Afterward Flashcards
by Edith Wharton — tap or click to flip
Flashcard Review
Flashcards: Afterward
What is Alida Stair's warning about the ghost at Lyng?
She says there is a ghost, but 'you'll never know it' -- not until long, long afterward.
Why do the Boynes move to Lyng in Dorsetshire?
After Ned's windfall from the Blue Star Mine, they seek a remote, old English house to pursue leisurely interests -- Mary's gardening and Ned's book on the 'Economic Basis of Culture.'
What does Mary notice about Ned's behavior in the weeks before his disappearance?
He becomes preoccupied and anxious, preferring solitary walks, with lines of worry on his face that she attributes to his book but cannot fully explain.
What do the Boynes see from the rooftop on October 20th?
A gray-clad stranger walking down the lime avenue toward the house. Ned rushes down to intercept him but finds no one there.
What newspaper clipping alarms Mary during the December evening?
An article from the Waukesha Sentinel reporting that a man named Elwell has brought suit against Ned over the Blue Star Mine.
How does Ned reassure Mary about the Elwell lawsuit?
He tells her the suit has been withdrawn and that Elwell had no chance, claiming the news just arrived in one of his letters.
What happens to Ned on the day he disappears?
A stranger arrives, writes his name on a slip of paper for the kitchen maid, and Ned leaves with him through the front door without a word. He is never seen again.
What is the content of Ned's unfinished letter to Parvis?
It begins: 'I have just received your letter announcing Elwell's death, and while I suppose there is now no farther risk of trouble, it might be safer --' and breaks off mid-sentence.
Who is Mary Boyne and what is her central limitation in the story?
She is Ned's devoted wife whose short-sightedness -- both literal and figurative -- prevents her from recognizing the ghost or understanding her husband's business dealings until it is too late.
Who is Robert Elwell and what is his connection to the Boynes?
He is the young man who put Ned onto the Blue Star Mine scheme. Ned outmaneuvered him, leaving Elwell financially ruined, which led to his attempted suicide and eventual death.
Who is Mr. Parvis and what role does he play?
A Waukesha lawyer who visits Mary months after Ned's disappearance to explain the full truth about Elwell's ruin, death, and impoverished family.
What is Trimmle's function in the narrative?
She is the parlor maid whose halting, reluctant account of the stranger's visit and Ned's departure provides the only eyewitness testimony of the disappearance.
Who is Alida Stair?
A friend of the Boynes who recommends Lyng to them and delivers the cryptic warning about its ghost -- that one won't recognize it until long afterward.
How does Mary unknowingly assist the ghost?
When the stranger asks to see Ned, Mary directs him to the library where Ned is working, effectively sending Elwell's ghost straight to her husband.
How does the theme of willful ignorance operate in the story?
Mary deliberately avoids engaging with Ned's business affairs, and Ned conceals his guilt, so both choose not to confront the moral cost of their wealth until reality forces the truth upon them.
How does Wharton connect wealth to moral retribution in the story?
The Boynes' idyllic life at Lyng is funded by Ned's ruthless exploitation of Elwell, and the ghost that haunts the house is ultimately the embodiment of that unpaid moral debt.
How does 'Afterward' explore the theme of gender roles in marriage?
Mary is kept ignorant of Ned's business, reflecting the era's expectation that wives remain detached from financial matters -- an ignorance that becomes complicity in Elwell's tragedy.
What makes Wharton's ghost unconventional compared to typical ghost stories?
The ghost appears as an ordinary, living person rather than a spectral figure, and its supernatural nature is only understood long after the encounter -- fulfilling Alida's warning.
How does Alida Stair's opening remark function as foreshadowing?
Her statement that they'll never know the ghost until 'long, long afterward' establishes the central irony: Mary meets the ghost twice without recognizing it, and only understands months later.
What is dramatically ironic about Mary's encounter with the stranger in the garden?
She politely directs Elwell's ghost to her husband's library, not realizing she is sending the agent of Ned's doom directly to him.
How does Wharton use the house at Lyng as a literary device?
Lyng functions as both a Gothic setting and a character -- it 'knows' the secret, communes with its own past, and serves as the silent, incorruptible custodian of its mysteries.
What narrative technique does Wharton use to restrict the reader's knowledge?
The story is told through Mary's limited third-person perspective, so readers share her short-sightedness and only piece together the truth as she does.
What does 'signalement' mean in the context of Ned's question about the ghost?
A detailed physical description used for identification -- Ned asks why the ghost's signalement hasn't been passed down if it was once identified as a supernatural visitor.
What does 'propinquity' mean when Mary senses an 'intangible propinquity' in the library?
Nearness or proximity -- Mary feels an invisible presence close to her in the darkened room after Ned's disappearance.
What does 'Cimmerian night' refer to when the narrator says England 'swallowed him as completely as if he had gone out into Cimmerian night'?
An allusion to the mythical Cimmerians who lived in perpetual darkness -- it emphasizes how completely and impenetrably Ned has vanished.
What is the significance of the quote: 'I don't say it wasn't straight, and yet I don't say it was straight. It was business'?
Parvis's words expose the moral gray zone of Ned's dealings -- technically legal but ethically devastating, reflecting how business ethics can rationalize harm.
What does Mary mean when she cries, 'Oh, my God! I sent him to Ned -- I told him where to go!'?
She realizes in horror that she personally directed Elwell's ghost to the library, making herself the unwitting instrument of her husband's supernatural abduction.
What is the significance of Ned's remark that England is 'such a confoundedly hard place to get lost in'?
It becomes bitterly ironic: despite England being small, policed, and densely populated, Ned vanishes completely and is never found.