"Afterward" Genre Study

“Afterward”, by Edith Wharton is a story that is divided into five parts and explores the memories of the central character, Mary Boyne, from a six month period. Her and her husband, Ned Boyne, move into the Lyng house in Dorsetshire, England after their cousin, Alida Stair, tells them it’s haunted by a ghost. They only wanted the house if it was truly haunted, but according to Alida, anyone who lives in Lyng does not know they have encountered the ghost until long afterward.

One of the conventions of Gothic displayed in this story was the uncanny. The uncanny is the idea that not everything is what it seems; it is something that is familiar, but foreign at the same time that results in a feeling of strangeness. In “Afterward” the uncanny is shown when Mary realizes that she didn’t really know her husband. He has been something familiar to her and someone she is comfortable with until the ghost starts showing up and she sees the look of perplexity and anxiety on his face. She suddenly becomes interested in her husband’s business which was always a mystery to her and leads to her discovering that the stranger who visited was really a man who had made a bad business deal with Ned that ended up destroying his life. Ned was comforting and reassuring her about his business only to let her down when she finds out what’s really underneath.

Another story that we see the uncanny is in “The Enormous Radio”. When Irene’s husband, Jim, brings home an old radio Irene is able to hear conversations and other stuff that goes on in their neighbor’s apartments. She sits home and listens to these people’s lives so her whole perception that she had of her neighbors changes so now when she sees them, she sees them for their problems. It also brings out that Irene and Jim, who had seemed to have a happy marriage and rarely ever argued, aren’t the perfect couple with the perfect family either.

Yet another story is “The Lovely House”. When Margaret goes to stay with her friend Carla at her house she is swept away by how lovely her house is. As she stays longer and becomes more familiar with the house and Carla’s family, Carla’s brother, Paul, comes home and Margaret finally goes up to the tower to see if there’s really a Great Aunt living there. From the tower, she sees the house as it really is; the house is aging and the grounds are not as taken care of as she initially sees. Through the story we are led on to believe that Paul is really there only to come to the possible conclusion that he’s really a ghost and the old Great Aunt living in the tower may be Margaret when she’s old.

“Twin Peaks” also shows us the uncanny. We are introduced to this town that seems to be a perfectly normal small town. As the season goes on we get a view of the secret lives of the townspeople; their affairs, their sneaking behind people’s backs, plots to kill each other and get money, drug trade, and sex scandals.