The Wife Of His Youth

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1898

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Literary Devices

Irony

Much of the tension and impact of “The Wife of His Youth” is derived from Chesnutt’s use of verbal, dramatic, and situational irony.

Verbal irony exists where a statement means its opposite. A prime example occurs when the narrator reports that skin color was not a membership criterion of the Blue Vein Society. Members declare that only “character and culture” are considered (Part 1, Line 13), despite the fact that they are all lighter-skinned. And Mr. Ryder claims he is not racially prejudiced but believes people should stick together based on race and color. The reader understands that these statements are on their face evidence of racial thinking that is typical of racism, internalized or otherwise.

Dramatic irony describes a situation in which the reader knows a crucial piece of information that the characters in the work do not. At the end of Part 2, when Mr. Ryder looks back and forth between the face in the daguerreotype and his own reflection in the mirror, it is clear to the reader that Mr. Ryder is Sam. Because none of the guests at dinner party know this fact while the reader does, the final scene is much more suspenseful: Will Ryder acknowledge his wife, and will the guests shun or accept Liza Jane?

Situational irony describes an unexpected outcome that defies expectations based on previous events. The dinner party is a prime example. The guests and Mrs. Dixon fully expect Mr. Ryder to propose to Mrs. Dixon at the party. And Mr. Ryder intended to use the party to re-assert the superiority of light-skinned, affluent African Americans. The plot twist is that Mr. Ryder already has a wife, and she is just the type of person on which Mr. Ryder has built a reputation disdaining.

Storytelling and Narrative Structure

Chesnutt’s short story is the overall lens through which readers learn about Mr. Ryder and Liza Jane’s reunion. But this present story contains within in Liza Jane’s history of separation from and long search for Sam. It also contains Mr. Ryder’s re-telling of Liza Jane’s tale to the party guests. This story-within-a-story narrative structure is typical of oral culture, particularly of the storytelling culture created by African Americans during slavery. Chesnutt nests stories within stories to highlight an oral history that would otherwise be lost—and to offer moral instruction, another function of oral storytelling.

Liza Jane’s tale is one of abiding love despite unceasing suffering. Chesnutt uses this particular story to reinforce the theme of the enduring impact of slavery on African Americans, long after emancipation. Liza Jane’s story is much like the slave narratives written by ex-slaves such as Frederick Douglass. The purpose of her story is to bear witness to the unbearable parts of her life as an enslaved woman and her faith that she could have a life after slavery despite her losses.

Mr. Ryder’s storytelling also acts as a kind of witnessing to this history. At the ball, for the first time in the company of the Blue Veins, Mr. Ryder exposes his identity as Sam, a black man with a very real connection to the slave past, and thus shows a willingness to come to terms with that identity. The highest moment of tension in the story occurs when Mr. Ryder poses the question of whether the man in his supposedly hypothetical tale should acknowledge his long-lost wife. By telling the story in such a public way, Mr. Ryder allows his guests—also guilty of burying their pasts—to participate in this reconciliation. Storytelling serves as a tool for connecting with the past and witnessing shared parts of a harrowing history.

Dialect

In a literary work, dialect is the written representation of a nonstandard spoken variant of a language. Writers may represent nonstandard English by spelling certain words phonetically, including vocabulary unique to the dialect; adding or eliminating letters; and/or using punctuation to specific effect, such as apostrophes to indicate oral omissions. Words written in dialect may or may not be arranged in sentences with a standard structure.

In “The Wife of His Youth,” the only character who speaks in dialect in Liza Jane. Her use of nonstandard English associates her with the slave past. While none of the Blue Veins speak in dialect, some members find themselves in the odd position of having to excuse touches of dialect and other Southern regional expressions in Mr. Ryder’s speech. These linguistic traces indicate that Mr. Ryder is still linked to his past, while the dialect-free speech of other characters in the story indicates that they have completely rejected this past.