells him about her conversation with Mrs. Cope and that the woman believes Mr. Gannett knows more about Lord Trevenna. Lydia also tells him that Mrs. Cope is blackmailing her. If Lydia does not tell her about Lord Trevennas plans she will tell all other guests at the hotel that Lydia and Mr. Gannett are not married. Mr. Gannett asserts that he never wanted her to be involved in this whole matter. Luckily, it becomes apparent that Lydia and Mrs. Cope´s conversation had taken place before Mrs. Cope received her divorce papers, and within a few minutes happily left the hotel. Although this first calms Lydia, she is very scared that this might just be the beginning. She is aware that situations like this are very likely to happen more often, and she does not want to keep on pretending that they are married. For Mr. Gannett the simplest answer is to get married because then they wouldn’t have to lie to other people and could simply enjoy their life together. But for Lydia this is out of the question. She still sticks to her view about marriage. In her opinion the problem of their relationship is that they are too close and have too many insights into each other’s soul, and the only way out of this mess is to leave Mr. Gannett. She has already mentioned this idea earlier, saying that the “inability to keep her thoughts fixed on the essential point - the point of parting with Gannett” (108) intensifies. Mr. Gannett cannot share her view and accuses her of not loving him. Through this contention, Mr. Gannett gets to see Lydia’s softer side for the very first time.

The next morning, after a sleepless night, Mr. Gannett is woken up by a noise coming from Lydia’s room. At first he believes that she only wants to go out to get some fresh air. However, he realizes that she is wearing her travelling coat and carries her bag. He knows immediately what she intends to do but instead of running down to her he just sits and observes. There is something that keeps him from interfering. He fancies that if it is her wish he has to let her go but he worries about her. He does not know how she can manage life by herself. Of course she has sufficient funds, but she does not have any close relationships with other people. Other than him she has nobody who cares about her and sympathizes with her.

He can see that she goes to the pier, buys a ticket and then waits for the steamboat. By the time the steamboat is ready to push off and she is already half way on deck, she turns round and runs back to the hotel. Once she arrives at the hotel, Mr. Gannett goes back to the room, sits down and searches for the trains to Paris, where he had originally planned to marry her.

Sources,Research articles and further reading:

Student Companion to Edith Wharton . Web. 8 Jan. 2014. 30-34.

( online version available )

Sneider,Jill. Edith Wharton: Vision and Perception in Her Short Stories. (Dissertation) . 20 Jan. 2014. 27-35.

( online version available)

Griffin, Joseph. America's social classes in the writings of Edith Wharton: An analysis of her short stories . Lewiston, N.Y: Edwin Mellen Press, 2009. Print. 156-161.
Kornetta, Reiner. Das Korsett im Kopf: Ehe und Ökonomie in den Kurzgeschichten Edith Whartons . Frankfurt am Main, New York: P. Lang, 1996. Print. Düsseldorfer Beiträge aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik Bd. 4.177-181.
Lewis, R.W.B., ed. The Collected Short Stories of Edith Wharton . New York: Scribner, 1968. Print.104-127.

Image(s) used:

Tomsk Railway Station, Pavel Pietsky. State Hermitage Museum.